This campaign is dedicated to correcting incorrect search results that lead to a bias in the biggest data collection in existence: the internet. And to do that, we created a campaign that used the female & male athletes directly impacted by this problem, as well as their massive global followings, to help spread our message and drive change.

The influence these athletes have over their fans and followers through social media is huge, and each one became an advocate for our cause, and in turn made their fanbases into advocates too.

The internet has a bias.

Search algorithms are trained on human behaviour, designed to give us what they think we’re looking for. Now, they’ve learnt our bias towards men.

Asked simple, non-gendered questions, like “who has scored the most goals in international football?”, search engines prioritise the more recognised male athletes, even when facts say it’s a female athlete - making women and their achievements invisible.

So Team Heroine, a women’s sport marketing agency that seeks to connect female athletes with brands to ensure they're better recognized in a world where women’s sport receives just 0.4% of media coverage and 4% of total sponsorship, aimed to correct the internet's bias.

Our objective was to create a new initiative to highlight the incorrect searches and get as many people as possible report them to the search engines so they could be corrected, and the achievements of sportswomen would become visible.

The internet’s bias is a problem that directly affects half of the population. As well as different sports, teams, fanbases, athletes, countries, and the billions of people who use search engines every single day. Our idea inspired this huge audience to take action.

We created an initiative that used the power of the people to right the wrongs of the internet and make the achievements of sportswomen visible.

The only way to correct search engines is by people sending feedback when they find inaccuracies. So we developed a tool that highlighted the incorrect searches that create the bias, and allowed people to report them with just a couple of clicks. New incorrect searches were revealed each day, showing the world the problem and inspiring them to take action. And this led to the search engines receiving feedback reports on a scale that made them take action too.

Internally, this problem has been on search engine radars for years, with many teams experimenting solutions.

Monetised opportunities often take priority, so these teams struggle securing resources to implement solutions.

To make them prioritise this problem, we focussed on:

-External pressure (PR/awareness) on marketing/business, targeting the ‘trust’ pillar of brand health tracking which we know is monitored.

-Internal engineering pressure via bug reports from millions of users, to prioritise our corrections.

We conducted an audit of simple, non-gendered searches across Google, Bing, Yahoo & Baidu, collecting search results that used incorrect statistical data to create bias. We quickly discovered 50+ incorrect searches and added them to our tool for people to report.

With 50+ inaccuracies that affected different countries, sports, teams, and athletes, we revealed new stats each day until we saw change, each targeting a new audience, creating enough internal and external pressure for the search engines to act.

To get the attention of the search engines, we needed people power to deliver the feedback highlighting each inaccuracy to each search engine.

We launched with a film that showed the reality of what happens when a little girl asks the internet a question and receives an answer that incorrectly puts a sportsman ahead of a sportswoman. This film quickly spread around the world, inspiring people to act.

This led them to the online tool we developed to highlight the incorrect searches and allowed people to report them as direct feedback messages with just a couple of clicks.

New incorrect search results were revealed each day across social, digital, and OOH, and shared globally. Each targeted a new audience, building us a following of athletes, sports teams, advocacy groups, media and the public, which led to more and more reports being made and saw search engines take action.

Our campaign reached over 1 billion people globally.

Was shared by hundreds of athletes and influencers, including Billie Jean King, Alex Morgan & Andy Murray.

Had 120+ pieces of media coverage, including BBC, NBC, Fox News, Sky Sport & Forbes.

Millions of people reported to search engines through our tool, social channels, and the media.

And we’re now supported by over 50 global brands, including the United Nations.

When we started, the search results never showed sportswomen.

Now, a problem that has existed within search engines for decades has new momentum and is being solved, with Google deploying new features to highlight women’s sport, offering both male and female results on searches.

And now, Correct The Internet is part of UK/international government enquiries into misinformation, to help change the future of the internet.

Currently, women’s sport receives just 0.4% of media coverage and 4% of total sponsorship.

Team Heroine is a women’s sports marketing agency that seeks to connect female athletes with brands and rights holders, unleashing the power of women’s sport, and ensuring they get the recognition they deserve.

Now, with Correct The Internet, the achievements of women's sport is getting the recognition it deserves on the biggest platform - the internet.