Client:
What we did:
Sport Ireland
We built a campaign to drive up participation numbers in sport and physical activity during the pandemic
The Challenge
Deliver a campaign to inspire and unite people of all abilities to participate in sport.
Focus on the inclusion of marginalised groups, people with disabilities and people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
We set out to develop and deliver a campaign that makes people feel united by sport and exercise. We needed to show the value of sport to the public in Ireland and drive an increase in participation. The communications output needed to appeal to people of all abilities, and to show sport as both accessible and inclusive.
Our creative ideas had to be crafted specifically to connect with people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and to include people with disabilities. We had to consider the diverse needs and abilities of these audiences in the development of all our design and creative copy for the campaign.
Certain political sensitivities had to be considered, given the evolving nature of the public health guidelines and the limitations being placed on people and their capacity to meet up for exercise or to play sports.
The Approach
We decided to take a negative collective experience and transform it into a positive opportunity for engaging in sport and exercise.
Words like ‘isolation’ and ‘distancing’ had become part of the lexicon and the national mood was despondent.
We developed the campaign creative and messaging around how important sport and physical activity was for people in Ireland, particularly because of the pandemic and lockdown.
Our campaign name was ‘Be Moved’. We wanted to evoke a sense of pride in participation and tap into the emotional response we have to things that we find moving; eg: the frontline response to the Covid crisis, elite athletes at their best and teams delivering results together.
We built a Digital Marketing campaign around a central Hero campaign film. This was made up of a montage of clips of Ireland’s most iconic sporting achievements, voiced by Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh with a poetic call to “Be moved” by our sporting prowess.
This was supported by a full mainstream PR and digital PR campaign consisting of case studies of real people who had turned to sport and physical activity during the lockdown.
We wanted to spark that feeling of passion, pride and participation among the public and to focus particularly on our target audiences in the creative outputs – so we made sure to represent them in the campaign images and content.
The Results
Evaluation and measurement of the campaign showed:
- 1.5 million impressions
- 324,292 video views; a huge result for the budget available
Developing the inspiring, attention-grabbing and person-centred case study videos for website and social media use, as well as our successful use of traditional media, was in line with the objectives of the campaign and the services required by Sport Ireland. Getting such a strong voiceover from a renowned and recognisable voice for the videos positioned the campaign as one with gravitas and pride in Irishness, fostering a desire to take part.
The client branding was streamed through all content and communication channels, along with all participating government stakeholders, leading to an improvement in public perception and sentiment towards Sport Ireland. Careful consideration of the public health guidelines and moderating the publication of different content based on changes to the rules were extremely beneficial in managing the delicate stakeholder relationships engaged in the campaign.
Positive association between the client brand and the theme of unity and participation was identifiable by analysis of social media audience engagement. Aligning with the values of everyday heroes, frontline staff was successful, in keeping with the positive public sentiment towards these population cohorts.