“About time women’s football was given the sponsorship and publicity it so needs.”
– Anonymous | Campaign Effectiveness Study
Platforming women’s football with VISA
Client: VISA UK
Strategic Service: Content & Social Strategy
Team: Emily McDonald (Client Lead), Ophelia Stimpson (Strategy), Casey Bird (Creative), Kelsey Freeman (Design), Naomi Accardi (Words), all Refinery29.
Opportunity
Goal: World Cup awareness, VISA brand perception
Market: UK
Audience: Women 18-40
The 2019 Women’s FIFA World Cup was set to be bigger than ever. For the first time in history, brands were recognising the power and brilliance of the women’s game.
VISA in particular were looking to show their full support and evolve their brand perception in the process. They needed a progressive, female-focused media publisher to help them get the message across.
The team at Refinery29 – one of the world’s most forward-thinking women’s media publishers – knew that this was an opportunity we couldn’t miss out on.
Insight
Our audience insights revealed that many women in the UK simply don’t consume football-related content. We realised – how can people support women’s football if they don’t yet know how cool it is? And the insight was simple: if more UK women knew about the incredible world of the FIFA Women’s World Cup, they will become the very advocates we need to grow awareness of the sport.
Having already developed multiple proactive ideas to celebrate women’s football, we set to work on convincing VISA that using Refinery29 to profile their association with the Women’s World Cup would reap dividends.
VISA wanted to be seen as an empowering, optimistic brand – and we knew that featuring content on Refinery29 would help them achieve just that.
Execution
The result was three immersive Refinery29 features and supporting social media campaign created to educate and inspire our audience of 3m British women about all things women’s football – and change perception of VISA in the process. From player interviews, to downloadable posters and phone backgrounds to show support, to in-depth information about women’s football in the UK, the content series put a powerful spotlight on the sport for Refinery29 readers.
And we did just that. A campaign effectiveness study revealed a 41% lift in consumers feeling that Refinery29 had helped show VISA in a new light; a 12% lift in favourable brand perception and overall 80% highly positive sentiment.
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