20×20 was a social movement that sought to change the cultural perception of women in sport in Ireland.
It was enabled by a first-in-market partnership between 5 brand sponsors (Investec, KPMG, Three, Lidl & AIG), brought together in pursuit of a common goal by campaign architects Along Came A Spider.
Our strategy saw us combine the pre-existing investments in women’s sport by the campaign sponsors with an ‘earned first’ approach to influence and advocacy to deliver our objectives.
Uncomfortably, our success was entirely dependent on influencing the actions of others – the Irish sporting community, educational organisations, the media and the Irish public.
Our principal tools were provocative digital content, the support of 5 female campaign ambassadors & 4 media partners. We deployed these assets to kick-start & maintain the movement over the last 18 mths, giving each sponsor a ‘chapter’ to champion, with themes like challenging perceptions around female sport, role models, skill levels and being active.
In doing so we tapped into a latent frustration across society that quickly saw support from key stakeholders with sporting governing bodies, clubs and universities nationwide signing up to the 20×20 Charter, widespread engagement with the campaign online and the coming together of a 20×20 tribe of athletes and personalities.
The momentum was huge. Not only did we meet our initial target to increase media coverage, participation & attendance for women’s sport by 20% by 2020, but commissioned research found that in respect of women’s sport since 20×20 launched: 80% of the population are seeing/reading about it more, 61% more likely to support & 76% see it as cooler.
