Explained: Park’s campaign to get gear to finally fit women footballers

After hearing stories from female football players across the globe about having to play in hand-me-down men’s kits and kits that didn’t fit, PARK designed a sustainable football kit specifically for female bodies.

Our brief? To launch the kit and raise awareness of the problem.

Insight

Firstly, we needed to understand the scale of the issue. So we spoke to players at all levels of the game. Real, raw and authentic, each had a story to tell:

• “My kit bunched at my crotch”
• “It was tight in areas I don’t want it to be tight in”
• “I was practically drowning in it”

In conjunction with the Professional Footballers Association, we commissioned research which revealed 96% of female players have had to play in a men’s kit at some point in their career.

We knew the issue was big, but there was a real lack of knowledge around it. Even the sports journalists we spoke to didn’t realize the severity of the problem.

The big brands had created this perception that all female players got to play in well-fitting kits (thanks to their FIFA Women’s World Cup ranges)—even with seven World Cup teams playing in white shorts. This narrative needed changing.

While the FIFA Women’s World Cup presented the perfect launch platform for PARK, it did for every other brand too. We knew the moment would be crowded with sportswear brands spending big, so we had to get creative to get attention.

Strategic Solution and Approach

To spread the word about the issue and present PARK’s kit as the solution, we needed to connect talented female players across all skill levels, and get them talking.

And so ‘It’s Time to Play Better’ was born—a rallying cry to draw a line in the sand. A time to red card ill-fitting clothing. A time to change the game for women.

The campaign was launched via a closed football community with professional A-League player Emma Illjoski, who knew all too well the experiences of playing in a men’s kit, spearheading the conversation.

A global private Whatsapp group was created where players could share, connect and rally together.

Collecting hundreds of stories from players, at all levels of the game, we demonstrated the size of the problem, creating a call to arms for a commitment to change the game and spotlighting how PARK was helping tackle it.

We got creative with our placements, using the power of earned and OOH to get attention and show up authentically in places and ways that resonated with football culture. Outside of bars showing the cup games, on the balconies of homes near the stadiums, and on street walls on paths to the stadiums.

Tactical Highlights

A hero video highlighting players’ stories and challenging the football kit industry to give women the same opportunity as men was created featuring three A-League players.

The Guardian, a News Corp syndication and Daily Mail gave a voice to the campaign (amongst others) through interviews with players and PARK’s founder.

Kits were seeded to media, players and other influential personalities that would help support the cause.

We even got it into the changing rooms of the Matilda’s during the World Cup and scored a shout-out from key player Alex Chidiac.

In exploring undervalued media, we looked at unique places where people were watching or on route to games—like hanging banners from the front of people’s homes and pubs, as well as street posters and beer coasters—all at a fraction of the cost of traditional billboards and OOH.

Results

By going back to the origins of the kit and enlisting real-life players and key opinion leaders, the campaign achieved its objectives, while also making a positive impact on women’s football—creating a community amongst 300+ players at all levels with a shared mission to change football for the better.

We landed stories where people were reading, watching and listening, igniting a conversation during a time when all eyes were on women’s football.

Our earned media approach delivered 61 pieces of coverage with over 71 million opportunities to see, and 100% positive sentiment, while social content drove a total of 754,000 impressions.

As the World Cup drew to a close and the whole country got behind the Matilda’s and Women’s Football, Pedestrian TV spotlighted PARK kits as the key to keep up the fire in Women’s Sport.

Website traffic increased by 86% during the campaign and the kit exceeded the sales target.

Off the back of the campaign, online retailer Ultra Football chose to stock the PARK brand (with an additional major retailer on the cusp of signing) alongside a partnership between PARK and Sam Kerr Football!

Budget & Resources

In market: June - July 2023

Resources: Strategy Lead, Creative Lead, Account team

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