Cannes Lions
AFRICA, Sao Paulo / GO EQUAL MOVEMENT / 2020
Awards:
Overview
Entries
Credits
Background
On the eve of the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, Marta Vieira da Silva, recognized as the greatest name in women's football of all time, received several sports sponsorship proposals with values up to 24 times lower than the big stars of men's football, even being the first athlete in history to win the FIFA Player of the Year Award 6 times, between men and women.
Taking advantage of the large audience of one of the most-watched sporting events in the world, we saw the opportunity to initiate a discussion about equity gender, drawing attention to the lack of valuing that women suffer every day.
Idea
Instead of fighting for sponsorship, Marta fought for something bigger and created her own brand: Go Equal, a manifest in favor of gender equity in the sport, symbolized by unbranded boots she wore at the FIFA Women's World Cup.
For this to be great, we chose a historic moment, when Marta scored a goal and became the greatest scorer of all World Cup editions.
At the celebration, she pointed to the boots, drawing everyone's attention to it. Minutes later, #GoEqual was launched and the subject gained great repercussion, generating debate in the media, protests, and later, inspiring the payment of equal prizes between men and women in the Brazilian Football Team. The image of Marta making the gesture of equality with her arms became an icon of representativeness, encouraging women all over the globe to fight for their dreams. On and off the fields.
Strategy
Looking for a way to help eradicate discrimination suffered by women in sports, we launched a global campaign to discuss gender equity in a perfect time: the moment when Marta scored the goal that made her the greatest scorer in the history of FIFA's World Cups, between male and female players.
The idea was born from the need to send a conscious message to leagues, managers, sponsors, and football fans, but Go Equal has achieved much more, empowering women from different countries, cultures, and social class, raising an urgent agenda in society about the importance to fight for equal rights.
Execution
On June 13, 2019, at the Women's World Cup, in France, Marta scored a penalty goal that turned her into the greatest scorer in all editions of the FIFA World Cup, regarding both men and women.
At the celebration she pointed to her boots, which were completely black and that showed only the sign of equality in pink and blue, drawing the attention of millions of people to the lack of appreciation of women in sports. Minutes later, we published a campaign with #GoEqual that kicked off a great discussion on the internet and TV, gaining the support of athletes, artists, leaderships, even UN Women.
In the following months, the @GoEqual profile told the story of overcoming women from all over the world. And on September 3rd, 2020, something unexpected happened: The Brazilian Football Confederation announced the payment of equal prizes for the Men's and Women's Teams.
Outcome
426 million impressions;
3.8 million engagements;
11.6 million dollars in earned media;
1 Women's National Football Team receiving the same as the men's team.
And #GoEqual has become synonymous with female empowerment.