When Euro 2022 was coming up, the Swedish football team was ranked second in the entire world. Despite that, the players were still often viewed and talked about as women playing football, rather than outstanding athletes. Adidas Sweden, the team’s official sponsor, has a history of pushing for equality within the sport and did not want this campaign to be an exception.

Our brief was to come up with an idea that would add value to the jersey, create hype around the championship and shift focus from gender to performance within women’s football.

The target audience was primarily the Swedish fans, and second the news outlets talking about the upcoming championship and team.

By turning the narrative around and showing off data that otherwise is treated as a secret, we gave our fans something to boast about and gather around and shifted focus in conversation about the upcoming championship.

As the largest news- and evening papers wrote columns pushing the campaign message, the conversation was not one about women’s football, but about world-class athletes and their performance. Finally.

With help from Swedish match analyst, Anders Eriksson, we gathered all essential player- and team data about the Swedish team. From ball progression, penalty area deliveries and recoveries to crosses, shot assists and dribbles in final thirds. Stats painting the picture of a world class team and top athletes.

The data was turned into an extensive guide on how to best stop Sweden. Printed on the jersey tag and published on howtostopsweden.com. We even gave our opponents real-time advice during the games on the LED signs surrounding the field, and the players published their individual data on their social media.

The data helped us highlight what really mattered and the campaign was discussed far beyond Swedish borders. As the largest news- and evening papers wrote columns pushing the campaign message, the conversation was not one about women playing football, but about world-class athletes and their performance. Finally.

The campaign reached 455 million people and the site, howtostopsweden.com exceeded expectations with its 60 000+ visitors. The result was 2,4 interactions with data giving them detailed facts about a world-class team and its players.