For years now, Calvé peanut butter and its commercials have held a place in viewer’s hearts. For more than 30 years the campaign has been centred around Dutch sports heroes and because soccer is the number 1 sport in The Netherlands, a lot off these heroes are well known soccer players. So, for the last 30 years it has mainly been about a little boy, a soccer ball and a healthy peanut butter sandwich. According to the briefing we were, of course, looking for the same combination again. But times change, and so does the main character.

We open on a football pitch. A team of 10-year olds are training. They’re no stars but they’re having fun, especially when it starts to rain and coach says: “Come guys, let’s go inside”. Happily, they rush after him.

However, one player stays outside. This one is pretty talented and shows off some good moves. Inside, the coach finally realizes one of his team is missing. Annoyed, he walks out and calls: “Lieke! Didn’t I say to go inside?” Now we see that that player is a girl. Convinced the mistake wasn’t hers she replies: “You said guys! I was just getting into it”. Then the following words appear on screen: “Years later, Lieke Martens was named Best Football Player of the world.” We end on a shot of Lieke, sitting in the dressing rooms completely soaked, as she takes a big bite of her peanut butter sandwich.

Calvé peanut butter has a broad target audience: all Dutch families. In our eyes the Dutch were ready for a female football star as their hero. Where the Dutch male national team had been a failure for the last 4 years, the women won the Women’s Euro Cup 2017, in a final watched live by millions on national tv. On top of that, star attacker Lieke Martens was voted FIFA World’s Best Player of the Year.

Lieke simply had to be the hero of our campaign. Not only as the protagonist of the commercial, but also as a spokesperson for girls football. Of course the commercial was to be broadcast on national tv, like every Calvé campaign in the past. But on top of that we saw potential for earned media exposure. The campaign deserved an integrated launch plan, combining the power of this iconic campaign with Lieke Martens.

We approached Lieke to be the star of our new film – and more. Lieke wanted to be part of our integrated plan, because she identified with the situation of little Lieke in the film. She once even said that the dream of being a female professional football player didn't yet exist when she was young. We had the press interview her on the football pitch where the commercial was shot, asking her all kinds of questions like how she had experienced always being part of boys teams. Lieke posted the campaign on her Instagram account, reaching almost one million followers. And after the campaign, Calvé teamed up with Lieke and the Dutch Football Association to further support and stimulate girls’ football in the Netherlands.

The campaign makes a subtle but forceful statement. No raised finger on equality, but a story that draws you in - if only because we all know we yell 'Hey guys' at girls every now and then.

This subtle tv-commercial created a massive impact. From national talk shows to newspapers, from online women’s platforms to football news sites, from Facebook to Twitter. For days the Dutch shared how much this film had touched them - and last but not least their footballing daughters. Adding an earned media value that was almost triple the net media budget of the campaign itself.

Although this is a typical Dutch campaign with a difficult to understand cultural context, the campaign got international recognition, with a nomination at the international SPORTEL Awards in Monaco. The film was also selected for the China Women’s Film Festival, the only film festival in China dedicated to women's rights.