In 2022 EE took over from BT as the lead Home Nations football sponsor. This was a huge moment for EE, a tech brand with a purpose of making life online safer and happier. EE needed to show up in the first major national sponsorship event – the 2022 UEFA Women’s Euros – to land its credibility in taking on the Home Nations cultural mantle, and to deliver on its digital purpose. Online misogyny perpetuated by male trolls is a burning problem in women’s football. Our brief was to use the moment of the Women’s Euros to get men to step up as allies in tackling online misogyny – both to spread mass awareness and action around an issue that impacts not just women in sport, but 1 in 5 women in the UK, and to drive affiliation for EE as a digital empowerment brand and Home Nations sponsor.

Enter Hope United: a mixed gender team made up of some of the most influential people in UK football. Brought together to fight online hate. Positive, cool, with enough credibility to reach our male audience without compromising on the Euros excitement. And ‘Not her problem’ became our mantra. Punchy, defiant – its spirit helped us bring the colourful and inspiring realities of our female athletes’ problems to life, without painting them as victims. It also allowed the people men look up to the most like, Jordan Henderson, Trent Alexander Arnold, Rio Ferdinand and Gareth Southgate, to play a prominent part in our campaign without overshadowing these professional and successful women. The creative focus was to show how brilliant and powerful the female players were. Then use our male players and influences to encourage their combined 48 million followers to step up and tackle sexist hate directly.

Speaking to multiple UK female footballers helped us understand the impact of online misogyny, which plays out on social media. All of them had experienced it, but what came across most strongly was their exasperation – did we think that online hate was the only problem they faced? What about juggling their careers with childcare? That new striker who’s seven years younger and a bit quicker than you are? Period pains on match day? The hate on social media takes chips out of women’s mental energy that would be better spent on, say, winning the Euros.

With an agreement that men needed to take more of the load, our strategy became founded on a very simple insight: Women face problems every day. But online misogyny is not a woman’s problem to solve. It’s men’s.

We launched with a punchy TVC; featuring the diverse and real problems our professional female players face. From injuries and the pressure of a free kick, to periods wearing mandated white shorts and child care, with the rug pull of our male players taking ownership of the one problem they shouldn’t have to face. Sexist hate. Our campaign went live across the nation with OOH featuring both male and female players standing in allyship around stadiums, sport screening venues and stations. On social media our entire team shared ‘shirting up for Hope United’ videos with their combined 48 million followers. Following up with educational ‘Hope Drills’ fronted by the male players educating other men on how to tackle hate when they saw it. And then, while the female team were getting down to business on the pitch, their male teammates demonstrated tackling the real sexist hate directly when it happened.

The campaign generated serious impact during its flight from June to August. EE masterbrand brand closeness and consideration moved two percentage points from 42% to 44% and 35% to 37% respectively. FCPI metrics also lifted from 7% to 8%. Our social assets had an incredible ‘100% video played’ rate of 89.5%. Our film reached 35 million people across channels, and the campaign generated £3.02 million in earned media, including mentions from the BBC, Metro, The Times and Marie Claire. Not forgetting the 3.8 million Brits we helped become better allies with our social lessons for tackling and reporting hate. During a watershed moment for women’s football, and women in general, Not Her Problem drove understanding and action around online sexist hate like never before. By empowering men to be better allies, instead of painting women as victims, and owning a cultural conversation on social and beyond.