A driving force in Golf #FOREeveryone

Golf’s Global Governing Body, The R&A, launched its Women in Golf Charter in 2018 created to inspire an industry-wide commitment at all levels.
  • Client
    The R&A
  • Services Rendered
    Brand Development, Digital Development, Campaign Development, Integrated Marketing Communications
CHALLENGE

Golf’s Global Governing Body, The R&A, launched its Women in Golf Charter in 2018 created to inspire an industry-wide commitment and conversation with the goal of enabling more women and girls to maximise their potential at all levels of the sport.

Through signing the charter, The R&A sought commitment from stakeholders from across the landscape of golf, each signatory being asked to commit to a self-declared set of principles which would support promotion of the game for women and girls.  

In 2020 The R&A engaged 54 to give greater meaning to its Women in Golf Charter, raising awareness of the ambitions of the initiative through a cross-platform campaign, while also helping to establish conditions within the GB&I golf market that would make golf a more welcoming place for females.  

8.2m media reach

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SOlution

Although the brief was to create a consumer campaign to raise awareness of the charter and, subsequently, to increase participation among women and girls, 54 identified a greater requirement for improvements at an earlier stage of the consumer journey than a traditional marketing campaign could hope to influence.  

Through extensive experience of the golf market, we identified systemic issues within the landscape of golf at several consumer touchpoints which caused a barrier to entry, particularly for women and girls, both as participants and as a career choice.  

The #FOREeveryone campaign, therefore, assumed a highly market-orientated approach in alignment with all national governing bodies for golf in the UK and the Professional Golfers Association, first looking to educate on the wide-ranging benefits of creating optimal conditions for women and girls within the industry of golf, before beginning to activate a consumer campaign.  

The initial phase of industry education included the development of practical toolkits to advise on potential operational changes owners and operators could make within their own facilities or brands, as well as a series of seminars and communications geared towards change.  

Alongside the creation of the industry toolkit, 54 was responsible for the campaign creative and content creation which encompassed specific industry case study videos, and inspiring golf imagery to build out the #FOREeveryone Campaign asset bank, presenting the opportunity that greater female participation presents to both golf clubs and the wider industry.  

Companies which were encouraged to become a charter signatory were provided with these creative assets, which would allow them to begin advertising their commitment.  

Industry entities were engaged directly and urged to lend their support for the #FOREeveryone campaign. 54 supported with outreach to industry organisations, encouraging attendance to a virtual Women’s Leadership Forum hosted in conjunction with The R&A and Mastercard at The Women’s Open. #FOREeveryone campaign messaging was integrated into this forum to enhance visibility and raise awareness within the industry.  

Following the success of this initial phase, 54 spearheaded the consumer awareness campaign, leveraging a mix of marketing activity across several high engagement platforms to create a foundation of national awareness, focused on attracting new and returning women and girls to the sport. This required activation across the following:  

  • Content strategy focussing on telling ‘real-world success stories’
  • Press communications
  • Influencer engagement with celebrity figures to raise awareness through use of campaign assets
  • Targeted digital advertising  
  • Event amplification at The AIG Women’s Open  
  • Development of the #FOREeveryone microsite  

“54’s creativity and knowledge of the industry has been proved invaluable in addressing gender imbalance.”

Jackie Davidson, Director – Golf Development, The R&A

20k+ visitors to the #FOREeveryone microsite

Over 1,000 golf clubs signed up to the Women in Golf Charter in year one

CONCLUSION

This highly co-ordinated campaign across both industry activation and consumer launch involved the development of a campaign logo, a new digital microsite, two industry toolkits dedicated to championing best practise, more than 1,000 campaign assets, 25 promotional videos, partnership activation, influencer engagement, digital advertising, event activation and media communications across golf, sport, news and lifestyle outlets.  

54’s marketing team helped The R&A surpass its target in year one, with over 1,000 golf clubs signing up to the Women in Golf Charter. Building on this momentum at club level and engaging those to encourage a positive culture to attract women into the game, the consumer campaign launch saw a media reach of 8.2 million+, over 20.4k visitors to the microsite in launch month and witnessed an impressive increase in over 6,000 more females playing golf in GB&I.  

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