Starling Bank
Kick on
The Challenge
Starling was founded to ‘change banking for good’, and has campaigned for greater fairness in the finance industry, notably with its long-running Make Money Equal initiative.
As the only bank in the UK founded by a woman, equality is in their DNA which led them to sponsor the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 and work in partnership with Gift of Kit to campaign to give women and girls more equal access in football. Helping with confidence, life skills and a sense of community – what starts on the pitch ripples into social change.
We were challenged to spotlight the issue of unequal pitch access and generate awareness of Starling’s ‘Pitch Pack’ and manifesto which women and girls football teams can use to advocate for fairer pitch access.
The Solution
To frame the issue for the media, we commissioned research amongst 11-17 year old and adult grassroots football players to highlight that women’s teams are frequently losing their pitches to men. Research showed that as many as 56% of women footballers have been kicked off a pitch by a men’s team. This not only raises safety concerns but is also a factor which can lead to them dropping out of the game.
To build profile and influence to our campaign, we partnered with Lioness and Arsenal striker Beth Mead as well as former Lioness legend, Jill Scott to develop a package to provide media with evidence of the issue and a key voice to call for change.
We set up an outside broadcast filming day for Beth Mead at her local team, St Albans FC. Beth took part in media interviews to discuss the findings of the research in more detail, why she signed Starling’s Kick On manifesto to create actionable change, and why equal pitch access is so important for the future of football.
Interviews were secured with a range of top tier national UK broadcasters including Sky News, Sky Sports News, BBC London, BBC Woman’s Hour, BBC Radio 5 Live.
We also used our second spokesperson, Lioness legend Jill Scott, for print and online interviews across The I and The Telegraph.
