For the first time in history, 11 GoalKeepers took the pitch.
GoalKeepers — A Chevrolet project to help girls set goals and keep them.
Great ideas start with better insights. This award-winning campaign was born from the fact that 94% of female leaders played sports as a young girl and ended with 11 girls making history.
Paying for fans.
Not female empowerment
As the Global Creative Director managing Chevrolet’s sponsorship of Manchester United, I knew there was an opportunity do something great that could also do good. But first, we had to sell it in. When Chevrolet spent $750 million to sponsor Manchester United, it was to reach its ravenous, mostly male fanbase. Female empowerment wasn’t exactly a part of the conversation, let alone the strategy. But 94% is simply too large of a number to ignore.
SPOILER ALERT: This is the case study. This project took over a year across several countries and hundreds of people to pull off. In comparison, watching this two minute case study isn’t really asking that much.
Good work takes work.
We teamed up with Manchester United and the Women’s Sports Foundation to create an inspirational female empowerment campaign that showed how sports directly translates to success later in life. This award-winning campaign consisted of TV, Video, Social, Experiential, and a mentorship program.
First we interviewed hundreds of girls around the world and chose 11 to become GoalKeepers. This bespoke mentorship program began with a trip to Manchester for a week of workshops, presentations and training from leaders in the sports and business fields. Then, these girls were paired with Senior Chevrolet Executives for a year of real-world guidance.
We introduced our project to the world live in front of millions of Manchester United fans as our 11 GoalKeepers took the pitch at Old Trafford wearing the signature green goalkeeper shirt. This kicked off our inspirational empowerment campaign with sport and business icons like Billie Jean King, Michelle Kwan and Mary Barra.
This spot was appropriately titled “Legends” and it was the highlight of my career working with these legends of female empowerment.
If girls can see it, they can be it.
Chevrolet and Manchester United needed authenticity and action. We couldn’t just talk female empowerment we needed to actually empower. Time and time again we heard, “If young girls can see it, they can be it". So we partnered with the Women’s Sports Foundation and enlisted the help of iconic female leaders in sports, business and politics to show girls across the world how sports enable success later in life.
Quit caring, not sports.
The follow-up campaign to GoalKeepers enlisted popular athletes like Mia Hamm, Laurie Hernandez and Hilary Knight and told girls to stop caring about anything that gets in the way of their goals.