BBDO Dublin has rolled out a powerful new campaign for Lidl Ireland to mark its sponsorship of the Ladies’ Gaelic Football Association (LGFA).
The new campaign, which is called Level the Playing Field, will run across TV, OOH, press, radio and digital channels, acknowledges the generations of players who have battled for equality and serves as a rallying cry for all present and future players.
Lidl Ireland has been supporting the LGFA since 2015 and during that time it has invested more than €4m into the partnership. According to research carried out on behalf of Lidl Ireland in 20201, 85% of LGFA female members recognise the uplift in support over the last four years, specifically in the media and among the general public. The research also found that 51% of females claim that they are currently participating in sport, an increase from 2017. However, 31% of girls who used to participate in sports stated they stopped playing in primary school with over a third claiming the reason for this was because their friends were not playing.
“At Lidl we are dedicated in supporting the phenomenal effort the LGFA players put in. It’s important to recognise their achievements and make people aware that the challenge for a level playing field is an ongoing one. Both teams featured in the ads are St Sylvester’s from Malahide and Robert Emmets from Perrystown, Co. Dublin, and demonstrate how seriously they take the sport as we are passionate in supporting it,” says Fiona Fagan, deputy head of marketing at Lidl Ireland.
The ad was art directed by Rob Murray and copywritten by Des Kavanagh of BBDO. “We had always wanted to shoot the film for real, to capture the visceral nature of the ongoing struggle to level the playing field, a CGI representation of the game held no appeal for us. The Glendalough (Co. Wicklow) location that Red Rage our production partners provided, worked perfectly. The hill was incredibly steep and the surrounding landscape was incredibly dramatic,” says Kavanagh. “This allowed us to not only portray the intense effort involved in fighting inequality but also to show how necessary and beautiful the end goal of equality is, for all the women and players involved. It was the perfect physical and metaphorical space,” he adds.
Sinéad Lee, agency account director, BBDO Dublin adds: “We began working on this campaign over a year ago, just before the Covid-19 lockdown was put in place, so we are absolutely delighted to finally introduce it. We wanted to create something that really dramatised the challenges that LGFA players face and the mountain metaphor that writer Des Kavanagh and art Director, Rob Murray based the concept around, does that in a visually powerful way.”
As part of the current campaign, Lidl Ireland has also announced that on Monday February 15th, an in-store fundraising drive will take place while donations can also be made on the Lild app.
Credits:
Agency: BBDO Dublin
Creative Director: Shane O’Brien
Copywriter: Des Kavanagh
Art Director: Rob Murray
Account Director: Sinéad Lee
Account Manage:- Emma Blaney
Account Manager: Elana Murphy
Producer: Georgia Stevenson
Strategic/Planning Director: Sarah Hughes
Production Company: Red Rage
Director: Stevie Russell
Editor: Rob Hegarty
DOP: Piers McGrail
Sound: Kevin Breathnach @ Avondale
Music: Jon Jon @ Loud & Clear Music
Post Production: Windmill Lane
Client: Lidl Ireland
Senior Project Manager: Sarah-Jane Coogan
Senior Partnerships Manager: Joe Mooney
Deputy Head of Marketing : Fiona Fagan
Head of Communications & Marketing: Aoife Clarke
