4 incredible ads featuring sportswomen

This week, Alex Maguire and Holly Morrison from our Insights and Solutions team have analysed four of the most powerful ads featuring sportswomen.

They did this in order to understand what emotions ads featuring sportswomen evoke in UK viewers and whether they were effective in driving purchase intent and brand favorability.

#4 Sport England: This Girl Can

This ad was launched in 2015 as part of the Sport England campaign to showcase some of the amazing sportswomen across the UK, and to encourage women to get involved in sports.

By showcasing women in an authentic and empowering light, the ad drove positive emotions and favourability amongst viewers. ‘This Girl Can’ saw a strong emotional response amongst women, led by noticeable inspiration, happiness and pride; this was likely due to the ad portraying a wide range of women in different shapes and sizes, and hence offering a highly relatable and authentic narrative.

This was further fuelled by low confusion; female viewers found the ad’s message clear, which in turn allowed for a stronger emotional response overall.

#3 Nike: Dream Crazier

This ad for Nike entitled Dream Crazier was the follow up to the now infamous Dream Crazy ad featuring Colin Kaepernick.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whpJ19RJ4JY&t=8s

The ad saw drastic differences in response between the two genders. Females viewers had a much stronger positive reaction and hence more felt favourable towards Nike having watched the video.

This difference could be due to a lack of relatability for men and that some commented that they felt that there was an undertone about men as oppressors. A number of other viewers said that they didn’t understand what Nike’s relevance was to the subject of the video, causing slight confusion.

#2 Under Armour: USA Gymnastics

This ad was launched in 2016 by sportswear brand Under Armour and features the USA Women’s Gymnastics team.

In this ad, the music accompanies the imagery of the video well and helps to amplify each scene. Inspiration and amazement were high across both genders which showcases the ability to generate an intense emotional response using sporting achievements, in particular, physical feats.

This ad successfully exhibited a single sport in a successful manner, unlike the other ads featuring sportwomen we’ve looked at which encompass a collection of different sports.

#1 Nike: Da Da Ding

The second ad in our lineup from Nike was launched in India to help grow brand favourability in this part of the world.

The ad shows resilient and determined women across a wide variety of sports and activities. The compelling cinematography and upbeat, catchy music powerfully reinforced the message of the video.

Intense positive emotional responses and brand favourability were high for both audiences, and some aspect of patriotism likely helped to boost the positive results for this ad.

For more sports in advertising insights, click here check out our analysis of the Super Bowl ads.