Havas Lisbon

Client: Raparigas da Bola
Product: Raparigas da Bola
Title: The Day-After-Women's-Day Newspapers
Media: Print
Country: Portugal
Date Of Campaign: 9th March, 2021

Background: ´Raparigas da Bola` (English translation: Ball Girls) is an advocacy group that fights to give more visibility to women in sports. When it comes to sports media coverage, the difference between the coverage that male athletes get and females athletes receive is even more blatant. In Portugal, this gap is even wider. There are 3 important sport newspapers in Portugal, with huge audiences that predominantly focus on male athletes.Raparigas da Bola wanted a campaign to raise awareness about the deep-rooted inequity that exists in sports coverage.

Idea: With the media spotlight on women on 8th march (International Women’s Day), then what better day than the 9th march to draw attention to the deep-rooted inequity that exists in sports coverage, everyday.THE DAY-AFTER-WOMEN’S-DAY NEWSPAPERSThe news of 9th, published by the Portugal's top 3 sports newspapers, turned into 3 infographic publications, highlighting the imbalance of media exposure between men and women in sport.

Results: With zero investment, including in media, but with a powerful execution, the campaign was able to:. reach 52x more people than Portugal’s biggest sports newspaper;. secure participation from more than 150 athletes to help spread the campaign;. impact more than 32 countries;. get traction on major news platforms around the globe;. become the topic of the day on 9th March. put pressure on sports newspapers to increase coverage of female athletes, reaching around a 100% increase in said coverage just one week after the campaign was run.As a direct result of the campaign, one of the members of Raparigas da Bola was invited to write about gender equality in Portugal’s biggest sports newspaper.