Changing hearts and minds among hostile audiences: The Rainbow Laces campaign

17 November 2016

Sport and homophobia

• 2009 research finds widespread homophobia in football -

‘banter’ and chants at all levels

• Gay and bi men 4 times less likely to take part in team

sport compared to straight men

• A lack of ‘out’ male professional sports people gives

impression that there simply aren’t any

• A societal problem, not a problem that exists only in sport

• Similarities with racism in football in the 80s and 90s

…and then Paddy Power came along

• Good fit with some aspects of our brand: challenging,

direct, bold

• A brand and a budget that helped us connect with

audiences we wouldn’t usually reach

• Tongue in cheek, innuendo-laden messages that played

into ‘pub culture’ associated with sports

Right behind gay footballers

Impact and learning

• Three big annual campaign pushes

• A campaign video featuring Arsenal’s top team

• 70+ top players from across football wore laces

• Around a third of population saw the campaign

But:

• Conflicts with other sponsors and limited partnerships with

clubs. Betting was a big barrier to working with schools.

• Exclusive focus on professional footballers missed the

real prize: attitude shift - at all levels, in all sports

Re-forming the campaign in 2016

• To change attitudes through sport, to reduce homophobic,

biphobic and transphobic chants and abuse, and make

LGBT people feel welcome playing and watching sport.

• Focus on grassroots and school sports as well

• Mobilise clubs, leagues and players to role model

acceptance

• Extend the campaign to one new sport per burst - rugby,

first, then cricket

• Aim to have an international impact

New research and insight

• Hardcore minority are hostile to LGBT people

• Significant majority welcomed accept LGBT people as

fans and players

• But support is soft and uncertain when attitudes are

examined more deeply - through Implicit Attitude Testing

and focus groups

• Abusive terms lose their meaning, especially if not

directed at LGBT people

Theory of change• We make homophobia in sport socially unacceptable by

mobilising the silent majority to show their support

• We rely on clubs, players, leagues and other fans as

messengers to the silent majority

• Our tone is positive and aspirational - because we want

audiences to feel good about supporting LGBT people

first, before getting them to take action

• Relationships, trust and leveraging support from key

individuals and brands key to getting partners on board

• Need to join the dots, help people understand the impact

and understand it as a problem, and see LGBT people as

part of the sport community

A revitalised campaign brand

10

A partnership of sponsors

11

Support from key brands

12

Re-establishing the problem

13

Starting with grassroots

A campaign video led by insight

15

SPORT

Make it easy for clubs

Next steps

• Campaign activation week 22 - 28 November (gotta dash!)

• Snap poll before and after to see what we’ve shifted

• Follow up with clubs to turn good feeling from activation

into sustained activity at grassroots and with fans

• Encourage clubs to identify engaged players to be ‘game

changers’ on the issue among their fans

• Develop, fund and roll out training offer for grassroots

coaches’ and managers’ awareness

• Adapt approach based on lessons to create other big

moments in rugby, cricket and football

How will we know we’re succeeding?

This is a long term campaign - we’ve invested for three

years, but:

• When there is a lower incidence of homophobia, biphobia

and transphobia in sport

• When silent majority audiences feel more confident in why

it’s unacceptable and in challenging it

• When we reduce the number of hardcore minority who

think it’s socially acceptable in sport

• When LGBT people (young and adult) increase

participation in team sport

Visit the CharityComms website

to view slides from past events,

see what events we have

coming up and to check out

what else we do:

www.charitycomms.org.uk

17 November 2016

Seminar

London

#CCfilterbubble

‘Burst the bubble’–how do we reach beyond our

established audiences?