Cristina O'Connell
Future Official Sponsors of the NWSL - Budweiser
Despite the rise of women’s soccer in America, female soccer players were still being paid 19x less than their male peers. The issue appeared to be gender discrimination, but a closer look revealed there was also a massive sponsorship gap. As one of only three sponsors of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), Budweiser set out to close the pay gap by addressing the sponsorship gap.
​
Vaynermedia created nine placeholder products for some of the biggest sponsorship categories in sports to show brands what they were missing out on. Thousands of fans ran with the campaign, urging their favorite brands to help force change in the league. I supported the campaign by creating animated Instagram posts and stories from the produced images.
​
As a result of the campaign, the NWSL added six new sponsors for the 2020 season and announced an increase in their salary cap by almost 20%. The campaign was featured in Forbes, Ad Age’s Strongest Ideas of 2019 and Yahoo.
​
Role: Motion Design, Animation
The campaign was the recipient of the below awards:
​
2021 Cannes Lions - 2x Gold, 2x Bronze, Glass Lion Shortlist, 7x Shortlist
2021 One Show - 3x Gold, 1x Silver, 1x Bronze, 2x Merit
2021 D&AD Awards - 2x Graphite Pencils, 4x Wood Pencils
2021 Caples Awards - 2x Gold
2021 Webby Awards - 4x winner
2020 Clio Awards - 1x Gold, 3x Silver, 3x Bronze
2020 Clio Sports - 3x Grand Clio, 2x Gold, 1x Silver
As a bonus - Vaynermedia sent me out to the ticker-tape parade when the USA NWSL team won the World Cup. I shot and edited the below video of the celebrations. This was also to capture the creation and distribution of branded Budweiser posters featuring the NWSL, pledging that we, as viewers, won't stop watching women's sports after the World Cup is over.
