This Girl Can, the Sport England campaign that successfully redefined sports marketing to women, is back with a brand new campaign targeting women from underrepresented backgrounds.

The multimedia campaign is designed to redefine what getting active can look like. The work was created by the ‘TGC Collective’ formed by 23red, which is part of Capgemini, House of Oddities, MMC and the Outsiders. Media strategy, planning and buying was handled by EssenceMediacom, OmniGOV at MGOMD and Unite. 

The campaign has been created to show that every woman belongs in the world of physical activity. It is rooted in insight from Sport England, which shows a persistent gap in activity levels amongst women from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. In addition, women from South Asian Muslim and Black communities, women aged 55-74, pregnant women and mothers with babies under one are all moving less.

Research from the TGC Collective revealed that only one in ten of these women feels they completely belong in the world of physical activity. This next phase of This Girl Can is all about reaching women who feel furthest away from getting active – making sure they feel seen, supported and welcomed. The campaign has been created under the strategic direction of ‘Belonging Starts with Inclusion’.

The enduring power of real women

The campaign leans on This Girl Can’s strong heritage of authenticity, rooted in casting real women. This latest campaign street-cast women from across England, celebrating the many ways they already move in their daily lives before pivoting to more intentional forms of exercise – from walks and family bike rides to using free outdoor park gyms, wheelchair rugby, walking football, boxing, pregnancy yoga and laughing yoga.

Energy is successfully injected into the campaign care of a creative new rendition of BodyRockers’ track I Like the Way You Move, reworked as We Like the Way You Move by composer Amy McKnight and featuring vocals from rising UK artist, Morgan.

The campaign’s creative team was led by Sachini Imbuldeniya, CEO and Co-Founder of House of Oddities, and Tristan Cavanagh, Creative Director from 23red. The TV ad was directed by Priya Ahluwalia through RSA Films, with photography by Madeleine Penfold.

Audience insight was overseen by Steven Lacey, founder of The Outsiders, while community engagement and the South Asian Women and Black Women Audience Advisory Panels were led by Patricia Macauley, founder of MMC.

Kate Dale, Director of Marketing at Sport England, explained: “Since 2015, This Girl Can has inspired millions of women to get active, yet inequality persists. This advertising campaign from the TGC Collective is the culmination of a holistic approach to tackling this challenge using in-depth research to uncover the barriers and motivations of the women we now need to engage with and partnering with the sport and fitness industry to make the provision of opportunities to be active more inclusive.”

The power of playing the long game

Sharon Jiggins, Managing Partner at 23red, who leads the TGC Collective and has worked on This Girl Can since the original launch, added: “Rather than defining women by demographic labels, we talk about ‘our women’ - those who feel excluded from exercise for many reasons, with lack of representation and accessibility being two of the biggest barriers.”

She continued: “Too often, the media reinforces unrealistic portrayals of what getting active looks and feels like, with the emphasis still on traditional sports or long-term goals such as weight loss. Our campaign flips this, showing that getting active is possible for every woman, and that the gateway can be as simple as going for a walk.”

This inclusive approach to what getting active looks like for different women sits at the heart of the campaign. Jiggins explains: “The creative acknowledges the realities of our women’s lives and highlights the motivating short-term benefits getting active brings – from more confidence, less stress to better sleep. We Like the Way You Move is an ode to our women celebrating how they move through life and how they choose to move to get active.”

Sachini Imbuldeniya, CEO and Co-Founder of House of Oddities, added: “So much of sports marketing aimed at women demands that they have to be health-obsessed, heroic or hardcore. There are still too many women and girls that don’t feel like they belong in the world of physical activity – because they don’t see women that look, feel and act like they do.” 

She continued: “When it came to crafting We Like the Way You Move, we wanted to show women from all walks of life that we see them, we hear them and we celebrate them. We wanted to meet them where they are, not where ‘traditional fitness culture’ wants them to be. Our campaign is an honest, authentic and celebratory tribute to women that breaks down barriers and inspires them to live more active lives, but in ways that work for them.” 

The campaign will be supported by TV spots, Broadcast Video On Demand, Outdoor and social and digital messaging.

The campaign has also forged partnerships with Channel 4, Amaliah, Black Balla and  Diversity Media, who will help amplify the campaign’s message through both mainstream and culturally specific outlets. The campaign will also feature a wide range of community broadcast media, including in-language content to ensure accessibility and relevance for underrepresented audiences. 

To support the launch, 23red utilised the Capgemini Applied Innovation Exchange to generate AI-powered research, which revealed glaring gaps in fitness imagery, such as the underrepresentation of South Asian women in culturally appropriate clothing, the lack of visibly disabled or pregnant women, and the limited presence of female instructors. It is hoped that these insights inform and encourage leisure centres, gyms and other fitness facilities to embrace more inclusive visuals, available free via the This Girl Can hub. 

Ben Wilson, Executive Director of Digital, Marketing and Communications at Sport England, added: 

“This Girl Can plays an important role in Sport England’s mission to help more people from more backgrounds get active in the ways that work for them. This latest phase is less of a refresh and more of a revolution as we harness deep insight, new partnerships and the power of AI to ensure no woman is left behind.”