England Squash
Let’s Hit It
England Squash is the national governing body of squash, responsible for growing the sport at every level in England. In September 2022 they launched their four-year strategy – ‘Squash in a changing world’, which outlined the organisation’s plans to grow the game in England and realise the collective vision to create a thriving, diverse and growing community.
Challenge
England Squash, in collaboration with the wider squash community, is dedicated to increasing participation and promoting equality, diversity, and inclusion within the sport. Ahead of the 2022 Commonwealth Games, they secured funding from Sport England to boost participation in Birmingham and the West Midlands.
C21 were challenged to create a pilot campaign that aligned with England Squash’s strategic goals to increase participation, address inequality, promote diversity, and overcome engagement barriers. Thanks to insight from Sport England we knew:
- There was under-representation of ethnically diverse communities in sport and physical activity.
- Issues of racism and discrimination remain with barriers to participation and volunteering increasing.
- A high proportion of people from ethnically diverse communities have experienced racism in sport.
Collaborate
Third-party agency Tectonic researched the target audience and developed audience profiles. This research brought to light additional insights including perception of the sport and barriers to participation within the target audience, which helped guide our thinking.
Objectives: Deliver an engaging digital pilot campaign targeting people aged 18-35, from ethnically diverse communities and low socio-economic backgrounds within Birmingham, Leicester and the West Midlands.
- Target those who engage in physical activity/sports at least once every 3 months or are open to trying a new sport.
- Raise awareness and change the perception of squash amongst the target audience.
- Understand which messaging strategies resonate best with the target audience.
- Increase engagement on the England Squash ’Finder’ URL, to ultimately increase squash court bookings.
Create
After our initial pitch, C21 refined the concepts and tested three creative directions with focus groups mirroring Tectonic’s research demographics.
Feedback on visuals, messaging, and representation identified stress relief and social connection as the audience’s key motivators for playing squash. C21 questioned participants on their preferred look and feel, photography style and messaging and asked whether they felt represented by the concept. However, the focus group research revealed barriers to participation, which included:
- Not seeing themselves represented in the sport
- Not having enough time
- Feeling intimidated by the intense and fast-paced perception of the sport
C21 crafted a messaging strategy with ‘wellbeing’ and ‘community’ as key pillars alongside three core messages, both subtle and strong, to resonate with a broad audience. Finally, to address potential participation hurdles, we included accessibility messaging, resulting in a comprehensive platform that highlighted squash’s benefits and removed barriers to entry.
Change
C21 refined the concept based on focus group feedback, with “Let’s Hit It” becoming the campaign headline. The campaign launched on January 22, 2024 and ran for eight weeks, targeting the West Midlands with eye-catching creative and messages on fitness, community, and mental health. C21 collaborated with England Squash on strategy, tested the creative, and managed all media planning, photo and video shoots, and asset creation.
To measure the success of the campaign, C21 established KPIs up front such as reach and engagement within the target audience for socials and increased number of visits to the Squash finder URL during the campaign flight time. Referring back to the KPIs and measure of success, C21 can confidently say that the campaign delivered against the required objectives:
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499,544
reach with a 2.4% engagement rate on socials
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216,825
impressions delivered in the target region and 15 QR code scans from DOOH
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11,087
more users visiting the Finder URL during the campaign flight time
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486
clicks and 308 confirmed lands on the Finder URL through digital displays
