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Just Eat celebrates how far women's football has come in 101 years | #BehindTheIdea

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To celebrate how far women’s football has come since it was banned 101 years ago, Dark Horses and England and Arsenal midfielder ​Jordan Nobbs are kickstarting 101 new women’s football teams in a new campaign encouraging more women and girls to pick up their boots and get out on the pitch. 

The campaign features a 30-second film declaring women’s football is ‘bigger and better than ever’ as a lively game kicks into action. The offer is open to women and girls anywhere in the country who want to set-up teams, but haven’t had the backing, support or money to do so before. 

Once signed up, 101 of these teams will receive a “club in a box”, the ultimate footballing starter pack from Just Eat, This includes: 16 kits, training bibs, footballs, cones and branded coach’s tracksuit, a handbook on starting a club, written by expert coaches as well as a voucher to sign up to an FA course. 

To learn more about the campaign and how it ties in with the England team's momentous win earlier this month, we spoke to lead creative on the project, Eve De Haan.

What was the brief?

Just Eat UK wanted to mark a really momentous moment for British sport, not just the women’s game, and do something that will create a lasting legacy rather than die out with the tournament. They also wanted to do something ultimately celebratory around the game than anything focused on gender empowerment.

How did the initial pitch/brainstorming phase go?

It was great to be honest, we all just wanted to do something genuinely kickass and cool rather than any performative marketing nonsense.

We had a few ideas that tackled some of the more niche problems of the game and we collectively just reached the conclusion that we should be positive and single-minded in what we want to do for women; give more women more teams to play for. We didn’t want to give too much energy to the problem, we wanted to celebrate the solution.

What was the process behind ideating the concept?

The great thing about this concept was it was super collaborative. Myself and the CDs Sean & Josh just got in a room and worked on it together. I’ve been a footie fan my whole life and worked on the women’s game a lot, and was super keen to make sure we were making something that celebrated how great the game is rather than ‘tHe jOurNey’, a trap a lot of brands can find themselves in and is such an outdated and patronising approach.

We were brainstorming and Sean noted that it had been 101 years since the game was actually banned by the FA. It felt like a nice middle finger up to the ban, that we’re now using that number to celebrate the biggest women’s tournament in history and help hundreds more women get a chance to play.

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What was the production process like?

It was brilliant – we worked with Untold Studios and the director duo Pip + Lib, who were totally aligned with our vision and loved women’s grassroots themselves so came to it with so much passion and energy.

It was almost too fun to feel like a shoot; all the teams had mad banter and we were just all playing constant football together. Even the background of Edmonton in the pouring rain had a certain glamour to it.

What was the biggest challenge during production? How did you overcome it?

The art director that had to cut the perfectly sized slices of orange probably had a bit of a hard hour or so. Also we were all on constant watch out of being nutmegged by a wiley colleague.

What kit/tools/software were used to create the project?

We teamed up with Gift of Kit to help roll out the logistical side of setting up teams: with kits, equipment, training handbooks and more.  

What is one funny or notable thing that happened during production?

To record the voiceover, Jordan and I were locked in a super tiny roving sound booth van together, practically sharing one seat. It was really dark and deathly silent because of the soundproofing. It was insanely intimate and surreal.

Also, she’s obviously an Arsenal legend, whilst I’m a lifelong Spurs fan, and we were building up all this rapport and I just kept thinking “don’t let her know you’re a Tottenham fan, don’t let her know you’re a Tottenham fan”.

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What’s the main message of this project and why does it matter?

That if you’re a woman and you want to play football, you can. The barriers that have stopped us having the same opportunities on the pitch are getting yanked down – in this case, grassroots access. It’s the absolute foundation of football and such a staple of our country’s culture, and it’s long overdue that women get as big a slice of that as men do.

How long did it take from inception to delivery?

In typical advertising tradition, it was a quick turnaround, with just a few weeks from brief to delivery.

What do you hope it achieves for the brand?

We want to position Just Eat as a key supporter of women’s football, and generally build up their association with football – with takeaways and watching the footie a natural combo. We also wanted to ensure a lifelong affinity to the thousands of women taking part.

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Credit list for the work?

Creative Agency: Dark Horses
ECD: Steve Howell
Creative Directors: Josh Pearce and Sean Johnson
Creative: Eve De Haan
Strategy Director: Mark Lloyd
Head of Production: Andy Walsh
Business Director: Harry Gayner
Senior Account Manager: Tia Sackett
Account Executive: Amir Darakhshan-Horeh
Brand: Just Eat Takeaway.com
UK Head of Marketing: Victoria Gold
National Marketing Manager: Alice Saleh
Senior Marketing Executive: Vinay Patel
Project Manager: Ellie Stone
Production Company: Untold Studios
Directors: Pip + Liv
Producer: Aaron Aziz
Social Agency: Byte
PR Agency: Mischief

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