Best Specialist Campaign
Best Use of Social Media
- International Content Marketing Awards
International Skating Union - Up Again
Aim
The brief was to develop a concept for content to fill the gaps in between events in the International Skating Union’s calendar.
Over the next 5 years, Up Again became so much more. Helping the sport to eventually become the No1 sport on social at the Beijing Olympics.
Insight
I used social listening to identify my insight: that skaters – from grassroots fans to elite competitors
– engage in 50,000 social conversations a year about the shame, pain and fear of falling on the ice.
Approach
From this I created the Up Again campaign dedicated to inspiring skaters to overcome their challenges on and off the ice.
It began with a series of inspirational athlete films – some shared by the BBC about overcoming issues such as injury, death of a loved one and mental health problems.
Then Covid hit and Up Again became a rallying cry as we supported the community with a programme of athlete and influencer-led fitness and entertainment content.
As lockdown relaxed, sport returned we created a series of Up Again films documenting the athletes' journey back up again on to the ice.
For the Beijing 2022 Olympics we iterated the campaign once again. We focused on a group of athletes with remarkable stories, as they competed to get #UpAgain on the podium in Beijing.
Launch film
Results:
Up Again made Skating the No1 sport on social for engagement and new followers at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
2.3m fan engagements
65,000 new followers across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter & Weibo
The revenue from the International Skating Union to my agency grew with each successful iteration and continues to this day.
“UpAgain was an incredibly ambitious campaign. It tells a truly beautiful story from clear KPIs to creative execution to super tangible results. It’s clear to see the success of the campaign from start to finish.”
