How do you target an audience that you usually struggle to reach? That’s precisely what the Koninklijke Belgische Voetbalbond (Royal Belgian Football Association or KBVB) asked us to do with Love Football. The project was set up to encourage girls aged between 5 and 12 to play football. One thing, at least, was clear: sharing a press release and hoping that journalists would pick it up was not going to work. We chose to apply four basic rules.
What news programmes do Belgian primary school girls watch? Karrewiet and Les Niouzz of course. These are the Flemish and Walloon TV news bulletins for kids, broadcasted from Monday to Friday. The ideal channel for encouraging girls, their parents and schools to sign up for Love Football.
To increase our client’s chances, we made sure Karrewiet and Les Niouzz were first to break the news. We contacted them well in advance and let them choose the day for the announcement. This gave their editors plenty of time to come up with a great story. And, as we can testify, it was definitely worth the effort.
We also notified other media channels that reach our target audience a day in advance. Het Laatste Nieuws and Sudpresse were the first print media to publish articles. The morning shows of radio channels MNM, Q-Music and Joe FM either asked for a quote from a few of the Red Flames, Belgium’s national ladies football team, or planned a studio interview for the following day.
Once the story hit the headlines, courtesy of prime time TV, and had been picked up by the newspapers and radio the following day, we sent a press release to the broader media. We offered a strong regional perspective and asked a local dance group to make a video so everyone could join in with the Love Football dance!
The result? This project got the attention it deserved.
Head of PR
Teamlead & Senior PR Consultant
PR Consultant
