Title	#SHOWUSEQUAL
Brand	DEUTSCHER OLYMPISCHER SPORTBUND E.V.
Product/Service	DOSB
Category	A01. Glass
Entrant	KOLLE REBBE, PART OF ACCENTURE INTERACTIVE Hamburg, GERMANY
Idea Creation	KOLLE REBBE, PART OF ACCENTURE INTERACTIVE Hamburg, GERMANY
Production	KOLLE REBBE, PART OF ACCENTURE INTERACTIVE Hamburg, GERMANY
Production 2	RTS SCHOLZ Bremen, GERMANY
Production 3	KOLLE REBBE, PART OF ACCENTURE INTERACTIVE Hamburg, GERMANY
Additional Company	GERMAN OLYMPIC SPORTS CONFEDERATION Frankfurt/Main, GERMANY

Name	Company	Position
Florian Frank	German Olympic Sports Confederation	Head of Marketing
Jens Behler	German Olympic Sports Confederation	Head of Digital Communications
Stefan Wübbe	Kolle Rebbe GmbH	Executive Creative Director
Christoph Bielefeldt	Kolle Rebbe GmbH	Group Creative Lead
Marco Obermann	Kolle Rebbe GmbH	Group Creative Lead
Jan Vierig	Kolle Rebbe GmbH	Account Supervisor
André Tiedemann	Kolle Rebbe GmbH	Account Manager
Jenne Genser	Kolle Rebbe GmbH	Art Director
Marcus Gackstetter	Kolle Rebbe GmbH	Art Director
Natasha Pramanik	Kolle Rebbe GmbH	Art Director
Fabian Rößler	Kolle Rebbe GmbH	Copywriter
Tim Bolte	Kolle Rebbe GmbH	Copywriter
Erik Baeßmann	Kolle Rebbe GmbH	Copywriter
Jule Fuhrmann	Kolle Rebbe GmbH	Copywriter
Lore Glander	Kolle Rebbe Studios	Production Manager
Martin Lühe	Kolle Rebbe Studios	Production Manager
Ralf Seelig	Kolle Rebbe Studios	Final Artwork
Marco Cordes	RTS SCHOLZ GMBH	Production / Account Manager
Tobias Schlieperskötter	Kolle Rebbe Studios	Photo Post Production, Photographer
Jan-Ole Brendel	Kolle Rebbe Studios	Agency Producer
Alexander Seipel	Kolle Rebbe Studios	Editor
Klaas Nocken	Kolle Rebbe Studios	Sounddesigner
Ella Schreiber	Freelance	Speaker
Daniel Guiu	/	Copywriter
Cristina de Blas	/	Art Director
Andy Cruz	/	Art Director

Why is this work relevant for Glass: The Award for Change

With #ShowUsEqual, we created a social campaign to make a statement against the inequality in German sports media reporting. In addition to the large community, many sports stars, female activists, and even leading German social scientists supported our call. Together, we turned this campaign into a social movement – a movement to change the status quo and stand up for equality.

Background

Tokyo 2020 was a premiere in Olympic history. For the first time, as many female as male athletes were chasing the medals. Sounds like women in sports finally get the attention they deserve. Quite the opposite. Besides during the Olympic Games, the inequality in German sports media reporting is still tremendous. While male athletes get 90% of the coverage, women get only 10%! This comes with far-reaching consequences: less attention means less revenue from sponsors and less idols for girls in youth sports – and it even gives a distorted image of women in our society. Team Germany and the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) were determined to make a statement against this inequality and tasked us to come up with an idea that has the power to make a difference and fuel a social conversation.

Describe the cultural / social / political climate in your region and the significance of your campaign within this context

Although Germany is already considered a liberal and progressive country, there is still a lot of room for improvement in terms of women’s rights. For example, women still earn on average 18% less than their male colleagues in the same job. But a social change is in full swing: more and more women are raising their voices and standing up for equality and women’s rights. Politicians are debating a fixed percentage by law for women in executive positions, and even the German language is becoming more and more gender-neutral. There is still a long way to go, but this is the perfect zeitgeist to start a movement that demands equal sports media coverage for female athletes.

Describe the creative idea

90% of sports media coverage is for male athletes, only 10% is for females – what a sad statistic. Sad, but still a statistic – abstract numbers in a dry bar chart. So, to really grab the attention of the community, we turned those figures into a more striking and engaging visualization: two socks being worn at uneven heights, which represents the statistic in a distinctive and sports-related way. It is a symbol for the inequality in sports media reporting – combined with a hashtag as our clear call: #ShowUsEqual.

Describe the strategy

In order to give our initiative the biggest platform, we published it shortly before the Olympic Games in Tokyo – a time when media coverage was at its peak. We created a symbol that captivated with its simplicity ¬– eye-catching for the media to pick up and easy for the community to turn into own content. To spark the conversation, we teamed up with German sports stars and influencers. With their publicity, we could activate our main protagonists and target group to join our movement: all those hardworking female athletes around the country who aren’t in the spotlight yet – those who can authentically claim: #ShowUsEqual.

Describe the execution

The campaign kicked off with an open letter to the German media outlets we claimed had equal sports reporting for female athletes. Then, we sent out our socks embedded in a specially designed #ShowUsEqual packaging to Team Germany athletes and several sports influencers. The status quo was on the outside, the aspired goal on the inside. They made their “sock statements” on their social media channels and asked the community to join the movement. Athletes from all sports participated, creators produced content, fans shared our hashtag, and even several leading social scientists supported our call.

Describe the results / impact

The outcome? Well, it knocked our socks off! #ShowUsEqual was one of the most talked-about sports topics in Germany. Sports-savvy influencers and athletes from a wide range of disciplines – from gold-medal winners to amateur athletes – supported the campaign. With a budget of 4,000 euros, we achieved 2.8 million impressions on Instagram and around 25 times more comments on the DOSB Instagram channel than the previous average.