Last year, fast-food chain Burger King announced it was sponsoring Stevenage FC, a small British football club, aiming to make it the biggest club in the world. In the online gaming universe, to be more specific. The brand introduced the “Stevenage Challenge,” a FIFA video game campaign that had huge success. Now, the brand extends its sponsorship to the club’s women’s team, with the goal of promoting inclusivity in sports. The Stevenage FC women’s team will be supported under the same terms and conditions as the men’s team, a kind initiative through which BK provides men and women equal sponsorship.

Its commitment is highlighted through a campaign imagined by David Madrid with the social media agency Coolr supervising the social activation. As part of the initiative, the company partially changed its logo, the Queen taking the King’s place on the visual symbol as a sign of the brand’s full support towards the women’s team. The logo will be seen on the team’s kit throughout the 20/21 season. As part of the celebration, the Stevenage Burger King restaurant has been rebranded to “Burger Queen.”

“After successfully spotlighting the talent of the Stevenage FC men’s team last year, we wanted to do the same for the women’s team in 2020,” said Soco Nunez, Marketing Director of Burger King UK. “The women’s team faces the same challenges and hurdles as the men’s team and it’s only fair that it receives the same support from our brand with equal sponsorship.”

“We are thrilled to be continuing our partnership with Burger King and the support that the brand is showing for the women’s team is unmatched,” continued Stevenage FC CEO, Alex Tunbridge. “The sponsorship from Burger King will be used to help grow the women’s program and support the team.”

The video starts at the Stevenage’s stadium’s entrance where a board’s message changes based on the difficulties the team has been through: Bad weather, pandemic, odds, budget, and haters amongst others. In other words, it is the team versus everything. The spot then continues with the following message: “Playing for Stevenage FC is hard. Playing for the women’s team shouldn’t be harder.” It then shows a lady wearing a jersey, which fans can get their hands on via the club’s store.

One of BK’s core values is diversity, the brand believing that a wide range of diverse voices and perspectives contribute to making them even stronger. Thus, it has developed and launched an Equal and Diversity Policy, which applies to every aspect of employment at the company. To support its longer-term diversity and inclusivity strategy, the brand continues to work with a business-led membership organization dedicated to responsible business, BITC. For next year, BK plans to roll out its diversity training module, through which the brand aims to decrease discrimination of any kind.

Credits:

Client: Burger King

Agency: DAVID Madrid

Global CCO& Partner: Pancho Cassis

Global COO: Sylvia Panico

Executive Creative Director: Saulo Rocha, André Toledo

Creative Director: Fred Bosch

Art Director: Felipe Antonioli

Copywriter: Luis Giraldo, Maud McCaffrey

Head of Production: Alejandro FaldutiGroup

Account Director: Stefane Rosa

Management Supervisor: Jenny Gobel

Account Executive: Rachel Startz

Senior Business Affairs Manager: Barbara Karalis

Business Affairs Manager: Elizabeth Torriente

Production Company: BLUR x Outsider

Director: Tom Day

EP: Zico Judge

Producer: Joseph Taussig

DOP: Hamish Anderson

Edit: Kevin Palmer @ Love Edit

Colour: Philip Hambi @ MPCLondon

Post: MPCLondon

Sound: Robert Ashton @ Soundbee

Music: Tim Moorish @ Audium Post

Social Media Agency: Coolr

CEO/Founder: Adam Clyne

Senior Account Director: Lauren Sarginson

Social Creative: James Parker

Senior Social Exec: Alex Ayre

Junior Social Exec: George Brett