Best Specialist Campaign & Best Use of Social Media - International Content Marketing Awards
International Skating Union #UpAgain
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.”
