Allianz
The Squared Ball
To highlight the vast pay inequities female athletes face, we and Allianz created the world’s first squared football.
62% of women say they have given up a dream career due to financial barriers.
They may be women’s football’s top players, but many are so underpaid that they need second or third jobs just to make ends meet. For the 2023 Women’s World Cup, Allianz wanted to give football’s gendered pay disparity the platform it deserves.
To visualise the challenges these athletes face, we transformed THE symbol of the game: the ball itself –creating The Squared Ball. Printed with relevant statistics, the ball’s design makes the barriers women face in football starkly clear and becomes a new symbol for what women in the game must overcome to stay on the field.
Our hero film (above) featured multiple women’s voices describing what it’s like to be in the situation to give a personal angle. We also held a launch event and created dozens of social media assets, videos, a website and ran an independently run study.
The campaign won the Sabre Award 2024 for Marketing to Women.