To launch the campaign, Smoking Gun created an emotive fast paced film, starring Olympian Becky Adlington and a group of women and children. The film focused on what swimming gave them, for example – confidence, friendship, determination – and how it can shape them.

A survey of parents of 11-18 year olds was also carried out to understand the barriers, drop-out rates etc.

The research found – 79% of girls aged 11-18 now spend less time swimming, with Covid and other barriers to blame. And, 72% of parents admitted to being too busy to encourage swimming.

This data was used in the press release to bolster the rationale for the campaign launch.

The timing of the launch was everything – Smoking Gun timed the campaign to go out just ahead of the Olympics to capitalise on the demand for an Olympian Spokesperson.

An exclusive interview was secured with PA, followed by a day of broadcast interviews with Becky.

A campaign web page was created to gain quality backlinks and drive traffic.

Real life case studies of girls/ women who swam/ gave up or rediscovered their love of swimming were utilised on the campaign page to provide further press and social content.

Empowering campaign photography of the stars of the video were used across social media channels, Instagram and Facebook – each image was overlaid with text as to why the girl/ woman swims and what it gives them, for example – ‘I swim because it gives me confidence’…

A paid social strategy across Facebook and Instagram was also executed to drive views/ clicks.

Rebecca Adlington also used her network of celebrity influencers to share/ engage in the campaign content with athletes such as Jess Ennis and presenter Gabby Logan sharing the video.