Disney Teams Up With FA To Increase Female Participation

Disney has announced a new partnership with The Football Association (FA) with the goal of increasing participation of girls within the sport.

‘Dream Big, Princess’ aims to boost participation by challenging stereotypes in the modern world by pairing up with the England women’s football team.

As part of the UK-wide campaign, celebrity photographer Scarlet Page was commissioned to snap several lionesses dispensing advice to young girls, in addition to a series of short films in which they talk about the attributes that have propelled them to success on the pitch.

Anna Hill, chief marketing officer, Disney UK and Ireland, said: “At Disney we always want our characters and storytelling to be really relevant, inspire and empower children to be confident and believe in themselves, so we’re excited to be teaming up with The FA and kicking off our partnership with such an exciting campaign with the Lionesses. Disney has a longstanding commitment to healthy living so by encouraging girls to get out and play football, this partnership will help both organisations achieve their goals.”

Mark Bullingham, The FA’s group commercial director, said: “We’re delighted to announce our partnership with Disney as the perfect company to help us double girls football participation by 2020. We both want to get a new generation of girls active through football, to have fun whilst learning life skills. Working together with Disney’s unique range of channels, characters and franchises will help us to achieve this.”

Members of the public are also being invited to share their own motivational images of young girls using the hashtag #DreamBigPrincess.

The FA launched its own Gameplan for Growth earlier in the year in which it set itself the target of doubling the female fanbase and participation by 2020. This coincided with the appointment of Marzena Bogdanowicz as its new head of marketing and commercial for women’s football.