Industry Shorts: The North Face, Girls United, Nike

The North Face has launched a new brand campaign with a new ‘anthem’ to celebrate women who push boundaries.

The brand says it wants to ‘raise the voices and share the actions’ of the women questioning the status quo, and inspire others through making their stories visible.

Voiced by artist Jess Glynne the anthem features a collection of women who push the limits including runner and human rights lawyer Stephanie Case, climber Ashima Shiraishi, one of the world’s best climbers, members of the She Runs It Community and artist, activist Miramar Muhd.

The campaign will run throughout the spring, with new stories dropping from now until May, celebrating and elevating powerful women and their inspiring stories.

Girls United has partnered with Nike to give underrepresented girls in London more access to sport to help create the next generation of female leaders.

The charity says that, by the age of 14, girls are dropping out of sports at twice the rate of boys, particularly those from underrepresented communities. The new partnership, Love the Games, will give primary school girls in London the opportunity to play football through a bespoke programme which includes weekly sessions, game days and active workshops that showcase female role models for both girls and boys.

The pair say the programme is designed to develop healthy habits, redefine competition and give local communities more female role models, building on Girls United’s creative approach which reframes what playing football means in order to appeal to girls who do not traditionally feel that they belong on the pitch.

The UK Government’s Budget announcement has pledged £300 million worth of financial support for spectator sports in the country.

The funding – which is mostly made up of loans – will be distributed by Sport England and comes after previous rounds of funding from the Sport Winter Survival Package.

Ukactive, however, says the funding ‘falls short’ of the support required for gyms, pools, and leisure centres, which will have to remain closed until at least 12th April.

River Media Partners has confirmed the appointment of film production agency Shoot the Company as the Official Production Partner for its UK Pro League tennis competition across 2021.

Shoot the Company will create the live feed for BT Sport’s live coverage of the championship, delivering around 150 hours of live match action. The agency brings tennis experience, having worked across productions at Wimbledon, the French Open and the ATP Tour, having most recently been responsible for Amazon Prime’s coverage of both US and Australian Opens.  

DAZN Group has appointed Kevin Mayer as Chairman of its Board of Directors, replacing John Skipper, who joined in 2018 and who is stepping down to focus his efforts on newly-launched media company Meadowlark Media.  

Skipper will remain on the Board of Directors and serve as a strategic advisor to the company, while Mayer will provide strategic direction to DAZN’s leadership team as the new Chairman.

Mayer was previously Chairman of Direct-to-Consumer and International at The Walt Disney Company where he launched and ran the company’s streaming businesses including Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ and Hotstar, as well as overseeing Disney’s global advertising sales, content sales, channels sales and international operations.

Meanwhile, DAZN has also announced a new partnership with Formula 1 team Scuderia AlphaTauri for the 2021 F1 season and signed Yuki Tsunoda as a brand ambassador in Japan.

The partnership will see Tsunoda wear DAZN branding on his cap, while he and the team will create original content throughout the season, featuring exclusive team news, insights, and analysis. 

The partnership will aim to use Tsunoda’s position as the first Japanese F1 driver in seven years, to deepen and enrich its coverage of the competition for motorsport fans in the country.

PT SportSuite and Kent-based broadcaster KMTV have announced a live-streaming partnership to combine technical solutions with vast broadcasting experience to offer a video OTT solution for sports organisations and mature customer service desk facilities in the UK.

KMTV, the first UK-based OTT client of PT SportSuite’s parent company, Publisher’s Toolbox, have built up a sizable team of technicians and reporters over the years, who have helped shape PT’s feature development roadmap. 

Sport Industry Awards Official Partner, PT SportSuite, says KMTV’s knowledge of the suite of products and broadcasting industry makes the formal partnership all the more important. READ MORE

Esports organisation Fnatic has renewed its partnership with global online gaming entertainment service, LeTou. 

As part of the year-long partnership extension, the new LeTou logo will be prominently featured across the chest of Fnatic Dota 2 team jerseys, while the pair will continue their exclusive co-branded content across social media platforms and in-game competitions. LeTou will also continue with its in-game naming rights for the Fnatic Dota 2 team.