Colin Banks, Head of SSE Hydro - Sponsorship talks about how 2015 was a breakthrough year for women’s sport in the UK, and how SSE played an important role in helping progress women’s football.
In June we announced our ground-breaking partnership with The FA to become the first title sponsors of what is now known as The SSE Women’s FA Cup. The deal saw SSE commit a seven-figure sum to the women’s game with significant funding ring-fenced to create a country-wide programme of girls only activity over the next four years.
Soon after the historic sponsorship was agreed, England’s Lionesses won bronze at the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada for the first time after beating long time rivals Germany. Team captain Stef Houghton hopes their success can help inspire a generation of young girls to take up the game and with SSE’s help it’ll be much easier for young girls to start playing football.
England’s fantastic performance in Canada was closely followed by a record crowd of 30,710 watching Chelsea Ladies beat Notts County Ladies to lift The SSE Women’s FA Cup, as the final was played at Wembley for the first time.
A number of lucky SSE customers won match day experiences for their children. On cup final day we gave 22 young boys and girls the opportunity to be at the heart of the action and lead the teams on to the pitch as player escorts, ball carriers and trophy carrier through our ‘Starring Roles’ competitions.
Over 500 customers and guests attended our SSE Reward lounge on the day where they enjoyed hospitality and entertainment. They also had the opportunity to hear from an exclusive panel of England and WSL1 players hosted by The Offside Rule’s Kait Borsay.
Customers are at the heart of everything we do at SSE so this was a fantastic way to provide a once in a lifetime opportunity for some lucky youngsters, and its certainly something we’ll be continuing throughout our partnership with The FA.
The success we have seen this year has been the result of a joint effort between the Governing bodies, County FA’s, and the players themselves who, with the support of sponsors and media will continue to work together to drive change and development of the women’s football landscape.
Although 2015 was truly a landmark year we must work hard to continue the success and at SSE we’re extremely excited about what lies ahead. There is now a genuine desire to see women’s sport get the recognition it deserves with sponsors leading the way in driving change in perceptions both with the public and the media.
Over the coming months we will be unveiling details of our participation programme with The FA, while the first rounds of The SSE Women’s FA Cup will get underway. Keep your eyes peeled for more news on both of those initiatives as well as further developments across the sponsorship and reward portfolio.
The role of businesses and sponsors acting as vehicles for change cannot be underestimated. In April history was made when Newton Investment Management worked with event organisers and broadcasters to host the Women’s Boat Race on the same day as the men’s race on the same stretch of the Thames – breaking a 200 year tradition in the process.
Others have also joined SSE in their sponsorship of women’s sport. Vitality now sponsor England Netball and Kia Motors & Waitrose announced their sponsorship of England Ladies Cricket team earlier this year.