Australia – Johnnie Walker, the official partner and sponsor of AFLW, has partnered with Leo Burnett Australia for its ‘Keep Walking Boldly’ campaign, which celebrates the progress made in women’s sports through the launch of a handcrafted boot collection.
In this campaign, five pairs of unique footy boots inspired by past icons of the women’s game will be gifted to current players in the AFL to inspire them to ‘Keep Walking Boldly’.
The boots represent the resilience, courage, and bravery of the women who have walked before them and tell the stories of progress that got the game to where it is today.
The boots are designed by artisan shoemaker Matea Gluščević from Naarm/Melbourne and will be gifted by Nicole Livingstone, AFL general manager of women’s football, to rising stars GWS Giants player and Olympic gold medalist Chloe Dalton, Hawthorn’s Emily Bates, Brisbane Lions’ Ally Anderson, and Collingwood’s Ashleigh Brazill at a media event at RSEA Park in Melbourne.
The four female recipients represent the next generation of female AFLW players, and it is hoped that they one day pass the boots on as the game progresses.
The campaign is also supported by a film directed by Good Oil’s Renée Mao. It documents the stories of the women’s game and features sporting icons like Debbie Lee and Erin Phillips talking about their experience growing up playing a game that was never’meant for them’.
Shot on location in Sydney and Melbourne, the film campaign uses never-before-seen archival footage, tracing the history of women’s football in Australia.
The integrated campaign, a reinvigoration of Johnnie Walker’s ‘Keep Walking’ philosophy, will run nationally across digital, social, OOH, and influencer channels, with PR led by Leo Burnett’s Publicis Groupe stablemate Herd MSL.
Jodi McLeod, marketing manager at Johnnie Walker, said, “Keep Walking has been an incredible rallying cry for progress for more than two decades now. Johnnie Walker is committed to continuing its support of the trailblazers who push for progress every day by partnering with those who took bold strides and those who will continue striding to push Australia forward. These boots are a homage to the 150 years that it took for a women’s footy competition to be established and a celebration of the eighth AFLW season.”
Meanwhile, Rosie Stone and Stacey Karayannis, associate creative directors at Leo Burnett, also added, “When we look at the pages of sporting history, we seem only to acknowledge the giants of the game – the top scorers, the record-breakers, the superstars. What’s rarely recognised, though, is the incredible strength and decades of determination it takes to get women’s sport onto the field in the first place. With the AFLW still in its professional infancy and with so much progress to be made, we wanted to celebrate the wins we’ve had along the way and shine a light on the women who walked the game to where it is today.”