Where the Lionesses came from and why they are here to stay!

I woke up this morning to a text from my mother simply saying, ‘have you seen the front page of the Daily Mail online!’. Half asleep there is a brief moment of panic.

She subsequently shared with me an article debating if it is sexist to call the England women's football team Lionesses and not Lions, following a debate on BBC Woman's Hour yesterday.

Now this is a subject close to my heart, so I wanted to share my thoughts on visibility and community within women’s football and where that name actually came from.

The Lionesses name originated in 2012. At the time, I was Digital Marketing Manager at The Football Association and my job was to ensure women's football had maximum reach and visibility across social media and online. We had a lot of success in building that visibility and community especially through Twitter?in the early years of the Women's Super League through 2011 and 2012.

I would say to colleagues and players that social media was Women’s Football’s secret weapon, because it would allow us to write the headlines that the media wouldn't. You have to remember, the context is that, at the time, women's football wasn't getting the attention that is now.?In fact it was being actively ignored by many.

We were very reliant upon a small, but hugely dedicated press pack - people like Tony Leighton, Jen O'Neil at She Kicks, Alistar McGowan at the BBC - but the numbers of people working around the game in the media were few and far between. So, getting visibility for women's football was something that we had to think differently about.

I saw Twitter and Facebook as a brilliant way to engage fans, to bring the players and fans closer together, to educate and interest the fans around the teams and the players. Players they didn't know much about and couldn't find out much about either.?

We worked really hard to build relationships with the clubs and players, to enable a really strong online presence for women's football. For example, we were one of the first sports leagues in the world to trial having players Twitter handles on their shirts.

We were innovative in the access that we gave fans to players through social media, we really made sure that social media was the heart of women's football.?It's something I truly believe has been integral to setting the game apart over the last decade.

And if EURO 2022 has proven one thing, it's that visibility matters.

The more people that watch the women's game, the more little girls (and boys, and men and women of all ages) that tune in, the more brands and media will invest in the commercial side of the sport to help it grow further still.?

Look at the 百事 campaign that we at Creative Players were very fortunate to be a part of. Seeing Leah Williamson's face on tens of thousands of billboards all over the country: that visibility really matters.?

That really makes a difference to little girls all over the country who can see these players and aspire to be these players. As a #GirlDad I know first hand.?

( Creative Players showing our support for the Lionesses with a giant piece of art outside Old Trafford ahead of the opening game of the Euros.)

But throwback to 2012, and the England women's football team didn't have that visibility. It was something from a digital and social perspective in particular I was really conscious of. How do we give the team and a dedicated women's football community visibility within social media, when they're talking about the England women's football team?

England, as a generic brand, had the Three Lions hashtag. But when England women played we used those same hashtags and the conversation got lost and we couldn't elevate women's football above the noise of the male teams.?

It was June 2012 and we were going to play Netherlands in Manchester and the England men’s team were playing on the same day, so the perfect storm of the women’s team being completely overshadowed by the men.

I really didn't want this England women's game to get lost in the build-up. So, to set it apart, I used the hashtag #Lionesses and encouraged people going to the game or following online to use that hashtag.

So, quite simply, that's how the Lionesses were born. A simple hashtag to help give the women's team and the community on social media an identity and a voice, to elevate the conversation online about England women above the noise of the men.

The name grew and stuck from there.The more we engaged fans online, the more we did around positioning that hashtag as a way for fans to show their support for the team, the more it grew.?

We then started to use it as the brand for the team with banners around the stadium, more overt use by the FA across all channels and by commercial partners. Slowly but surely it just became the name that everybody started referring to the England women's team.

Naturally, as the team’s performances improved it really started to take off and the third-place finish at the 2015 World Cup really embedded the name in the football lexicon. It had already been adopted by England women's fans on social, but now a broader audience had become familiar with the term, and it was being developed as a standalone brand. There was a real sense of pride in what had been created.?

Reaching the semi-final at EURO 2017 cemented the name further still and by the 2019 World Cup, 耐克 , as the key commercial partner/supplier, made the name central to their kit designs and marketing efforts.

I think it's fair to say that Lionesses is now well established and very much a loved brand, certainly by English football fans. When I think back to those initial conversations and challenges about visibility and identity, it gives me a great sense of pride to see where we are today.

Using a simple mechanism, we gave the England women’s team (and by proxy the women’s game in this country) their own platform and identity that was distinct from other national teams. And that’s really important in a sport dominated by men and male fans.

Fast forward to 2022 and the Lionesses are heading to Wembley for the Final of the EUROs. The name is synonymous with that team and will be recalled by a generation of young fans for the success that this team has had, and for the individuals who are creating these memories.

If you say The Lionesses people know who you're talking about. This is identity. It's an identity born from a community, that has grown into a brand off the back of the visibility it has received.?

There is no greater visibility than a final at your home stadium, in front of a sell-out crowd and record numbers on TV. And, if England do win on Sunday, you can guarantee that the Lionesses of 2022 will never be forgotten.