Campaign: Why Marketeers Should Look To The Paralympics For Great Storytelling
Why is it that we only really ever talk about disability sports every four years when the Paralympics comes around? If brands are really going to make a difference, shouldn’t it be a full-time commitment?
It was refreshing to see Channel 4 evolve “Meet the superhumans” for Tokyo in 2021 with its hugely successful “Super. Human” campaign. The narrative that people with disabilities are somehow different to us mere mortals had started to wear thin – and not just with general consumers (both with and without disabilities) but also with athletes.
But while Channel 4’s last campaign showed the more human side of disabled athletes, the irreverent tone it adopted didn’t necessarily land with everyone in the disabled community.
I’ve been fortunate to have worked closely with and got to know double Paralympic gold medallist Richard Whitehead MBE over the past three years through the work we do for Nissan on their DE&I initiative The Possibilities Project.
Authenticity is everything
Whitehead is very vocal on the notion of how people with and without disabilities are marketed to and how, often, the tone and approach a brand takes can actually undermine its good intentions. To Whitehead, it’s all about authenticity.
Brands need to be authentic in the work they do in this space and look to build solid, long-lasting relationships with their talent and the community if they really want to make a difference.
Whitehead says: “The lack of support athletes actually have after their moment on the podium is shocking. A brand, like national governing bodies, should have a social responsibility to look after athletes/talent after their initial relationship with them… which often they don’t.”
Whitehead has been a Nissan ambassador since 2013. Recently, in partnership with the Richard Whitehead Foundation, Nissan has funded nine individuals with life-changing sports prosthetics, opening up a whole new world of opportunities.
So it’s here you can see the tangible benefit of a brand’s support and how it can go beyond just the partnership with an athlete to actually making an impact on regular people’s lives, too.
Individual stories
And this notion of understanding and shining a light on an individual’s personal story is where, I feel, brands can really start to reap the rewards and make positive moves with their consumers. In the past few years, we’ve seen an influx of fly-on-the-wall sporting documentaries but most, if not all, have been centred on able-bodied athletes.
It’s here where brands can go the extra mile and use the Paralympics as the perfect opportunity to tell the stories of disabled athletes and the barriers, both visible and hidden, they have to overcome to achieve their moment of greatness.
Consumers want to be emotionally inspired by what they see, but often it’s about understanding the fuller picture and not just seeing the more visible barriers an athlete has had to overcome.
Areas such as the lack of funding, the daily worries of training and putting food on the table in a cost-of-living crisis, the days spent away from home and managing everyday family life, the mental strain or trauma they’ve undergone and still go through, the pressures to perform at the highest possible level.
These struggles are valid and it’s time we start understanding that. It’s what makes them relatable and, importantly, it’s what makes them resonate with the everyday public, who can be inspired to do something similar, even at a recreational level.
Whitehead adds: “Sport is a gateway for me to connect and help people, disabled or able-bodied, have their own gold medal moments in their everyday lives.”
Year-round commitment
Looking forward, like the Olympics, the Paralympics should be seen as the launchpad for brands communicating about disabled people and sport all year round. Brands and agencies have an opportunity to leverage the excitement and eyeballs it draws and encourage those living with a disability into recreational sport – something that not only looks to benefit their physical health but, importantly, their mental health.
By focusing on the individuals and forming longer-term partnerships, we have the opportunity to reap the benefits of learning from and working with people from the disability community. It also gives us the chance to tell stories in a deeper, more authentic way. To date, it seems like this area has been glossed over by brands in their attempt to tell more superficial, tokenistic stories.
Some 16% of the world’s population are living with a disability, whether physical or mental, but each person’s story is unique. We must grab the chance to start communicating in a way that goes a step further. We must really get under the skin of what can be possible when we start thinking about disability 365 days a year, not just once every four years.
Max Arkell is client partner and head of account management at Dark Horses