Starling Bank has launched a campaign that celebrates women’s football as part of its national sponsorship of the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 tournament.

The ‘Our Time’ campaign highlights the glass ceilings that continue to be broken for the women’s game, while nodding to Starling’s mission to level the playing field for women within banking and technology. It comes as UEFA expects the tournament to be the most popular women’s sporting event in European history.

Three current and former England players are fronting the campaign including Jill Scott, midfielder for Aston Villa, on loan from Manchester City; Lauren Hemp, forward at Manchester City; and Rachel Yankey, Arsenal Women Legend turned TV presenter. The campaign spans multiple outputs and activations and focuses on three core pillars of ‘Celebrating’, ‘Creating’ and ‘Championing’ the women’s game of today and tomorrow.

Celebrating the game

To celebrate the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022, Starling is giving up to 500 matchday experiences to the local community at St Mary’s Stadium in Southampton, where Starling has a base. The bank will also be supporting a series of roadshows and fan parties in host cities across the UK where people can watch matches together.

Creating players

To help build the pipeline of football talent, Starling will be offering 25 grants of £1,000 to grassroots clubs across the tournament UK Host Cities that have girls, boys and co-ed teams. The bank is also partnering with SportsAid to invest in the development of up and coming female players.  

Championing women

Starling’s integrated ad campaign takes off in July across out of home (OOH), online and print channels and will feature ambassadors Jill Scott and Lauren Hemp. The OOH campaign will be prominent in London and Manchester. A series of blogs and videos with Jill, Lauren and Rachel will explore their experiences of women’s football and where they hope progress will be made.

Jill Scott, national player, business owner and Starling Bank business customer said: “There’s so much anticipation surrounding the Women’s EURO 2022 tournament and even more momentum being made for the women’s sport. For women players like myself, it really is Our Time. Long may that continue so that the players’ of tomorrow have many more female footballers to aspire to.”

Starling is the official national banking partner of the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 tournament, the biggest sponsorship ever for the bank. Founded in 2014 by Anne Boden, the only woman in the UK to start a bank, Starling campaigns to Make Money Equal and women make up 46% of its senior leadership positions.

Helen Bierton, Chief Banking Officer at Starling Bank and former Olympic athlete said: “I’ve witnessed first hand the glass ceiling that exists for women both in sport and in banking. I’d like it to disappear entirely one day, which requires collective effort. We hope our campaign unearths new football fans, inspires future players and gives women and girls across the UK the confidence to say ‘It’s Our Time’ in whichever goals they pursue.”

Rachel Kerrone, Brand & Marketing Director at Starling Bank, said: “Every single partnership and sponsorship we do at Starling must serve a purpose and align with our value of doing the right thing. In this case, it’s championing brilliant women and uniting communities around the game. The brand awareness we’ll gain from the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 is exciting, but what we’re looking forward to most is playing our part in the development of women’s football in the UK.”