Who scored the most goals? Don’t believe the internet
Who has scored the most goals in football? For a seemingly straightforward question, DDB Aotearoa and Correct The Internet have discovered that the answer is often wrong.
In a keynote presentation at the Mumbrella Sports Marketing Summit today, Gary Steele, chief creative officer of DDB Aotearoa, and Rebecca Sowden, founder and founding partner of Team Heroine and Correct The Internet, told the crowd that heightening the visibility of women’s sports needs to start with getting the facts straight online.
Having scored 190 goals, Canadian female footballer Christine Sinclair indisputably holds the most career international goals scored by a female or male football player worldwide. However, Steele and Sowden were disheartened to see Cristiano Ronaldo’s name attached to the title.
Having been a New Zealand Football Fern herself, Sowden said: “There is a virtuous cycle for women’s sports. When they get more viewers, they get more brand deals, media attention and sponsorships.
“We want to stop the narrative that women’s sports are not as good, as fast or as strong as men’s sports. But the search engine results are just contributing to that negative narrative.”
The duo was leading a campaign from earlier this year to change the searchable facts, with the aim to give female sports players the attention they deserve for their achievements.
Steele said a lot of conversations happened with the search engine companies behind closed doors initially. However, silence ensued. They quickly realised that the promise to “work together” appeared to be a stall tactic.
“So what do you do when some of the world’s largest companies are stalling on you? We approached the UN,” Steele said.
The campaign garnered the support of a number of high-profile athletes and sporting organisations including English rugby’s Red Roses’ player, Shaunagh Brown, and Football Fern Meikayla Moore, with support from Women in Sport Aotearoa, Ngā Wāhine Hākinakina o Aotearoa (WISPA), Women Sport Australia and New Zealand Football.
However, there was a conscious decision to not bring any brands on board.
“If you want to create a movement, you need to make it accessible to everyone,” Steele said.
But with many search engine answers since reverting back to their original results, the duo said there is still much work to be done.
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Darcy Song was a reporter at Mumbrella, covering media owners, adtech and social platforms. She left in October 2023.
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topics
Correct The Internet
DDB Aotearoa
Gary Steele
Mumbrella Sports Marketing Summit
Rebecca Sowden
Team Heroine
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