We loved creating this session at the Mumbrella Sports Marketing summit - exploring the neuroscience of sport and storytelling, and the unique power of athletes to drive social change. Our panel included:
Sophie Fawns - NSW Swifts Player
Jenny Hutchison – Executive Manager Sponsorships and Community Response, Suncorp
Sarah De La Mare – Head of Community & Sponsorships, Woolworths
Panel chair, Samara Kitchener, Founder and MD at House of Kitch reflected on the session as an experiential journey of authentic storytelling:
“What I loved about our panel it is that we all deeply feel the importance of sport in shifting the dial for society. The Mumbrella summit brought together so many brilliant sport marketing learnings. In our panel, we wanted people to not only learn, but to feel the power of sport to make a difference.”
Netball remains the number one female team sport in Australia, with more than a million Australians donning netball bibs last year. At the professional level, Suncorp Super Netball just concluded the most attended season of Australian women’s sport in history. It also delivered record-breaking viewership across the Foxtel Group, with over 210 million minutes streamed.
These successes precede the upcoming 2027 Netball World Cup to be held in Sydney. As we have seen, hosting World Cups on home soil provides unrivalled opportunities for storytelling that captures the hearts and minds of fans across Australia. Suncorp has been a long-term partner of Netball and the AIS, supporting girls and women’s sport through its innovative Team Girls social initiative. Jenny Hutchison, Executive Manager, Sponsorships & Community Response shared why storytelling has been such a key
part of the Team Girls’ strategy. “Storytelling is a highly effective tool to connect with fans in a meaningful and engaging manner, sharing not just the wins, but the lows and challenges of a team or athlete’s journey,” she says.
Samara Kitchener, Founder and Managing Director at House of Kitch agreed, adding that the highs and lows of the sporting journey are reflected in the hero’s journey story arc which creates the perfect platform for storytelling: “Paul Zak is a neuroscientist, famous for discovering oxytocin. His research found that during the rising action, fans release cortisol, at the climax they release oxytocin and when the hero returns with the ‘prize’ they release dopamine. Interest can be maintained by cycling through these story pieces and keeping the brain chemistry going.”
“Storytelling is a highly effective tool to connect with fans in a meaningful and
engaging manner, sharing not just the wins, but the lows and challenges of a
team or athlete’s journey,” said Jenny Hutchison, Executive Manager, Sponsorships & Community Response, Suncorp.
Sport is uniquely placed to drive connection because of the neurological responses it triggers in all of us.
Pics: Netball NSW
“Research has shown that neurochemicals associated with athleticism, from dopamine to adrenaline to oxytocin, are triggered to a similar degree in both the players and fans during a game. Our brainwaves sync – we become participants in the action. Every time your team scores a goal you get a hit of dopamine – lucky Netball is such a high scoring game,” Samara shared.
Like Suncorp, Woolworths has also been a longterm sponsor of Netball. Sarah De La Mare, Head of Community & Sponsorships at Woolworths, called out the benefit of engaging athletes as ambassadors, such as in their ‘Pick Fresh Play Fresh’ social content. “Athletes are important because they get the cut-through of the message. They bring personality, credibility, and athleticism,” she said. “Not only that, they bring their audience and they are seen as idols. So, by using them, you can create more engaging content.”
Rising star NSW Swifts netball player, Sophie Fawns, is a great example of this, using her platform to drive awareness of ovarian cancer and create change. Sophie’s mum, Maureen, tragically lost her battle with the disease in 2021.
The audience was riveted as Sophie bravely shared her story. “My mum was a massive supporter of netball. Every day I play netball for her,” she said.
Sophie is advocating for greater awareness as part of Camilla and Marc’s ‘Ovaries. TalkAbout Them.’ campaign.
“We all come from ovaries. You all know someone who’s got ovaries. But half the people you talk to now about ovarian cancer, they don’t know anything about it. They don’t know it’s the deadliest female cancer in the world, that when you’re diagnosed, you’ve got less than a 50% survival rate,” Sophie poignantly explained.
“It’s such an important conversation and something people should be talking to each other about. Women deserve better, it isn’t good enough.”
To hear more about Sophie’s story, find out information about ovarian cancer and support the cause, visit Ovaries. Talk About Them.
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