Energy provider British Gas has a long-standing sponsorship with swimming. It's the country's most popular active sport and it crosses the different demographics and households of the country evenly, making it an ideal platform for a brand like British Gas.

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The sponsorship of swimming gave access to a number of elite athletes and British Gas had used them in their Above The Line advertising. What was missing was a connection to the brand's sponsorship of the ASA (the Amateur Swimming Association) and, building on the 2012 Olympic legacy, an active connection to British Gas' target audience to encourage wider sports participation.

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Working with ASA and British Gas the brief was to come up with a mechanism to encourage lapsed swimmers to get back into the sport.  We teamed up with a sports consultant and conducted some research on sports participation. The research gave us the insight to encourage swimming participation - It was seen as an individual sport and it needed to become more social, and give participants a goal-orientated target. 

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Working with the ASA we devised a team event called Swim Britain. Events would take place at Olympic sized pools and Lidos around the country. Friends and Colleagues could create a team and each member would swim 400m in a team event relay. 

We developed a fully branded digital journey and website that used the celebrity swimming heros that had featured in British Gas' ATL advertising (David Walliams etc) to guide would-be participants to take part.

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In the work-up to an event, participants would have a training program and team progress available online, sending motivational messages and reporting their progress. 

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With over 20k participants in the first year, the events were a huge success. As the account lead, it was necessary for me to take the plunge too and I did my training and made it around an open lido in east London.

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