SPORT IRELAND IS set to spend up to €300,000 on a new national campaign targeting ‘inactive teenage girls’ to engage in sport.

In new tender documentation, Sport Ireland state that it is looking to appoint an agency to develop and manage the roll out of a national communication and activation campaign targeting inactive teenage girls in Ireland “that inspires, encourages and motivates them to be more active”.

The documentation states that the successful party to tender should ensure a campaign “that speaks to inactive teenage girls, reframes what sport is, opens their eyes to more opportunities and results in girls embracing sport and physical activity and wanting to share their experiences”.

Sport Ireland states that the maximum budget for the ‘Communication & Activation Campaign Targeting Inactive Teenage Girls’ is €300,000 (excluding VAT) over a 14-month period.

The tender states that the target audience for the work is ‘inactive teenage girls’ – those who are disengaged or moderately disengaged from sport and physical activity.

The secondary target audience are those adults who influence teenage girls and who can support them in being more active – parents, teachers, coaches, service providers.

The work is expected to commence in October 2022 and be completed within approximately 14 months and the campaign launch to take place during Sport Ireland Women in Sport Week (6-12 March) 2023.

Sport Ireland is looking to launch the €300,000 initiative after a 2018 report, the Children’s Sport Participation and Physical Activity (CSPPA) study outlined that only 7% of teenage girls in post primary meet the recommended national physical activity guidelines of 60 minutes of activity every day.

The CSPPA study also highlighted that 23% of girls in post primary stated that they never participation in sport and 34% participate 2-3 times per week.

The same study indicates that 77% of primary school girls participate in community sport at least once a week, but one in three of these girls drop out of community sport in secondary school.

The tender states that a follow up report, The Adolescent Girls Get Active Research, released in 2021 explored girls’ attitudes to sport highlighted that girls often label themselves as “not sporty”, and state that they feel like they are no good enough, unfit, feel less skilful/talented than others.

In advance of the Sport Ireland appointing an agency to devise the national campaign, much work has already been done by Sport Ireland in a bid to increase teenage girls’ participation in sport.

The request for tender states that Sport Ireland have been working on a teenage girl’s project titled, Girls Get Active, for the past 18 months or longer.

The documentation states that Sport Ireland has undertaken Phase 2 and Phase 3 of the project to get inactive teenage girls active in sport and the new campaign represents Phase 4.

The tender documentation states Phase 3 has involved in February of this year Sport Ireland commencing work with a marketing agency to create the brand identity that will be used by sports organisations and be incorporated into their marketing materials to promote physical activity programmes targeting inactive teenage girls.

The closing date for tenders is 26 September.