Every Child Matters - NLL

This campaign helps represent and often forgotten people who have claims to the land we play our games on. They have endured 100s of years of oppression and neglect with oftentimes, no acknowledgment in the classroom or in everyday life.

As the original creators of our game, these groups of individuals suffer higher rates of suicide, domestic abuse, and substance abuse while living in poor conditions with poor education. This activation included not just Indigenous people or players, but all members of the NLL community, including fans.

We continue to find new ways to honor the game and people whether it is a blanket ceremony or land acknowledgment during games. This is just one issue plaguing these people but by acknowledging it, it helps explain the multitude of problems this demographic faces. This teaches our fans, players, executives, and more, to do more homework, be actively curious and ask questions with the right intent.

Objective

Our objective was to create an authentic campaign to raise awareness and funds for a cause that is deeply rooted in our game. Many of our players, executives and owners have ties with their families to the residential school system in North America and were wanting to raise awareness on the cause. Many fans and individuals in our ecosystem are unaware of these atrocities as they are rarely taught in school. We provided a unique opportunity to educate them utilizing our resources.

Strategy & Execution

The NLL worked to create a new logo with the help of an Indigenous designer to lead our campaign. The logo has been used as a catalyst and storyteller of what the cause is about. Every team was given warmup shirts in orange and helmet decals. Broadcasters and coaches wore orange ties and lapel pins. During the games, we aired features on broadcast about Indigenous causes and topics relating to residential and boarding schools. Look and feel of our social media, broadcasts, website and email reflected the campaign. Written content was placed on NLL.com and many teams held Indigenous Heritage theme nights, making the full night about the history of our sport and the relations with the local indigenous populations. Fans could purchase replicas of the warmup shirts through our partnership with Fanatics, with the proceeds going to both non-profit partners.