Harlequins Women
Harlequins is one of the world’s most recognisable rugby clubs, with a well-established and successful professional men’s team. In August 2017, Harlequins formally launched its women’s and girl’s programme which included an elite women’s team and a dedicated pathway for girls to progress from grassroots through to senior women’s rugby.
Already working with the club, we had our brief extended to support the launch of Harlequins Ladies (now Harlequins Women) and to establish Quins as leaders in championing women’s team sport.
Supporting the launch of Harlequins Women and positioning the club as gamechangers for women’s sport
The PHA Group has a wealth of experience promoting women’s sport and profiling elite female athletes and we worked closely with Harlequins to identify the players with incredible sporting credentials; inspirational routes into the sport; and/or those who had compelling backgrounds away from sport.
Working with the most experienced players, management and executive staff we positioned Harlequins as an authoritative voice on women’s rugby and broader issues in women’s sport, establishing the club at the forefront of efforts to advance the women’s game and to act as a role model to young girls.
We also supported the club’s flagship girls’ participation programme, Switch, securing top-tier broadcast attendance to its camps; ensuring its aims and results were communicated within player and executive interviews; and undertaking targeted regional media outreach to drive awareness and attendance.
Our team secured widespread media coverage in the national sports pages, including outlets such as The Sunday Times, Telegraph Women’s Sport, The Guardian, The Mail on Sunday, and the Evening Standard.
As well as extensive print coverage, Harlequins Women and their Switch programme also featured on several top-tier broadcast slots including on BBC News, BBC Radio 4, Sky Sportswomen, ITV News, talkSPORT, and BBC Radio London.
The PHA team also secured impactful media coverage in the run-up to the Women’s Big Game, which helped Harlequins achieve a then record-breaking attendance for a domestic women’s club game in the UK.