Sure’s Emily Heath: ‘Women’s sport still needs to be seen’

For someone who once dreamed of standing on an Olympic podium, it seems almost poetic that Emily Heath’s career has found its rhythm in sport. Once a passionate skier, Heath’s sporting pathway took a different turn after a serious leg break aged seven - one that now sees her at the top of the FMCG mountain as Sure’s (globally known as Rexona) global brand director. 

“It feels like I’ve ended up back where I wanted to be,” she outlines. “Not as an athlete, but still in the world of sport. It feels like I’ve found the place I want to be.” 

After studying fine art and then fashion marketing and journalism, Heath found herself working at GlaxoSmithKline, where her interests from her marketing education landed her in the FMCG world. 

“I’ve now been in FMCG for nearly 20 years, mostly focused on PR, social media, partnerships, and big core brand strategic thinking. But it was when I joined Sure about 10 or 11 years ago - a brand that has sport at its heart - that I got to reconnect with my original passion.”

Unilever-owned Sure is an antiperspirant and deodorant brand that shows up in sport - its most recent being the Women’s Rugby World Cup. Its role as an Official Partner of World Rugby - which also includes subsequent men’s 2027 and women’s 2029 tournaments - allows the integration of its Personal Care brands across several events. 

For Heath, her role looks into developing the globally-renowned brand in a such a way, trying to answer some of the burning questions surrounding: what is the brand strategy? What does it stand for? How does it operate in the world? How does it show up? Who does it show up through and with?

And the journey has inadvertently mirrored symmetry: a childhood passion for movement transformed into a professional mission to help others keep moving.

The Year of Women’s Sport

2025 has been the year of women’s sport. Whether it’s the Lionesses’ taking the glory for a consecutive year at the UEFA European Championships or the Red Roses establishing worldwide dominance, it’s been impossible to ignore. 

With sport at its core since founding in 1973, Sure is continually looking for new ways to show up in sport; this year alone saw it working with both clubs and athletes - from Manchester City to Cole Palmer and Lucy Bronze - who signed a multi-year partnership as a brand ambassador alongside the likes of Paralympic champion Ellie Simmonds. 

Women’s sport, however, is an avenue the brand is championing. With an established strategy to target men through football, the brand has now shifted towards women’s sport. 

“We were investing heavily in the men’s game, which already had a lot of money behind it, and we felt we should be doing the same for women’s sport,” explains Heath. “Around 2018 we began building women’s teams into our packages - starting with Manchester City and Chelsea - because it was the right thing to do. We're a male and female brand, quite equally split, so we believed we should be showing up equally.

“We believed Women’s sport needed the support. It wasn’t even big when we joined; it was just before the 2019 Women’s World Cup, and we made a decision: we’re joining now. We’ve been on that journey ever since.”

The growth of women’s sport since the partnership began, according to Heath, is “incredible” and one that is “changing every day”; however, with anything that develops the risk of plateau is ever-present. How can brands prevent that plateau when it comes to promoting women’s sport? 

“You hear a lot of commentary on, ‘Oh, women’s sport is established now’, but it’s not. Maybe women’s football is getting there. Women’s athletics, particularly through the Olympics, is almost there. But when you actually look at prize money and sponsorship deals, it’s still nowhere near the men’s side.

“There’s still a fundamental need to drive the conversation around equity in sport. I’d love to think that by 2027 we won’t still need to be having that conversation, but I think we will. Women’s sport still needs to be seen. Girls and women need to be supported and encouraged into football and other sports.”

Marketing On Your Feet

While Sure continues to show up in sporting circles, it's a world that can be the maker of both dreams and nightmares for marketers - mostly being down to its unpredictable nature; one minute a brand ambassador is the face of a campaign, the next they’re ruled out with injury. 

“We've had cases where teams we expected to go far in a tournament dropped out early or players got injured,” Heath outlines. “In the recent Women’s Euros our ambassador was Giulia Gwinn of Germany - she was the captain, got injured in the first game, and was then out for the entire tournament.

“But our stance is: we’re there whether they win or lose. Of course, it's not ideal because you want to capitalise on the talkability when they’re active, but even if they’re not playing, they can still be the face of a campaign.”

For Heath, pivoting in moments that pose an unprecedented threat is what the brand is all about, and it isn’t a stranger to overcoming. For the Men’s Euros in 2024, Ben Chilwell was named an ambassador but wasn’t even selected for the main squad, leading to last-minute negotiations to bring Cole Palmer on board. 

“We’ve just been shooting for our World Cup campaign, and honestly, most of the players showed up injured. We had to work with body doubles. We pivoted. It’s the nature of the industry. You have to be able to roll with the punches. Nine times out of 10, things go your way. That one time they don’t - you just have to put out some fires.”

Another way of extinguishing the flames is partnering with creators - something which was “exploded” in value over the last few years. 

“With the FIFA World Cup next year, we’re very mindful of the scale required,” Heath explains. “When Coca-Cola went to the Olympics last year, they sent something like 10,000 creators, and honestly, that’s what you’ve got to do."

And this is a move facilitated by Unilever CEO Fernando Fernandez’s pledge to invest in 50 per cent of its marketing spend on influencers, resulting in the hiring of 20 times more than in use today. 

A volume of voices is needed to really cut through, says Heath, and Sure is a brand looking to improve. “We know we need to get even better and we need more partners to stay competitive and visible in the space.”

The guidelines for who the brand works with are clear: values should align with the types of stories they want to be told. 

“We have to be really careful,” Heath adds. “If we use one creator with a specific identity and tone and then something completely different somewhere else, it becomes confusing. People start to ask, ‘Well, who are your people?’ Those guidelines help define who we are as a brand and, just as importantly, who we should be working with.

“Someone might not immediately see Sure as part of their world, but they might see an individual creator or athlete who is, and suddenly we become more relevant. That connection might have a step in the middle, but that step is what helps create a deeper, more emotional relationship between the consumer and the brand.”

Changing The Face Of The Category

On the surface, being a perspirant brand means thinking outside the box isn’t all that easy; Sure took that challenge head-on earlier this year in releasing its first ‘Whole Body Deo’ - a deodorant using adaptive odour technology to tackle sweat and the fear of body odour. 

“It’s kind of hilarious; we created the category back in 1902, and it’s taken us over 120 years to go, ‘Oh yeah… we sweat everywhere, don’t we?’ So it just felt like a natural move for us.” 

The work, she says, comes from real human insight: “You just have to go on TikTok and you’ll find people talking openly - and often comically - about boob sweat, crotch sweat, butt sweat, back sweat. Younger generations are much more willing to talk about these things and express the reality that you don’t just sweat from your underarms. So why have a product that only deals with that?”

She describes the campaign as a “fun, bolder” move from the brand that left some internal questions when originally pitched. 

“Even the CEO was questioning ‘Is this okay to go out?’ But it was all intentional - it had to grab eyes. It needed to disrupt.”

The boldness stretched to wacky out-of-home work made by AMV BBDO which saw a sniffable billboard scented with oils in Camden, London - honing in on the insight that just one per cent of body odour comes from armpits.

And through its partnership with Chelsea FC, its social content saw Cole Palmer and other squad members taking on the ‘Spray It All Over Challenge’.

Consistency as a brand, however, is seminal, says Heath. Sure’s iconic promise, ‘It Won’t Let You Down’, which first featured in 1974, is something it strives to live by.

“Whether it's men’s or women’s, football or cricket, sport or music - that consistent narrative comes through. It helps connect the dots across everything we’re doing,” she explains.

The concept of fandom influences the brand’s choices; sport creates communities where audiences need to feel represented. 

“People want to see what they can relate to - people they trust, who feel like part of their culture or community. There will always be a role for traditional brand-led communication - that still matters. But fan-in is just as important now. And you're going to see a lot more of that, not just from us but from other brands too - especially as we head into the World Cup next year.”

The world of marketing, according to Emily Heath...

Creative Salon: What do you enjoy most about your role?

Emily Heath: No day ever feels the same. I actually really enjoy it when the fires go off - it’s that ability to react and respond that I absolutely love. But beyond that, I just love being immersed in the world of sport.

Yes, I’m still on the consumer products side, but fundamentally, I have a job that I love. Honestly, I think I have the sexiest job at Unilever. I get to work with all these football partnerships and ambassadors, but I also work across cricket, tennis, rugby, and even some singing and dancing on the side.

It’s a really interesting role, and the partnerships side is just one part of it. I also handle PR, media, master brand stuff, and grassroots community programs. It’s diverse, and quite an exciting role to have.

What do you think makes a good agency partner?

EH:  A good agency partner is one that doesn’t feel like an agency partner. They feel like part of your team. Like you’re all rowing in the same boat together.

The way we work with agencies like Edelman is a great example. Sometimes the lines between whose agency it is and whose brand it is get quite blurred, because we’re all really aligned on what we need to achieve and what the brand stands for.

We’ve built some very strong partnerships and everyone just feels like they want to win and push things forward together.

What frustrates you most about the industry in your role?

EH: It’s a weird one. I get so many people emailing or calling me with this idea that I should partner with them but they haven’t done their homework on why. I’ve said this before, but I really want the industry to think more deeply about why brands should partner with other brands, athletes, or singers. There has to be a shared sense of values and something meaningful both sides can achieve together.

Too often, people focus on what the brand can do for the athlete or partner, rather than what the partnership can bring back. Authenticity is key. Fans embrace partnerships that make sense and enhance their experience. But if it feels forced or irrelevant, fans notice, and sometimes they even mock the ambassador for partnerships that don’t fit.

So, for me, it’s really important that people do their homework, find the best fit, and approach with a clear point of view.

Another big frustration related to our earlier conversation is the misconception that women’s sports have ‘made it’. They really haven’t. I worry that we’re heading toward complacency when there’s still so much work to do.

By the end of the decade, what is one thing you would like to see change about the industry?

EH: I’d like to see more women in senior roles within the sporting industry. It’s not just about athletes - it’s everywhere. And it’s not just about having women there; it’s because women are just as skilled, knowledgeable, and passionate as men.

I think we need to really start expanding women’s roles across the whole industry. There’s a lot of focus on getting girls and women into sport, which is important, but if you look at my line of business, around 98 per cent of the people who reach out to me are men.

We need to see more women in senior positions within sport too.