On Message: The wrong kind of halo effect

Everyone makes mistakes. But even by today’s standards, the self-imposed cancellation of Sky Sports’ new TikTok channel, Halo, is remarkable. Aimed at women, the platform lasted three days. This from a media brand that is supposed to know its audience and getting its messaging spot-on. From the off, Halo hit the wrong notes. It was hailed as the ‘lil sis’ of Sky Sports by the broadcaster, so instantly demeaning. The launch was accompanied by a post: ‘We’re about ALL sports and championing female athletes. We’re here for the culture, community and connection. We don’t just watch sports – we live it.’

Okay, but the content came with pink hearts, references to ‘hot girl walks’, matcha and Barbies. No. That was instantly panned as sexist. It got worse. Five of the channel’s first 11 videos featured male sports stars. 

One clip in particular provoked derision. It showed the Manchester City player Rayan Cherki with Erling Haaland, walking through one of the latter’s goals, with the caption: ‘How the matcha + hot girl walk combi hits’. The deluge was unrelenting, with ‘one of the most insanely patronising and misogynistic activations I’ve seen from a brand’ being typical. That person added; ‘Women do not need a dumbed down version of sports; we are perfectly capable of watching sports and following the regular pages rather than needing to watch videos about wags or putting matcha in your caption.’

Halo displayed a tin ear. One user wrote: ‘Can’t believe this is what you think female sports fans like.’ In response, Halo said: ‘Can’t believe you brought that kind of energy.’ So, doing sarcasm as well. 

If that was not bad enough, Sky Sports has history in this area. The station has been hit by complaints of blokeishness, including famously when presenter Richard Keys made derogatory off-air comments about a female assistant referee and he left. That was more than a decade ago but tellingly, it is not forgotten and is always available for anyone to read. Presumably, though, someone, the team at Halo, did not do their homework. 

What should have they done? First, put themselves four square in the position of their intended viewer. Whether the producers were male or female and whatever age, they had a vision that was hopelessly out of step with those they wanted to reach and impress. 

Did they do their research? Did they employ people from that cohort? If not, why not? KYC is a familiar acronym but so, in comms and in media, should be KYA: Know Your Audience. 

It’s not so difficult. Some of the most withering criticism was from the women’s football website GirlsontheBall. ‘The branding (one day can we please be past the pink/peach stage?!), the premise, the copy,’ the site posted on X. ‘Can’t imagine this is what women sports fans want and taking a brief look at the comments, it seems like we’re not alone.’

Likewise, women’s football magazine She Kicks jumped in, describing one post - featuring the mayor-elect of New York and the caption ‘Thinking about Zohran Mamdani rizzing us and Arsenal up’– as ‘strange’, adding: ‘It is clear that Sky Sports are trying to grow their brand in women’s football but the new Halo channel seems to be going the wrong way about it.’ You can say that again. Halo could have consulted them for a start. The best that can be said is that they realised their mistakes and acted quickly to kill this off.

Remember: Know Your Audience.