Women's World Cup: new opportunities, new tactics

Following record-breaking viewership in 2019, the start of the Women’s World Cup this week is expected to fuel the continued popularity of women’s football around the world, offering new brands the opportunity to be part of a global sport.

Why it matters

It’s the World Cup.

Quite simply, there’s football on every day and every match matters. For this reason, World Cups – whether in the women’s or men’s game – are the biggest opportunity to expand the sport’s reach. This makes it a critical area of focus not only for FIFA, the competition’s organiser, but for the brands that choose to advertise around it.

What’s going on:

• US focus
  In one of the few major countries where football (or soccer) isn’t the most watched sport, the USA is the most successful women’s international team in history with four titles; another title in 2023 would make them the first team (of either gender) to win three World Cups in a row. So the news value in the US is huge.
• Different opportunities to engage
  Due to the money involved in official partnerships, formal ties with the tournament at the FIFA level are the preserve of only the very biggest brands – like Visa, Budweiser, Unilever, and McDonald’s. Even in a new financial climate of cost controls, smaller brands are finding ways to invest, with some targeting player partnerships and others sponsoring coverage of the WWC on sport media such as The Athletic.
• Coverage remains a worry
  Due to the tournament’s location across Australia and New Zealand this year, which would mean games broadcast at difficult times across Europe and the Americas, FIFA has struggled to maximise the value of this year’s tournament; this year was the first time that rights to the WWC have been sold separately from the rights to the men’s competition. Broadcasters, especially among the big five footballing nations – the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain – were threatened with a blackout by FIFA boss Gianni Infantino after submitting unacceptably low bids.
• Sponsorship
  Official sponsorship has also been muted – though this doesn’t mean brands aren’t engaging with the tournament. Given that promotion and access were key issues flagged in a GWI report on viewership of the Women’s Euros, this could lead to some softness in the game’s next phase of growth.
• Beautiful constraints
  Not all brands are put off by the early morning European kick-offs. As Marketing Week points out, cereal brand Weetabix has spotted an opportunity to carve out a use-case friendly TV moment. And as Kantar noted in WARC during the 2019 tournament, engagement needs to link the brand to the occasion. Its conclusion: this isn’t a charity case but a major commercial opportunity, and brands would do well to celebrate the occasion and be seen.

Sourced from Unilever, Marketing Brew, Sports Business Journal, Marketing Week, Sports Pro Media, WARC. Image: FIFA