A Whole New Ballgame: What’s Next for Women’s Football after the 2023 World Cup?
The FIFA Women’s World Cup has come to an end, with Spain defeating the Lionesses in a packed stadium. Despite the current nonsense with the Spanish FA, the tournament was an astounding success and the popularity has helped bring women’s sport to the very forefront of conversation.
Yet while we celebrate how far women’s football has come, the final whistle indicates key opportunities for brands. This World Cup proves the women’s game deserves strategic, long-term investment. The ball is now in sponsors’ court to back that potential with spending comparable to the men’s tournaments and this is how the game continues to grow.
Record-Setting Engagement
Global interest in the Women’s World Cup exploded beyond expectations – as viewing figures this year wildly outperformed predictions with over two billion watching – an increase in viewing numbers of 100%, even with the competition being held in a difficult time zone for European markets.
Consumers showed a tribalism and pride in their teams at an unforeseen scale and this enthusiasm also shone through in brand activity. Orange’s ad for the France football team, combining technology to super-impose men’s faces on women’s skills, questioned the prevailing narrative and instantly went viral. Certainly a novel approach to attracting the eyeballs of existing (men’s) football fans.
Nike’s star-studded campaign focused on the celebrity wow-factor of women sports stars, with entertaining, personality-driven content more akin to the attention they offer towards male players. However, Nike was not entirely free of criticism, as their decision to not produce keeper Mary Earps shirt led to widespread criticism and a petition signed by over 150,000 people that led to a U-turn and secured a commitment to 'retailing women’s goalkeeping jerseys for major tournaments in the future'.
Brands like Sainsbury’s, Heathrow and Burger King jumped on the final’s hype with cheeky, topical social content. Whilst most brand activity has been well received, my peers in this newfound football crowd can be a cynical bunch, calling out purplewashing for those who have no skin in the game.
Overall, evidence from WARC and System1 research suggests the Women’s World Cup ads have out-performed men’s in terms of ad quality and commercial effectiveness, time will tell if this has led to commercial results.
Are Brands Still on the Bench?
Yet the celebratory picture has some cracks. Despite proving its cultural and marketing value, this Women’s World Cup lagged behind the men’s event in revenue. According to the Wall Street Journal, FIFA targeted $300m in revenue from global broadcasters, but only generated $150m from broadcast rights. Ouch! TV companies reacted defensively when rights were sold individually, rather than bundled with the men’s competition or given away for peanuts. I can only imagine the negotiations for 2027.
WARC reported that sponsorship revenue overall was just 18% of that for the men’s World Cup – $300m compared to $1.7bn spent in Qatar. This begs the question: what value do brands put on women’s sport? – especially when it boasts an estimated supporter spending power of $8.9bn (Omdia.) Will the interest generated by this Women’s World Cup finally persuade boardrooms that investing in women’s football is an opportunity not to be missed?
A Level Playing Field
With over 2.2 million mentions on social media and record-breaking global audiences, the FIFA Women’s World Cup was an unqualified success and showed a whole new interest for women’s sport. Brands need to take a fresh look at their involvement in women’s football, and they’d better be quick because those women can move!
