The Opportunity of the Women’s World Cup Is Passing Brands By
In less than two weeks, the biggest event in women’s football will kick off in Australia and New Zealand, as 32 teams compete for the coveted trophy in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. The tournament, which will run from July 20th to August 20th, promises to be a spectacular showcase of talent, passion and diversity, as well as a celebration of the growth and development of the women’s game.
The excitement is palpable across the globe, as fans, players, coaches and sponsors prepare for the first-ever co-hosted Women’s World Cup, and the first to feature an expanded format of 32 teams.
However, despite the anticipation and enthusiasm surrounding the 2023 Women’s World Cup, there has been a noticeable lack of advertising in the build-up to the event. Compared to previous editions of the tournament, and certainly to the men’s World Cup, there seems to be a gap in the visibility and recognition of women’s football for brands.
With so much at stake and so much to celebrate, is it time for brands to step up and show their commitment and creativity in engaging with women’s football? LBB’s Alex Reeves spoke to Ellie Farrer, founding partner of UK agency ICONIC – someone with an intimate knowledge of football campaigns from her experience working with adidas, New Balance, Pepsi and many more.
LBB> We had to speak to you in the run up to the FIFA Women's World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023. It seems like exactly the kind of cultural event that ICONIC would be excited about.
Ellie> Yeah, for sure. We use the Chloe Kelly moment from the Euros, taking her shirt off and swinging it around her head, as an ‘iconic moment’ in every single one of our decks. So we're well on board with that.
LBB> You’ve worked on projects around women's football for quite a while. What would you say have been the important moments in the sport and how have they usually involved brands? And how does that compare to this tournament’s build up?
Ellie> Tournament times are always the prime time for brands. They're the peak moments. They have the opportunity to show off products or what they've been working on and tie themselves to the game. I saw recently that brand advocacy and purchasing from brands that are attached to the women's game is going in the right direction and is a bit more positive. So you can see the payoffs.
But I think I have to say, having worked in it for a while, I think you probably saw the most activation ahead of any women's tournament or fixture ahead of the Euros last year. That was obviously because it's a home Euros [for England], but I think post-pandemic and everything that was going on in the world at that point, every brand was getting involved in it. Ahead of the tournament, there was so much content that brands were pouring out.
Skip to the World Cup and I haven't really seen anything, and I've been looking for it. Which is a bit disappointing and surprising, given the stage that this is on. It's a World Cup, supposedly bigger than the Euros. And yeah, it's just not really been there.
We're two weeks out now. You would have expected to see, I think, the murmurings of content. Six weeks to a month out you'd start to see it being drip-fed through. I’d have expected to see a Nike ad. I haven't seen one. I know they've launched a new boot, but the 2019 World Cup ad they did was incredible, so monumental. I've been waiting to see one, they haven't done one. So yes, it's felt a bit weird from a content perspective, I must say.
LBB> This is a unique tournament in a lot of ways. Every time it is unique, with slightly more progress in the sport, more awareness. But Australia & New Zealand has the aspect to it where it's the other side of the world from England, with the phenomenon of late night or breakfast football. What do you think are the unique opportunities of this World Cup?
Ellie> I'm gonna put a bit of a spin on what you were kind of saying about the fixture time. I know, for us, they're not that great. Some of the games are at 3am, 6am. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to get up to watch that. But some of the other morning games, there's a real potential here to turn this into a positive. If you think of trying to inspire the younger generations to get involved in football, or to keep football on the top of their minds, whether it's girls or boys, being able to get that generation to just watch the games, whether that's at school or at home before they go or during the summer holidays - they can watch it. It's not like the games are gonna be on late. They're good times for younger people to be watching the game. So from that perspective, there's a real opportunity to be inspiring a younger generation and getting a broader reach - in the UK anyway - to be getting involved with it, watching it.
You might watch a game and then you might be so excited by it that you go and play football in the garden, even if you've never played it before. That's the opportunity. Taking a negative of the games being really early and you might not see them and turning it into a positive is something that I find really fascinating. I would be really interested to see the viewing figures post-tournament, because I think the knock-on effects could be huge.
LBB> How would you like to see brands making the most of the opportunity of this World Cup?
Ellie> I would have liked to have seen more content in the build up, obviously. I think we still are in a storytelling era. People know the players more than they ever have done before. But it doesn't mean that everybody knows the players. So brands jumping on to really spotlight the players, introduce them to new audiences that maybe don't know who they are, and just really tell their stories – I think there's an opportunity for brands to have done that in the build up to the tournament.
But while the tournament is still on, to be activating, to be highlighting players that have scored amazing goals or played really well and highlight their attributes. Who are they? Where do they play in club time? What country do they play for? What skills do they have? All the stats about the players could be an opportunity to keep highlighting the game, who plays it and introducing more and more people to those players.
LBB> What about the potential broader role in culture that this tournament could take?
Ellie> Aside from the potential to inspire continuously, I think where we are in the game now, we're on the up. I don't want to say that the [2022] Euros was the peak. It wasn't. It's gonna keep growing and growing and growing. So I think how this can further impact the WSL [Women’s Super League], the Women's Championships, the club competitions post-tournament and keep those games growing. I would love to see the knock-on impact in next year's Women's Champions League. I want to see the Arsenal sellout stadium that we got from this year's Champions League all the time. I want to see more and more people at stadiums so that they have to play in the men's stadiums because there aren't enough seats in the women's stadiums.
Always use the big tournaments as those tentpole moments that can increase the spectatorship of the game and keep filling out those stadiums. That will be the priority role of tournaments for years to come, that I hope will still keep knocking on the doors and the scene and keep pushing through.
LBB> Other than that, what big debates are important around this tournament?
Ellie> My rant will be the One Love armband being banned. Because I think we accepted it when it was in Qatar because it was Qatar. You can say if you're playing in a country where it's [homosexuality is] against the religion then, as much uproar as there was at the time, it's harder to argue with. But to then ban it in a women's tournament in a country where it's very accepted, when you have a considerable amount of players that are openly out. I think that's pretty disrespectful to the game, in my personal opinion.
But I think the way that the players have handled it, especially [Australia captain] Sam Kerr in a press interview the other day saying she doesn't agree with it, but she's not going to go and get a yellow card and put her team in a bad position because of it. As a general view on it goes, I think the way that FIFA have handled it is wrong, but I guess they're trying to level the men's and the women's game and make sure that they're not having any disparity between the two. It is a personal gripe of mine, but we are where we are with it, I guess.
I think it's a real shame. I think it was a point in which FIFA could have really shown their growth and their visibility of the LGBTQ+ community. And instead of taking the opportunity for people to be like, "well done FIFA," they went "no, we're going to give you eight other armbands to choose from but none of them have any role in supporting the LGBTQ+ community."
LBB> Do you think that’s also an opportunity where brands could have stepped in and shown what side of the debate their values lay?
Ellie> Yeah, I think it is a huge opportunity, but I sadly don't think that many brands (excuse my language) have the balls to do it. I think they play too much on the fence and they don't want to upset anybody, so they don't want to stick their neck out on the line to potentially make a bold move. I think even in the men's World Cup last year, the small little touches that were done on the kits, like the Belgian kit had a little rainbow in the back of the neck – you couldn't see it but you knew it was there. Little things like that being done to an adidas kit, there is an opportunity. But I would not be surprised if it's not taken.
LBB> Anything else you’d like to add?
Ellie> The hard thing is, I expect it for every women's tournament. Brands are always slow to activate. Everybody knows that that works in the space. But there's slow and there's nonexistent. And being two weeks out, I'm worrying that it's going to be borderline nonexistent. So it's a shame. There was so much opportunity to build on the Euros' success from not just a Lionesses perspective, but the tournament as a whole – the success of the women's game up to this point, to be screaming and shouting about the growth of the game and building on it. And nobody's taking it. Such a shame.
It doesn't necessarily even need to be from a Lionesses perspective. I'm looking forward to 'A League of their Own' on Sky, the Lionesses special. It's going to be out next week. But that's a TV show. It's not a brand opportunity. So disappointed would be my summary.
I'd say I'm disappointed right now, but hopeful you are going to start seeing some things over the next couple of weeks. And then it's gonna be the best tournament ever, like it always is every tournament.
I hope it grows over the next couple of weeks. But yeah, I'm gonna be intently watching the World Cup throughout the whole tournament.
LBB> At the very least, there’ll be some brilliant football to watch.
Ellie> Yeah, definitely. I'm ready to see another Russo back-heel!
