Kick off the Fifa Women’s World Cup 2023 with the best ads so far
ESPNW, Calm, Johnnie Walker and more: these brands are taking their ads to the field ahead of the Fifa Women’s World Cup 2023.
Kick off the Fifa Women’s World Cup 2023 with the best ads so far
With the Fifa Women’s World Cup set to start on July 20 in Auckland, New Zealand, several brands are ready to join the team, launching their ads within the tournament.
Interestingly, this year’s game could enable marketers to strike a goal among an emerging demographic of soccer fans: Gen Z. According to a recent study from football media company Footballco, 58% of Gen Z women’s soccer fans identify as “super fans.” In comparison, 12% of the demographic say they prefer women’s soccer to men’s.
Check out The Drum’s round-up of the latest Women’s World Cup creative work here, where we’ll be adding new ads daily:
Soccer star Megan Rapinoe fronts Google Pixel’s WWC spot
In Google’s latest addtion to its ‘Fixed on Pixel’ campaign, Rapinoe uses her AI-powered Pixel phone and Pixel Watch to prepare for a game. She uses the Photo Unblur feature to sharpen a picture of herself as a child, Live Translate to read fans’ signs and takes an ultrawide selfie with a group of fans. The campaign featured two spots that airs on television throughout the tournament.
Soccer player Crystal Dunn fronts ESPNW’s ‘That’s a W’
African-American soccer player Crystal Dunn is the focal point of ESPNW’s new spot ahead of the WWC 2023. Created with ad agency Arts & Letters, the commercial airing on broadcast on Monday. Meanwhile, a supporting billboard will go up in Times Square on July 24.
The ad opens as Dunn trains while pregnant with her first child. It then highlights her return to competitive play just over three months after giving birth to join the Thorns in the NWSL playoffs and NWSL Championship while setting up her place as a member of the 2023 USWNT World Cup team.
This spot is part of a series of 15-second commercials called ‘That’s a W,’ which launched in 2021 and tells the untold stories of women in sports on and off the field. The previous spots featured World Cup alpine skier champion Mikaela Shiffrin, University of Florida gymnast Trinity Thomas and U Chicago’s men’s soccer head coach Julianne Sitch.
US Women’s National Team player Sofia Huerta honors Hispanic Americans in Marias Gamesa ad
Turns out, the Fifa Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023 has an official cookie: PepsiCo’s Marias Gamesa. As part of the partnership, the brand released a digital campaign called ‘Love From Everywhere’ starring Sofia Huerta, the US Women’s National Team’s 30-year-old newcomer. The ad’s bilingual and bicultural sensibilities are true to Huerta’s nature as a Hispanic-American born to a Mexican father and an American mother.
The spots, developed by Marias Gamesa’s in-house creative shop D3, are running across YouTube, Meta platforms and Twitter.
Calm spotlights unseen signals with Lioness Fran Kirby
The powerful work draws on parallels faced by young women who are experiencing suicidal thoughts and whose calls for help can all too often be misunderstood or go unrecognized.
You’ll never guess Orange France’s World Cup plot twist
Is this the best world cup ad ever? Fans and marketers alike have been raving about the spot by Marcel for Orange France, calling it one of the sports ads of all time. Others have also hailed it for its use of visual effects, holding it up as an example of creative uses for new technologies.
Read all about it here.
Nike: Let it Rip starring Megan Rapinoe
US soccer star Megan Rapinoe recently announced her retirement from American Women’s soccer after more than 20 years of excellence. Nike marked the moment with an amazing anime-inspired ad.
Budweiser UK champions the journey of England’s Women’s team
The often overlooked story of England’s Women’s soccer team is worthy of praise, as evidenced by Budweiser UK’s ad campaign released Thursday. Fronted by athletes Beth Mead and Karen Carney, the hero film chronicles the progression of women’s soccer over the years, from playing on muddy pitches to selling out stadiums.
The campaign, created in partnership with advertising agency BETC, will be delivered across video-on-demand, social, digital and out-of-home.
Johnnie Walker & Hannah Waddingham rally people to watch more women’s sport
In a short film by scotch whiskey brand Johnnie Walker, Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham challenges sports fans to ‘Watch more women’s sports.’ In her ‘Match Day memo,’ the Emmy award-winning actor informs audiences that although over 40% of all athletes are women, they receive less than 10% of total sports news coverage. She then shares how we can help level the playing field.
The campaign, which launched Wednesday, includes a collaboration with illustrator, model and creator Monica Ahanon to create limited-edition tops bearing messages of gender equity in sports. In addition, Johnnie Walker has partnered with the women-owned sports news outlet Just Women’s Sports to fuel its mission of bringing women’s sports to the masses and The Women’s Sports Foundation to help drive culture for women’s sports.
‘Watch More Women’s Sports,’ ideated by Hunter PR and produced by Hello Sunshine, has undeniable ties to past feminist campaigns from Johnnie Walker, like ‘Watch More Women-Made Films,’ timed to the Oscars earlier this year.
Weetabix’s £2.2m TV investment into Women’s World Cup
This week, cereal brand Weetabix unveiled a multi-channel campaign for its on-package promotion, which gives shoppers a chance to get their hands on an official home nations shirt every 90 minutes or thousands of soccer balls.
Comprising three short films, Weetabix’s campaign will run on the air, with geo-targeted digital audio and across social channels through July and August, culminating into a £2.2m investment.
Times to England’s first stage matches on July 22 and July 28, Weetabix will also embark on a branded takeover at Boxpark Wembley, which will include a breakfast bar, entertainment and live roving reporters from Kiss 100. There, the crowd will be tasked with helping to break a record for the world’s largest goal celebration.
ITV: ‘The Pride Has Arrived’ by ITV (in-house)
ITV’s ad sees lionesses prowling through city streets as people going about their daily lives gradually pause to take notice. It brings to life the idea that the England team, nicknamed the Lionesses, is about to make the whole country sit up and take note as the tournament approaches.
The ad features computer-generated and real lionesses; the latter filmed against a green screen on location in South Africa.