How brands have tapped into the Women’s World Cup

Most of us remember the summer of 2018 well – the sun was shining, beer gardens up and down the country were packed to the brim, and most of us were guilty of singing ‘It’s Coming Home’ whenever we got the chance.

It was a strong performance from the England men’s team at the World Cup in Russia, and it sent the UK a bit football crazy.

Fast forward to the summer of 2019, and the UK is still just as obsessed with the World Cup, except this time round it’s the Women’s World Cup in France that has people talking – girl power! (Yes I’m a massive Spice Girls fan…).

The popularity of women’s football has undoubtedly increased recently, and sports brands have quickly clocked on to this, tapping into the tournament.

For example Lucozade Sport, who is the official sports drinks and hydration partner of the England women’s this year, created a Three Lionesses campaign video, which saw them rewrite ‘It’s Coming Home’ with a feminist twist.

The brand also covered it’s bottles in images of the women’s team in action next to their names, with ‘Lionesses’ in bold, blue letters running down the bottle.

Claire Keaveny, head of marketing at Lucozade, recently spoke to The Drum on the subject, saying: “Our objective is to encourage more women to get into football. We want to make sure we’re putting our money where our mouth is and offering people who want to get into the game the right facilities to do that.”

In fact, Lucozade Sport have also offered 90,000 minutes of free pitch time nationwide through Powerleague and Goals football centres to encourage more women to get involved in the sport.

Lucozade Sport is not the only brand who has launched a World Cup related campaign. Footlocker have temporarily resigned their logo, which originally was a male referee, to a female referee.

This will appear on the staff uniform in Paris during the World Cup, and the trainer brand have also partnered with the Amateur FA’s Referee Course, where it will substitute the costs of some of the referee qualification courses.

So while jumping on the back of the success of this Women’s World Cup is a not only a good thing for the sport, encouraging women to get involved and helping to bring it into the mainstream, it’s also a great way for companies to push their own brands too.

Come on you Lionesses!