Best Women's Sport Campaigns of 2023
Top Ten Women’s Sport Campaigns of the Year
My hugely popular ‘Best Women’s Sport Marketing and Sponsorship Campaigns of the Year’ is back for its fifth instalment.
See the previous year’s winners:
2022
2021
2020
2019
Each year women’s sport has made significant gains, but this year felt particularly pertinent with record-breaking audience after record-breaking audience, substantial investment announcements and the year women’s sport became a billion-dollar business. But for me, the biggest determinant of success was seeing women’s sport assert itself further into the cultural zeitgeist.
In terms of pinnacle moments and events it’s hard to see past the FIFA Women’s World Cup but 2023 had so much to celebrate including the 50th Anniversary of equal pay at the US Open, the launch of World Rugby’s World XI Competition, College Volleyball becoming the most attended women’s sport event of all time with a breathtaking 92,000 spectators at Nebraska and much more.
The standard of marketing and sponsorship campaigns compared to when I launched this annual list in 2019 is worlds apart. I used to struggle to find enough authentic and quality campaigns to make up my ‘Top Ten’, but now the hardest task is deciding which of the many incredible campaigns I have to leave out.
The speed at which women’s sport and it’s subsequent marketing is moving is so considerable, even my own notes and expectations are becoming outdated just months later. For example, I highlighted Canterbury’s White Short Swap campaign and Lux Change The Angle as stand-out campaigns at the start of the year but they haven’t even made my top picks for 2023 come the end of the year.
One constant since my ‘Best Women’s Sport Campaigns’ inception is that the winners continue to have powerful storytelling at their heart, and 2023 is no different with incredible stories, be it about players, fans or bias which take centre stage. One notable difference this year was the creative use of technology in campaigns to help drive the game forward.
Given the Women’s World Cup domination of headlines, it’s no surprise it also took a strong share of Marketer’s budgets and ultimately featured heavily in this year’s ‘Top Ten Women’s Sport Campaigns’ (alongside my un/conscious bias of football being my chosen sport).
Congratulations to all this year’s winners!
Top Ten Women’s Sport Campaigns of 2023
10th equal: Liverpool x Play On & Hope Sogni for FIFA President
I couldn’t pick between these two creative campaigns so opted to award a tenth equal placing to both.
Standard Chartered and Liverpool effectively highlighted the worrying drop-out rates of girls in sport by leveraging the men’s teams stars to showcase the reason’s girls stop playing sport - all which seemed outrageous when stated out loud by top men’s stars. It was an effective way and sound use of the men’s team to drive home the message. Standard Chartered also offered tools and support to work to solve the issue via their ‘Play On’ hub.
Sharing tenth place was the brilliant tech-driven campaign which saw AI generated football expert, Hope Sogni run for hypothetical FIFA Presidency.
The out-of-the box thinking highlighted the lack of women at the helm of sport’s governance and worked to show how the game could be run differently.
What is best is that you can talk to Hope is real-time and she will provide answers that had worked to include the voices and experiences of influential women in football including two of my favourite humans, Lewes CEO, Maggie Murphy, and ex Matilda, Moya Dodd.
Go in and ask Sogni whether she is a token woman and she will answer eloquently: “No, I am not a token woman. I am a qualified and experienced candidate who is running for Fifa presidency based on my merits and my commitment to promoting gender equality and transparency in sports.”
Top points for creativity and use of technology on this one. You have my vote Hope Sogni!!
9th Place: Mastercard x Our Game Makers
Our Game Makers is a campaign in the form of a book made up of compelling visuals and copy that celebrates the people who made rugby a game where women belong. It’s produced by former England rugby captain, Paula George and sport’s photographer, Jo Caird with illustrations by NZ football star, Hannah Wilkinson.
The reason this features as one of my ‘Top Ten Campaigns’ was the authentic commercial partnership with long-time women’s rugby sponsor, Mastercard who supported the book’s production, launch and creation of a video series. Mastercard felt intertwined in the project all the way through, from having their logo on the front cover of the book to activating at its launch.
This partnership while perhaps not at the scale of major event sponsors or the type of ‘sponsorship’ we typically see, is what women’s sport partnerships are all about; genuine and authentic support at the heart of the community.
This was a perfect example of collaboration and authenticity at its best, even if it was in a slightly different format to what we are used to seeing from a women’s sport campaign.
8. Heineken x Jill ScotT Social Media Swap
The campaign that saw former England football players Jill Scott & Gary Neville swap social media accounts unbeknownst to fans cleverly showed the sexism that women in football face, particularly on social media with disturbing comments like “Best leave the football to the boys luv” and “Get back in the kitchen”.
This campaign managed to tackle a serious issue in a light and entertaining way and the choice of talent and use of a simple twist scored this campaign top points. The ‘stunt’ also lent itself beautifully to PR which further amplified the campaign.
I also loved that this was an evolution of Heineken’s “Fresher Football” campaign that launched during Women’s Euros last year and built on the original campaign.
7th Place: Orange x Les BleuEs
While I don’t normally like to draw direct comparisons between the men’s and women’s game or start from a place of deficit when shining a light on women’s sport, I’ve awarded this campaign 9th place given its impressive creative flip and the talkability it created.
Orange, a French telecommunications company confronted biases around football with clever and effective use of technology. They showcased outstanding on-field skill and moves of the French men’s football team that wow-ed viewers to then reveal only at the end that it was actually the French women’s team that were responsible for the impressive goals and football skills.
What I loved about this campaign was the ‘surprise’ at the end, the tagline of support for both teams from Orange and how it addressed issues specific to France around on-going football stereotypes in the country.
6th Place: The OG’s
PUMA celebrated the Trailblazers of football down-under by “signing” the first women who represented their country in football, the New Zealand and Australian national teams from1975.
Leveraging news that the Kiwi and Aussie football alumni felt left out of the official World Cup build-up activity, PUMA owned the moment by creating a campaign that thanked and celebrated the ‘original’ players, creating content including a heartfelt letter thanking the “OG’s” for their contribution to the game.
Not only was it an endearing celebration of the pioneers who got the game to where it is today, it was intellectual brilliance as PUMA held no sponsorship rights to the FIFA Women’s World Cup or tournament teams but obtained comprehensive IP, story-telling power and credibility by ‘sponsoring’ the pioneering players.
The campaign also beautifully captured the past, present and future with a physical rematch of the Australia and NZ 1975 players alongside offering the next generation resources and support.
The whole campaign was shot and delivered in a sassy, emotive, modern and fun tone using the OG players as the stars, many whom which were in their 70’s and 80’s.
Half Time Bonus Extra: Nike Football x What the football
Nike make the cut as a bonus extra through their Women’s World Cup campaign that focused on a number of their Nike athletes who were playing in the World Cup. They created 11 episodic films with the players at the centre, each episode with a distinct style and tone, from animation to horror and reflecting the unique voices and personalities of each heroine.
What I loved about this campaign was how the videos captured the cultural power of these athletes and in such an irreverent and quirky tone.
US Soccer Star, Megan Rapinoe’s episode titled “Let It Rip” had to be the pick of the bunch, channeling the effervescent personality of Rapinoe in an 80s-style animation of Jem and the Holograms and She-Ra. Rapinoe rides a motorcycle with pink hair to a soundtrack of: “Megan Rapinoe! The all-American hero!”
5. US Tennis Association x 50 Years of equal prize money
The US Open celebrated 50 years of equal prize money with a vibrant campaign that featured tennis and gender equality legend Billie Jean King.
The distinctive visuals aced the historic moment from 1973 where Billie Jean King demanded pay parity with her male counterparts, changing the course of women’s tennis and the US Open, making the tournament the first sporting event in history to offer equal prize money.
The bold visuals perfectly captured the icon’s presence and impact on the game and women’s sport more broadly.
Less of a campaign and more of a celebration, it launched on ‘Equal Pay Day’ and had presence in media channels during the 9 months leading up to the tournament. And of course featured heavily during the US Open as the tournament’s key theme and key art.
Game, set and match Billie Jean and 50 years of equal prize money!
4. Premiership Women’s Rugby x Powered Differently
The (re)launch of the UK’s premier women’s rugby league delighted fans with its ‘Powered Differently’ campaign which showcased the diverse and relatable stars of the competition.
The campaign was shot by Tara Moore of Getty Images and had an intentional and inclusive lens. The aim was to showcase and celebrate the range of body types and ethnicities within the competition and highlight the powerful diversity that exists in the Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR).
I loved the key insight of this campaign around how fans want to see the ‘people’ behind the ‘athlete’ and this campaign brilliantly captured the personalities of ten of the competition stars.
The style of imagery felt funky and brought to life a perfect combination of sport and culture.
Most importantly the competition re-brand felt like a beautiful re-birth of the league with the required level of investment and attention it needed to set it up for success. There was also a nice use of the competition initials PWR to tie in with the ‘Powered’ campaign title.
3. the Matilda’s
It’s hard to celebrate 2023 without highlighting Australia’s footballing Matildas who were at the centre of a number of effective and loveable campaigns. As a host of the FIFA Women’s World Cup, they captured the hearts of the world and became a national treasure.
Football Australia set the tone in the build-up to the World Cup with a campaign called ‘Til It’s Done’ that perfectly encapsulated what makes the team and Australians unique; their ‘never say die’ attitude and their self-belief.
The clever play on words with their team nickname, Matilda’s or ‘Tillies’ brilliantly summed up the team’s ambition and included a video but my favourite execution of this campaign was the out-of-home and social media creative when they got knocked out of the tournament that celebrated their many achievements but re-enforced their message…..they weren’t done…Til It’s Done! You can even buy a book with the campaign name here.
In addition to this core campaign, Football Australia helped produce the must-watch documentary “Matildas World At Our Feet”. It was enthralling entertainment that connected fans with the players and the team in the lead up to the World Cup.
Also doing a stellar job promoting the Matildas was Optus who were the official Broadcast Partner of the FIFA Women’s World Cup. From impeccable news articles on the team (this one featuring goalie McKenzie Arnold’s hearing loss was a favourite), shoulder content and slick production, their coverage was a lesson to all media outlets on how to promote women’s sport.
Go the Tillies!
2. Deloitte x Supporters of Professional Women Everywhere
Deloitte slam dunked this baller campaign that celebrated women in sport and business and saw them take out 2nd place in my Best Campaigns of 2023.
Featuring WNBA stars Diana Taurasi, Sydney Colson, TP and Sylvia Fowles this was an example of how to leverage your sponsorship with slick and relevant creative.
The series of videos turned the table on sports fandom, hilariously celebrating women in business like they were the biggest stars of the game.
Outside of the laughs it brilliantly tapped into two key truths around women’s sport;
Women who play sport gain skills to help them succeed in the corporate world
The women’s sport community is a unique collective of women who relentlessly support other women
The icing on the cake was that Deloitte commissioned a research report called “Impact of Sports on Women’s Professional Success” which they released at the same time as the campaign. Spoiler alert, 69% respondents who are in management or leadership roles played competitive sports.
Congratulations to Deloitte (and Ryan Renolds Maximum Effort who produced it) for beautifully showcasing the world where sports and business collide and turning what is often perceived as a ‘boring’ B2B business brand into the MVP.
Check out the other 3 videos in the series: Boardroom Fantasy Draft, Front Row Seats to the C-Suite, The Winning Roster
1.Correct the Internet
OK, so full disclosure on this one in that I was a founding partner of this campaign and while I wouldn’t ordinarily award something so close to home, I just had to give it top gong given how much the community got behind it.
Correct the Internet was all about increasing the visibility of women’s sport on the internet and it launched with an emotional video during the USA vs NZ football game at Eden Park that asked search engines one straight forward question; “Who has scored the most goals in international football?”. Search Engines alongside the majority of the public wrongly state that it’s Ronaldo when the correct answer is Canadian women’s footballing legend, Christine Sinclair.
The campaign took a two-pronged approach, firstly raising awareness of the bias against female athletes on the internet but then also worked to fix the problem by enabling people to send feedback to Search Engines at scale via a seamless tool on www.correcttheinternet.com.
While the campaign picked up a plethora of awards including a coveted Cannes Lion, what made me most proud of this campaign was how the community rallied around the campaign with over thirty international organizations and partners including the likes of the UN, Female Athlete Project, Women in Sport, LTA, The Gist and TogethXr coming on board to support it. A personal highlight was seeing gender equality icons like Billie Jean King and Andy Murray spreading the love.
Most importantly though, it helped drive change with Search Engines and Google announced that they had implemented a number of changes to make women’s sport more visible.
A huge thank you to everyone who helped make this campaign such a success!
For me moving forward, I believe the way we can make the biggest progress for women’s sport is by leveraging the power of creativity and the unique collective of the community to drive action!
Congratulations to the winners of my Best Women’s Sport Campaigns of 2023 and every success that women’s sport has garnered throughout the year. I can’t wait to see even more brilliant and effective campaigns and records smashed in 2024!
Letsssssss go!!!!
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