Women’s football has a long history, dating back to the 1870 s, when it was reported that women’s football matches were played, mostly as a novelty, in England. While there has long been some controversy over the details, the first women’s match of which we have a confirmed record was played in London in March 1970. There are references to matches being played as early as 1863, and an article entitled “The Foot Ball” was published in 1971, in which women playing football was first described. However, most agree that the first women’s match of record was played in 1871 or 1872.
Most sources agree that the first recorded women’s match was between two teams which included British ladies, and was played in London.
From early beginnings, women’s football began to become more popular, notably in Northern England, Wales and parts of Scotland. Women’s football clubs began to be formed, and women’s teams soon started playing in charity matches to raise money for local war efforts. These matches quickly attracted large crowds, the biggest of which was around 53,000 spectators. Interest in the women’s game waned after the war, but began to grow once again when the first women’s league was set up in Scotland, in 1969. Interest in the game intensified with the launch of the four-nation women’s home championships three years later. FIFA formed a women’s committee in 1984, and the first FIFA Women’s World Cup was played in China in November 1995, with participation from the ensuing two competitions increasing steadily.
The sport began to rise to greater levels of popularity in the 1980s. With the introduction of leagues in various countries, along with the establishment of the UEFA Women’s Championship in Europe and the inaugural FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1991, the game saw greater success and slowly became more popular. Similarly, in North America, the sport began to gain a greater following with the success of the United States women’s national football team in the World Cup and Olympics.
Women’s football within the United Kingdom can be traced back as far as the mid-19th century. The earliest recorded match is claimed to have taken place in 1863 between the England and Scotland teams near the Scottish border. Within the wider context of European women’s football, the first match was played in England in 1895 in Spring; this garnered much attention both because it was a feature of a newspaper’s entertainment section issue, and also due to its location: Dixon’s Ale and Pie House in Birmingham. Despite the harsh weather conditions of the day, with rain and snow falling intermittently, referee J. T. M. Field, blown a whistle made from a tin lid, to assist a motley collection of women players clad in their best colourful dresses. The mixture of excitement and disbelief among the spectators watching from inside the pub was reflected in the comments of the newspaper’s football correspondent, writing that none of them could ever have imagined such a scene. The match provisionally ended in 5:1 win for the women from the Black Country.
Period of major formation and activity of women’s football in the UK. The beginnings of modern women’s football are to be found in England. Various newspapers reported that there had been “very frequent female football matches between Northampton and neighbouring towns,” during the course of 1870. However, England wasn’t the cradle of women’s football as a sporting activity, but rather the place of its great ideological breakthrough that was to change the perception in Western society regarding the legitimacy of women practicing this sport and to give rise to the momentous events that followed. During the last decade of the 19th century, modified rules began to be codified for playing a more feminine-friendly version of the sport, reduction both the regularization of practices and of the more brutal aspects of the men’s game.
Nike’s involvement in women’s sports began in the early 1980s after it learned women were increasingly becoming active adopters of sport and leisure activity. In 1980, women comprised approximately 34% of the participants in sports that took place during the spring and summer months. During this period, a major campaign was launched to raise awareness of this new consumer segment. Nike sponsored soccer teams in Oregon, Texas, and California. In 1981, the company sponsored a series of mini-marathons for women throughout the US and, in 1982, it also sponsored a major women’s marathon in New York City. The first female promotional athletes were signed, from marathoners to the middle distance world champion. The company began running advertising campaigns that featured women participants and models, who were photographed in black and white using a crossing or jumping photography style that mimicked its ad campaigns for male athletes.
During this period, Nike did not sponsor any female soccer players. Their absence was a reflection of the dominance of other women’s sports and the inferior athletic status of women’s soccer in the US. However, in the years following the initial implementation of Title IX, increased funding and resources began to flow into college and women’s sports in general. College soccer emerged as one authentic women’s sport and, in 1985, Title IX was amended to provide teams at high schools and universities to equal opportunity for recruiting and financial support; thus, reinforcing the NCAA model of college sports dominated by men’s football and basketball. Women’s soccer began to change from a marginal to a mass sport, transitioning to the third most popular women’s sport after gymnastics and swimming.
The signing of Mary Earps in May 2019 marked the beginning of a new wave of female partners for Nike, with substantial growth in signings over the following three years. Mary joined Achraf Hakimi as the second “Lion” to wear Nike boots. While variation in the balance of male and female athletes wearing Nike includes Wayne Rooney, Dennis Bergkamp, Marco van Basten, Andédé Agüero, Neymar, Rinus Michels helps Nike engage football conversation more broadly, the current planning and creative partnerships mean a far greater focus on how the Lionesses and Women’s Football manage representation in sales activations going forward.
Key Sponsorships Overview
Nike’s current Team Partner Sponsorships include the National Football Associations of England, Brazil, Australia and the Netherlands. Jersey Sponsorships with Club Partners include Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain. Some Lesser Club Partners include AC Milan, Barcelona, Lyon, PSG, Roma and Bayern Munich.
Influential Partnerships
USWNT players have received more sponsorship opportunities through enduring their fight against the women’s game from Major League Soccer, Spanish La Liga, and English football Club owners, the business need for equal pay and parity-of-contract opportunities. Nike is a critical supporter of this fight through partnerships with key USWNT players Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, and Christen Press and the release of the Change the Sport ad campaign.
However, Nike has done astonishingly little to disentangle the company’s partnership work plan for USWNT players who are fighters, motivators, and athletes advancing Women’s Football against Cultural Inequity. Nike’s partnerships may move into alignment with USWNT think from merely athletes to Warriors for the game of football when, for example, what is good for Equal Pay in Women’s Football nationally is mirrored by a Nike brand partnership with Lionesses’ Leah Williamson and Alex Morgan when the shoes hit the World Cup pitch next July in the Women’s Final – both Warriors for supporting equal FIFA Women’s World Cup prize funds and ensuring players make a living wage from football.
Nike has been involved in women’s football since the mid-1990s, which has accelerated significantly thanks to the success of women’s football, particularly in Europe. What began with a few sponsorships here and there has become a further commitment to the sport, particularly through the creation of elite sponsorship programs and the sponsorship of leagues, clubs and individual players, among other actions, which are carried out through its Access to Sport platform, through which it has access to sports as a means of empowerment and connection.
Nike has been an official partner of the United States Women’s National Football Team since 1996. Since then, the USWNT has won four FIFA Women’s World Cups and four Olympic Games gold medals. Nike has collaborated with the team on several initiatives for which input was collected from influential female figures and activists. Nike has also partnered with the Canada Women’s National Team, for which they created the kit for the FIFA Women’s World Cup, and the England Women’s National Team, for which they designed the kit to win the UEFA Women’s Euro. In club football, Nike sponsors the Liverpool Women’s Football Team. In addition, Nike collaborates with several women’s football players who were part of the FIFA Women’s World Cup campaign.
When considering key partnerships that have helped amplify Nike’s voice and mission in women’s football, it’s hard to ignore some that have been separate yet have become increasingly intertwined. Most particularly, the relationships involving the USWNT and players like Becky Sauerbrunn, Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, and Tobin Heath, with various platforms, especially social media. Starting with 1990 and featuring Morgan and Rapinoe, the Body Issue was instrumental in bringing to the forefront the incredible bodies of women athletes and the success those bodies achieved on the field, dominated virtually every year the USWNT competed in a World Cup or Olympics since that time. The company has placed women’s football on the same platforms where the men’s game dominates. You may remember the Nike ad campaign that featured Wambach, Rapinoe, and Sydney Leroux during the 2012 Olympics where the three were seen in their Nike uniforms as Olympians in their own right. It took it one step further by securing a transcendent number of both studio and game packages that would showcase the league as part of the mainstream sports narrative.
Consider a few numbers from the various platforms. Based on research, 19.9 million people watched the 2015 Men’s World Cup. That same year, 755 million tuned in to watch the Women’s World Cup just on Facebook. Meanwhile, the outdrew the men’s league by nearly a 2-to-1 margin. And this is at a time when Facebook is de-emphasizing the news and players had to take a major cut in their subscriptions in order to do so.
5.1. Target Audience Analysis
Nike’s marketing strategies for its women’s football campaigns involve a thorough understanding of the target segment. For instance, while Nike and other football brands face competition from local and niche label sports and leisure brands in Latin America, these sponsoring and market-gaining strategies differ for the North America region. This emphasizes the importance of region and audience-based strategies. Nike has chosen women-inspired positioning, associating its brand with fearless, strong, daring women, which is a general appeal. It believes in having accredited athletes endorse, then create interest in the product. Moreover, different activities are organized, focusing on local communities, and social media activates consumer engagement. In addition to positioning via endorsements and local initiatives, Nike also does retreat transfers. Nike has organized consumer directed retreats for women, which discuss fitness and sports, but also about lifestyle, emotions, motivation, culture, etc. The Americanization of world culture is a fact. In the last decades, youth has had a decreasing interest in traditional sports. The women market is a growing opportunity for Nike, in a niche and also a small but growing market in the sports financial world.
Nike has put some special emphasis on promotions concerning football. The story-line development followed the approach that “to love football is to respect it: engage in the emotional side of being a football fan”. Nike Football and Nike Women collaborated through co-presentation times, linking different inspirational football phases according to moments in the day-to-day life of a football fan. The importance of combining the brand into one story, instead of just having the football title sponsorship and the hyper-new love ad during the duo period, was emphasized. It was an attempt to create this story-telling environment via digital, being next to the main moments. It was to let the consumer surf and live the experience via online. Nike’s internal motto for lifestyle women’s football was simple: “let us keep this enthusiasm alive”. Football is emotion; start from there, tell and speak. There is no more to say than it is a local sport. Football is a passion that has to be lived. Nike Women’s is clear and with a niche internal audience focus: continue to activate high expectations.
The bulk of research data does show that, despite its relative youth, women’s football has grown considerably. Numerous professional leagues are now scattered across Europe and the U.S. National Teams hold paramount importance and have built a loyal fan base. Nevertheless, these numbers are probably still not skewed enough to an extent that would convince companies to employ full-blown mass-marketing strategies such as those that are so often employed to reach the male football fan. On the contrary, based on the analysis of three years of marketing campaigns, a very specific target group does emerge that would seem to be targeted by the company. This is particularly interesting as it seems to differ considerably from that of men in several respects.
A first observation could be made by looking at age; women that take part in and also watch football are generally quite young. For now, this observation only seems to be reinforced when looking at the female population. It does seem as if the company is mainly targeting young women and men. This could further be specified by saying that it would appear as if the company is building ideological bridges between itself and young people, in particular women that have just recently started working, and that it is communicating on a level that is centered around their various desires and dreams. In so doing, the company appears to be bringing the inherently male sport of football to the female world.
Given the – at least at the levels of the National Team and the Champions League – high visibility and commercial value of the sport, it is perhaps no wonder that the company would attempt to sell to young women the idea that it is ‘cool’ and ‘fashionable’ to be associated with women’s football. This could be done by consciously or unconsciously playing upon such desires, dreams, and fantasies of this target group and utilizing role models in order to underpin them.
Nike often proudly conveys “If you let me play” messages in its advertisements for girls. The first Nike ad specifically addressed to girls, a commercial featuring about a dozen athletes including Lisa Leslie and Mia Hamm, had almost 20 million viewers in its first broadcast. To introduce women’s soccer to the U.S. audience, Nike organized several demonstrations with athletes. In a demonstration involving Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy, and other athletes, Nike used a coveted prime time spot during the Super Bowl to show a commercial featuring several men’s and women’s soccer players. A few weeks later, the women’s national soccer team won the FIFA Women’s World Cup championship. The team received worldwide media coverage for its victory. Nike then launched a massive campaign to use this triumph to introduce women’s soccer to the U.S. market. The company recruited members of the winning national team to play in the inaugural season of the Women’s United Soccer Association. Nike also produced a video to spotlight the main players and directed TV commercials featuring famous celebrities.
In the 1990s, Nike’s advertisements for girls tended to be a lot funkier than men’s ads. More recently, the company has developed some more supporting, relationship-marketing moves, such as creating a catalog especially for girls that featured feedback from girls invited to a meeting at Nike headquarters. Women’s soccer had not been a popular spectator sport in the United States before documentation had begun in the mid-1990s. Supported by Nike’s generous advertising and promotion budget, they had recently begun appearing in newspapers and magazines and being aired on television in ever-increasing numbers. More and more often, their play was being likened to a beautiful dance. Nike recognized the importance of supporting the athletes’ nutrition and weight training while they were still young and would be at risk of cheesy diets. It funded special clinics, and the athletes often shared their experiences with sports nutritionists.
Nike has incorporated women’s footwear and bodies into their narratives. The inclusive storytelling paved the way for product innovation within the company. Women’s footwear was male-derived, designed with inherent assumptions. With women at the center providing feedback to design, Nike updated silhouettes and vertical structures specific for women. The rise of women’s specific football boots is an epitome of gender-specific product development. Gender-neutral and aspiring styles without roots were the two dimensions for football boots made for women. Nike’s sponsorship of women’s football teams lent credibility to the often-derided sport.
Nike’s production with women athletes energized Nike’s drive. Nike’s specialty lines catered to women who wore the boots, those ‘serious about their game,’ and elite athletes. Nike’s pitch was performance and female athletes were better than male ageing footballers who wore out their shoes. The footwear products revamped for women followed cues from the top woman footballers Nike sponsored. Football boots alone cannot uplift the sport as less attention is paid to designing female-specific kits, and dressing women footballers on par with their male counterparts. The poor fit and performance of kits worn by women were often sources for mockery. The kits were tailored design and performance-wise for men and boys.
Critics pointed out that the women’s kits by sports companies and teams were often ‘cheap, flimsy replicas; a one-size-fits-all approach that rarely fit anyone.’ Female footballers often resorted to wearing over-sized clothing, or cut the clothing and changed their styles. Nike’s apparel development focused on promoting speed and comfort. Nike’s strength was in the polymer technology for jersey wear that provided motion, speed, and comfort. While the men’s jerseys used jersey fabrics, the women’s jerseys used for maximum moisture transfer, vented and mesh insets for breathability, and higher side seams that were more flattering.
Nike’s work to level the field in another major athletic category for women – football – presented a significant product challenge, compared to the running category where the company had its start. The special foot functions and forces associated with playing football, and the protective, supportive function, the shoe designs were highly developed over the years to meet the covering and traction demands for football. Traditional brands had made enormous investments in special concepts and technology for men’s footwear, but most had never extended them to women. Women’s accessories had been little more than small versions made primarily for aesthetic purposes.
Nike began the concept and technology parallels of the existing football styles for women, and soon began to take serious innovations into the category. Technologies created for soft- or hard-surface running applications were translated into shoes that offered both superior cushioning and trail traction that would support the side-to-side motions and sudden deceleration demands placed on a woman’s foot on the field. The key innovations led to the Air Zoom Mercurial, created for the World Cup, and the Air Zoom Total 90, designed for the Woman’s World Cup and the Men’s World Cup. Fit and protection for a foot in the condensed footbed of either of these shoes demanded more than the traditional shoe construction. They had to have flex points, which gave when necessary and yet provided foot support and protection at other times. To develop that kind of construction, Nike had to again take a special approach and make special investments, getting help from some of the tough minded, tough playing women athletes who were beginning to dominate the game.
Nike’s partnership with the Women’s National Soccer Team and the company’s significant media investments in their female athletes has driven increased visibility and demand for women’s sports apparel. In 1990, the WNT appeared in the first Women’s World Cup ever televised, which helped lay the foundation for a 1.7 billion global women’s sports apparel market today. Global team sports apparel for women is a 103 million dollar market that has been growing rapidly over the past few years as brands like Nike begin to invest significantly in product development specifically for the female athlete. Historically however, women’s team apparel has been designed to have a more “feminine” look, while teams, both men’s and women’s, tend to want the same jerseys across the field. Putting together a jersey that fits men and women differently and still looks the same is a monumental task.
With that said, there is still a significant difference in design and materials between men’s and women’s team jerseys. While men’s jerseys are made primarily out of woven materials, women’s jerseys are made primarily of knits for comfort. The challenge is turning out a kit that looks good on the field and feels good on the athlete. With more women in performance sports since the inaugural WNT launched in 1990, apparel companies have started catering to that demand. Performance apparel is designed for specific activities, using functional materials and construction techniques to help the athlete stay comfortable and dry while competing.
Social media is a relatively new outlet for club-to-fan engagement. The direct and organic lines of communication that social networks create facilitate discussions of shared passion and emotional attachment; they can reach niche fans and encourage fans to engage in conversations that endear clubs and players to their audiences. Clubs that embrace social networks experience a sense of economic security and growth, as their brand identity creates a closer bond with their fans and their business in turn thrives. This furthers broader aims with the women’s game regardless of visible use or endorsement of social media. Using creative outlets to cultivate community fosters trust and showcases care—ideas key to successful branding.
Adoption of social networks has allowed clubs to establish a new set of professional bonds with fans, presenting an opportunity for two-way engagement. Sharing on social media allows for balance on both sides: clubs and players can showcase vulnerability and personal elements of their lives while fans can discuss shared passions and interests and offer their support. This is important not just for main club accounts but also for players because fans often relate better to players as much as or more than clubs. Investing time in online interactions gives clubs and players a unique bond with their fan bases, which drives engagement through the small-scale sharing of content. The more connected fans feel to players—whether through play on the pitch or engagement through social channels—the more they are driven to help grow the commercial viability of the sport, and this is a key reason for support of the women’s game and sponsorship of the players.
The content shared by organizations through their channels on major social media platforms reveals their communication strategies. The strategy followed by Nike has been to focus primarily on Instagram with a range of content that aimed to provide visibility to women in teams and to promote performance-related products, as well as a combination of content published on Facebook and Twitter. Facebook is used for a wider audience approach and is an extension of Instagram posts. Twitter is less related to the athlete’s image and mainly promotes visibility for events, campaigns, initiatives, and products. This communication strategy by one of the most powerful brands in the world has made it possible to contribute to the disclosure and visibility of female football on social networks.
The dialogue softly initiated by brands has a modus operandi that, in female football, is being seen as a tool for social, cultural, and educational leverage. With these broad communication strategies, supported with much more professional production, brands are betting that a more normalized leading role for women will eventually allow for the relevant impact of these campaigns on societal norms and change. Differently from previously adopted strategies, which were limited to the approach of only a small group of communication vehicles and created a superficial knowledge of the reality of feminine practice, the betting in a strategy focused on different social network platforms allows for a greater dissemination, guaranteeing multichannel and multimedia communication, which is more complex but able to transmit a deeper commitment, compared to pure publicity or pure sponsorship.
Brands collaborate with micro to mega influencers on social media increasingly to co-create and amplify marketing messages among target consumer groups in their effective communication networks. Influencer marketing enables brands to overcome consumers’ advertising avoidance and increase brand visibility and positioning. Influencers amuse and initiate interactions and participation that creates social media visits, visits to dedicated brand websites, and product purchases, all on a large scale. Paradigmatically, influencers’ reach makes them network hubs through which messages can reach many consumers quickly. With or without specific sponsoring, the collaborations enhance the influencers’ image, popularity, and financial performance.
Nike, in its marketing strategy for women’s football, collaborates with macro and mega digital influencers, club associations, respective players, past male football athletes, and celebrity endorsers. Such impactful sponsorship relationships maximize brand visibility among consumers interested in football, fitness, and fashion. Several highlight their sports achievements and often defend or enable equal rights, attend and align with Nike corporate social responsibility events on sports and environmental issues. The fashion aesthetics complement the athletes’ off-pitch looks, supported by comment overlays, channels of respective influencers, and reposts on Nike accounts. Nike’s network of endorsed players can create organic virality through additional promotion collaborations when they revisit the same themes or aesthetic topics, validate and design the influencer collaboration approach.
Nike is known worldwide for its community activism and advocacy, all supported through the company’s various initiatives. Part of the story is that, unlike other brands, Nike is based in a place without football as the most played sport, or even a national sport. Despite the popularity, salaries, and market of American sports, football has a very significant feeling for Americans, being a male domain for decades. Yet in the recent past several trends have created fertile ground for Nike’s Women’s Football brand. One has been the strengthening of the female experience through traditional media and new influencers. The consequence of this influence is that being an active female has become a significant value for women. Engaging in a collective activity that uplifts gender issues, community identity, and family values has become a priority. Football provides the values of teamwork, rivalship, competitiveness, and fair play.
Nike has played a significant role in these trends, acting as a proponent and supporter of gender equality. The company activated support for young women who want to pursue sports as a way to improve their physical condition and self-esteem. Another point is community initiatives. Everyone, professionals and amateurs alike, need to support the footballing world where it all begins: the community. This is a debt that football has to repay; it is from these communities that football industry professionals come, who shape the industry and its paychecks.
As a gender politics activist and supporter, Nike has been involved in advocating for philanthropic interests for nearly thirty years. The first sign of Nike’s support for progressive and feminist gender issues can be traced back to the early 1990s when Nike invited the United States Women’s National Football Team to the company’s headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon to film a commercial as a recruitment feature for Heather Mitts’ college football. The commercial, then aired on television, was an exhortation of women’s football to the daughter of a soccer fan. Nike’s resolute encouragement of women’s football found broader expression in 1996 when the company financed the USWNT coming together for a camp and a run-up tour throughout the East, around the World, before the Summer Olympics played on US soil. The benefits were massive and after their successful Olympic campaign, the Nike commercial industry would also profit from this. That led to subsequent isolated campaigns sponsored during the early years of the new millennium. Those campaigns featured women footballers in the context of a film that would be released worldwide. The campaigns expressed the challenge by an unthinkable possible, and the rebelliously toned message brought everything back to the inspirational source. At the same time, the advertisements addressed the waves of young women stirred by the possibilities opened up by first generation superstars, and trapped into waiting for life to happen.
In the second half of the 2010s, Nike built upon its already strategical selection for women’s football as a disseminator of authentic models of female parity. Consequently, the aim was to further cement football as a unique channel for the promotion of women’s empowerment and female vocations, in their authentic, rationally ill-usable variety. Therefore, women’s football was gradually chosen by Nike to enhance the images of its famous supporters. In this context, among other initiatives, Nike co-organized an event inspired by a popular movie about women suffragists on the occasion of the Women World Cup held in France in 2019.
Various gender disparity issues exist that many brands will attempt to ameliorate through community projects and donations. Many companies actively invest in women’s soccer groups worldwide that directly affect the lives of soccer stars. These efforts bring clubs, coaches, and players together to help achieve a greater good while also improving the growth and overall quality of women’s soccer. The latter two factors allow young women from impoverished backgrounds to have the chance to improve their circumstances through sports and modeling, while the former allows athletes the chance to give back to their roots. Bringing awareness and resources to these types of organized efforts builds a sense of community and family around women’s soccer in different areas.
Primary community efforts focus on disease prevention and aid, youth opportunities in sports, self-confidence of girls, women’s issues, and social justice. Partnerships with various organizations help promote overall core values. Work with organizations that create goodwill with youth through education and sports increases current and future cooperation between girls and women of differing backgrounds. The major focus is on regions rife with conflict. Partnerships with think tanks focus on improving the conditions of ethnic minorities while conducting research about racial inequality. Additionally, collaborations with local organizations provide access for kids from inner-city communities to participate in sports. The project allows at-risk youth the chance to avoid negative behavior and benefit from the resources and coaching available through such programs. These types of causes show a commitment to helping underprivileged youth in many communities appreciate the value of sports.
There is a company worth 12 billion dollars, named Nike, whose main business is to promote one of the most practical types of sport: running. There are reports of inequalities in many sports, mainly when women enter a previously male-dominated sport. Football is the most played sport by women, it has the most female participants and it is the sport that is set to grow the fastest in the future. In our relationship with women’s football, Nike has the marketing power, the financial conditions, the advertisement and visibility support, the sponsorship, but it lacks an audience, followers, media coverage, and an emotional connection. Our role in the relationship can be summarized as follows: we have the creativity, the spirit, and the passion. We have the players who create emotional connections, who appear in the news, who attract new followers; they have the resources, the money, and the global coverage. Our connection in women’s football needs to be harmonious.
Women’s football is currently playing catch-up with men’s football. The number of female players has increased considerably over the last decade, but even in the United States, where they have had national league and national team success, it is estimated that only 5% of girls remain active in the sport post-puberty. It is estimated that 40 million women and girls across the world participate in football, and the increasing profile of women’s sport means that women’s football is catching up. Huge investment and marketing commitment from brands is helping to raise awareness and encourage participation at a grassroots level. The disproportionate gender imbalance in education, sponsorship and media coverage has resulted in many natural athletes gravitating to lesser-known sports. Famous brand names are now investing in their development.
The global growth of participation by women and girls in football is widely recognized. The story of the Women’s World Cup or the Women’s Champions League matches for club teams, the attention garnered by many top football clubs, or individual players attaining prominence is championed widely. Reports on these important and exciting tournament outcomes encourage further growth of women’s football. However, this research draws attention to the critical importance of mass participation at the base of the football pyramid, the grassroots level, which, unsurprisingly, replicates growth trends for general sports participation. But what are those patterns of growth for football and how verified are they? Perhaps more subtly, what do they delimit on the field and what do they imply for the future direction of industry development activities?
Statistics on women’s football participation have been compiled since 2006. It claims to cover licensed players from both the formal and informal sectors. The figures are large and some of the growth has been extraordinary. Reports indicate over 800,000 girls playing organized soccer through the club system alone. Estimates suggest fully registered players at 1.2 million and 3.5 million girls and women play each year. The growth rate of females on the field has exceeded 20 percent during the last ten years, and to a lesser extent juniors and boys. All agree that over the last 25-plus years, worldwide participation in female football has grown more quickly than for any other sport. But how accurate are these statistics? Although the estimates pulsate with excitement and would be the envy of any sport, they are unreliable and reveal virtually nothing about the strength of women’s football development per se.
Major tournaments have played an important role in developing women’s football. An increase in the frequency of major tournaments has been accompanied by the increase in popularity. There are now three FIFA women’s tournaments held every four years. The FIFA senior women’s world cup is organized four times: 1991, 1995, 1999, and 2003. FIFA’s senior women Olympic tournaments have been organized three times: 1996, 2000, and 2004. The FIFA U-19 girls’ world championships have been held four times: 2002, 2002, and 2006. Major tournaments like the Olympics and the Women’s World Cup have received growing media exposure on TV and through newspapers. Highlighted tournaments during important phases are occasioned by the large number of qualified countries, and by the growing lengths of elite programs for elite players. Media coverage has also increased relative to the number of teams participating in the event. Some major women’s tournaments have been sold to TV networks for millions of dollars.
Nevertheless, the viability of professional women’s football depends partly on its ability to become a part of the mainstream sport culture. There have been attempts by various organizations to stimulate the appetite of women’s football for commercial sponsors by organizing women matches on the same date in the same cities as important men’s matches. The success of the Women’s World Cup, and the growing interest in the Olympic women’s tournaments made by sponsorship companies, produced a long series of such events on the women side. Likewise, men’s football garners media attention due to the wealth of private sponsors through TV, radio, and print.
Women’s football is currently witnessing a remarkable surge in popularity worldwide. The FIFA Women’s World Cup has become a highly regarded global sporting event, and women’s national leagues are gaining traction. However, despite this growth, women’s football continues to confront significant obstacles.
Although women’s football is progressing, it remains in a transitory phase of development. A lack of funding and unequal access to resources make it difficult for organizations and teams to keep pace with the developments in men’s football, allowing for consistent improvement in skills, athleticism, spectator ability, awareness, and interest. Women’s teams are less able to promote themselves to potential fans or sponsors, making it difficult for them to find resources to enhance the level, standard, and desirability of the product created for the fans.
Preferred media coverage inevitably drives disparities in women’s and men’s football. However, unlike men’s football, which has a highly developed and entrenched place on the sports calendar and on television, women’s football often finds itself asked to jump through hoops to prove its worth. Where there are disparities in ticket sales and audiences, sponsorship and marketing have often ceased to seek women’s football; advertisers have preferred to accept the forced invisibility rather than risk the consequences of remaining so. This has led to decisions such as stating that for the time being, only the men’s national team would be guaranteed national team games shown live on television and that any revenues would go toward supporting both programs. Many women’s leagues throughout the world have struggled to attract sponsorship interest; many national women’s teams have requested compensation for unequal treatment by their respective federations.
In the context of women’s football (and sport in general), disparities in funding/resources, recognition, and media coverage are important, interrelated, and deeply-rooted issues that are difficult to untangle. The unequal funding and resources paradigm will be discussed with a focus on its impact on player development (and injury prevention), opportunities, and (dis)inclusivity as well as on the advancement of women’s football at a high level. These elements establish the demand in high performance women’s football, with media coverage, sponsorship, and the model of professionalization likely having an influence on the progression of women’s football.
Fundamentally, it can be said that there are (too) few resources allocated to the women’s game. However, quantitative data on (financial) resources negatively impacting player development is limited. In fact, “developed strategies for the women’s game on national and confederation levels” are warranted in order to “create specific plans and ensure relevant resource allocation”. In response to criticism regarding the (non-enforcement of) Gender Equality Policy and the lack of diversity and inclusion in the organization, it was stated that “it is important to stress that Equality, Diversity and Inclusion are an integral part of the mission to promote the game of football, and that a non-discriminatory approach is the cornerstone of its operations. It is aware that there are constraints in times of resource allocation and expenditure”. This reaction appears somewhat contradictory as the resource constraints highlight the need for an organization to ensure that (limited) resources are allocated equally in order to give equal opportunity to women players, for example with regard to the accessibility of state-of-the-art facilities, equipment, training staff, coach development and continuing education, physical and mental health support, training camps and preparatory tournaments, and, last but not least, the availability of incentives.
Women’s football is facing a dearth of media attention and coverage, as compared to men’s football. In the UK, only 5% of the total sports news reporting in the first half of 2019 was about women. This lack of coverage disproportionately affects the development of women’s football, as it means that role models and inspiration for young girls are lacking, with much of the men’s game having been established for over a century. One of the ways in which the establishment of men’s football has taken place has been through substantial investment in media deal making. Women’s games can receive viewership of only 4.1% of the total audience who would also watch the equivalent men’s game, which is a discrepancy of 47% in terms of their share of eyeballs.
For a sport to grow, audiences need to see the talent displayed on the pitch, and without funding and serious investment from the large media players, this will not happen. Part of how this can change is through the deals that these companies strike for football coverage, meaning that like men’s football, an air of prestige can be lent to the women’s game. Countries such as Norway have already made initiatives in this regard, banning publicly funded broadcasters from having live exclusive rights to men’s international football matches. They have instead mandated that financially stable countries must offer match coverage proportionate to the importance of their team on the world football stage; although there may be the occasional blip where possible upsets throw off the naturally expected norm.
Even though the women’s World Cup is still in its infancy, women’s football has rapidly become a major international sporting event. With prestigious competitions now taking place almost every year, tens of thousands of fans flocking to matches and millions tuning in from their living rooms, the need to accommodate top notch women’s football is cemented. However, its longevity and sustained growth can only be guaranteed if several factors come together. Some of these elements relate directly to clubs and players. Clubs must invest in the women’s game, further commercializing it while ensuring on-field results. Owning the best players is not enough to drive revenues—clubs must create an environment that allows player and club branding to flourish. More broadly, competition structures such as leagues and tournaments must continue to gain in reliability and prestige while also facilitating product development at a national team and club level and enhancing match day experience for fans. Post-event engagement levels in social and traditional media must also continue to rise. Some of the onus here lies with corporate sponsors. Brands must step up their support for women’s football. Today, sponsorship in women’s football is concentrated in a small number of high-visibility properties, mainly the World Cup and national team sponsorships in selected markets. The revenues generated and visibility provided to sponsors dwarfs investment levels in any other sport. For women’s football to grow, spending must fan out to club initiatives and lesser-known leagues. Corporations must enter into long-term sponsorship contracts that reflect the substance of a certain property, not just its visibility. Not only would this reflect fairness, it would help the sport retain and attract the necessary talent and infrastructure to ensure good on-field performances and entertaining matches—key factors behind any sport’s success. Diversity is a powerful weapon to tackle the many problems painted earlier. Insufficient funds, low levels of organization, expertise, and commitment lead to shortcomings with the playing experience, inefficiencies with decision-making, and lack of economic interest. Corporate sponsors that are willing to finance women’s football would affect change across all pillars of women’s football.
The predicted trends presented in this chapter are rough estimations as women’s football is a new and evolving field. As such, many factors can influence the direction it takes and the outcomes. For almost 100 years’ female players were treated as outsiders or alien to a sport which they had long been playing and following. In 1970 they were given the right to officially partake in competitions, which opened the door for expansion into the wealth of sponsorships, investments, and volunteer work that was already taking place for the men’s game. Since then, the support has been rapidly growing, but still pales in comparison to the men’s side. It has been estimated that only a small fraction of its total sponsorship income is generated through women’s football, focusing on the big four markets – Germany, Italy, Netherlands, and Sweden – as early examples of lucrative women’s football sponsorships. However, the expected trends assume further growth in popularity and hence further opportunities for investments and sponsorship growth. This argument relies on the observation of the men’s monetary bubble, which is constantly increasing. Assuming that women’s football is currently at an earlier stage in its growth journey as men’s football was when the monetization began.
The trend foreseen focuses on a gradual increase in small steps similar to that of men’s football. It is argued that, “only once the participation base in women’s football reaches a critical mass, is there likely to be a larger number of women at the elite level; a wider range of competitions; greater media interest and coverage; larger financial investment in women’s football from sponsors, national associations and clubs; and, therefore, greater revenue growth”. Without this further growth, there tends to be agreement on these predictions made back in 2010 – namely that further growth in revenue is likely to be modest at best.
Nike, Adidas, and Puma stand as the dominant forces within the private sector arena of women´s football. These three multinational corporations are official sponsors of at least 70 of the 155 clubs competing in the top tiers of women´s leagues around the globe. In the FIFA Women´s World Cup 2023, Nike accounts for 13 of the 32 national teams, while Adidas is working with 7 national teams. Additionally, Nike collaborates with the England national team and with Australia´s national team, the co-hosts of this World Cup. These alliances generate sales worth millions for these companies, giving them the possibility of sponsoring more teams on the global stage. Yet, at the present moment these investments are mostly powered by the companies´ vision on growing the potential audience, yet they are still not gaining back in revenue proportions as compared to the men´s game. This means that a reciprocal actual engagement of millions of women and men enthusiasts with women´s football is still expected as a step to be taken in the coming years. Communications within the Internet have shown a huge potential for increasing brand engagement as well as these companies participation in diversity and inclusion discussions, not only locally, but also globally.
Consequently, corporate sponsors are expected to keep investing in the immense potential that women´s football holds, empowering their partnerships with the players, the teams, and using the promotional levers available – such as social media, promoting merchandise for go along the sunshine a momentarily act of sight, and through communication campaigns – in order to stick in the consuming public´s mind the idea that women´s football is worth following and supporting. These actions, presented to the fans as a way on its own, of creating a more equalitarian world, can increasingly push companies up to an omnipresence in the women´s footballing world.
At the outset of 2019, Nike put out one of its most powerful advertisements to date with ‘Dream Crazier’, a 90-second production showcasing a stunning line-up of women athletes – past, present, and future. The film featured women from a wide diversity of sports and cultural backgrounds, from athletes to fencers and gymnasts. Despite the title’s “crazy” soundbites being attributed to one athlete, the film was not about the tennis player alone. It distanced from its predecessors championing one female icon and instead focused on a synecdoche-like approach where generic imagery of ‘women represented by women athletes’ formed the film. If anything, a strong spirit of humility oozed from the film and its components. No specific athlete was singled out as superior to the others, nor did the company put its logo in greater or more imposing letters than the others. First World, Third World, male, or female elite athletes – they all bore the same burden and were part of one and only one cause – the cause to sport.
Nike released ‘Dream Crazier’ just months ahead of the Women’s World Cup, where the world was to witness the sport at the highest level and where several of the world’s greatest athletes would compete against each other. The reason behind the timing was clear. The company wanted to go pitching its universally resonating tone to all football fans, especially those attuned to women’s football, hoping to lure the lion’s share of attention to its brand during the World Cup. As a major sponsor of the event, Nike had one year’s time to put in the necessary economic support to make sure that the tournament lived up to the audience’s expectation. It had paid for the billboard visibility, but its marketing team had also opted for the long-term view, betting on the chances of an upsurge in women’s football in the next few years.
Over the years, the demand for equality in women’s sports and the demand for more media presence as well as for more investments from sponsors and businesses in women’s sports have continued to grow. Major and successful campaigns have emerged which have contributed to the women empowerment and equality debate, aiming to break the stereotype that girls are weaker than boys. Businesses have decided to take on a role in actively supporting women’s sports, pushing for visibility and more sponsorship budgets in order to support the infrastructure, promotion and investments needed in women’s sports.
The brand that is most determinedly pursuing a path of women empowerment through repeatedly launching campaigns in sports is Nike. In March 2019, the sporting goods and apparel brand released its latest campaign which is part of a larger initiative. The more than two-minute-long commercial aired during a major awards event and featured iconic female athletes who have made history, as well as the fierce faces of current athletes. The women presented in the ad defy gravitation, perform jaw-dropping athletic moves, and are simply badass. They are the embodiment of raw female power and embody why women are crazy enough to dream, just like men do, crazy enough to be athletes, just like men are, crazy enough to win, just like men win. And crazy enough to do whatever it takes to be better, just like male athletes do. The talented advertiser and ad-director is a woman and the current CMO is also a woman.
Nike was named a founding partner of the inaugural FIFA Women’s World Cup at a time when the global sporting industry faced the biggest crisis in its history. Given the relative riskiness of investing in a fledgling Women’s Football World Cup compared to re-signed sponsorship deals with male FIFA World Cups, Championship Leagues, English Premier League or other brand partners, since 1996 Nike has decided to enter into 400 women’s sponsorships. Once it began, any other brand had dared to become a more highly visible partner for Women’s World Cups than Nike.
But Nike, who recently said it is dropping sponsorship deals with current men’s national teams that are not high-profile and/or successful, has defended the billions spent to 400 teams by saying it’s “the right thing to do, in the right way, through the right crews…You have to be present, you have to support these crews” situated throughout the sports world. Presenting a side of FIFA and its president not nearly so austere as the organization’s public persona, it also engaged with visible female footballers throughout the FIFA Women’s Football Tournament exclusive to their brand — from kick-off to championship — thus harmonizing its considerable investment and growth in this image-sensitive area for the growing female football market. As some people in FIFA were opposed to this exclusive business path, Nike let the world out of its big bag by announcing on national TV in the USA an extended ad feature in Japanese style for Women’s Football — featuring FIFA-selected football heroes and the biggest sponsor to represent the World Cup in the USA 3 times running and travel around the world to foreign FIFA events for 25 years.
This section explores each competitor’s involvement in women’s football and its key branding associations. Doing this allows for a richer understanding of where Nike sits in the market, and what they are compared with. For example, Adidas’s role in dressing World-Cup winning US teams, and Puma’s ‘women as second class citizens’ half-hearted support. Considering that companies should remain aware that supporting women’s football goes beyond marketing. It should not merely be a short-term financial tactic, instead, women’s football should be fostered as a sport in its own right.
What Adidas, Puma, and other brands need to be cognizant of when deciding which football teams to support is that the US produces a majority of women’s football customers and a dis-proportionate amount of international talent and worldwide media interest. Women’s football is quickly taking on a life of its own, and therefore the brands need to threaten Nike’s dominant presence in this area. They also have to ensure that they do this on Nike’s terms when it comes to football to play in: it’s not that Nike will get rid of their sponsorship of ‘the leader of women’s football’ – it means that it’s going to be Adidas and Puma initiatives that incite action.
This chapter studies the initiatives of Adidas and Puma in women’s football in order to contrast them with Nike’s support to the entire ecosystem of the sport since the 1990s. The aim is to discover the particularities of a brand for which, despite continuing to dedicate fewer resources to women than to men, this has not only become a business strategy but a demonstration of commitment with a sport whose female version is finally conquering its space. According to the author, the greater part of Adidas and PUMA’s resources concentrated on men’s football, mostly on males of a certain age and on lucrative sponsorship contracts with federations and clubs. Sponsoring regions of the world where women’s football was already leading, east and west Africa, and some north European countries was sufficient, but they did not pay attention to the development of the sport, or of the teams. “By no means does the women’s World Cup owe its vitality to the sponsorship policies of the football brands; the pillars were built by the players themselves. Yet the intensity of the campaign that the three manufacturers conducted around the tournament and progress they made in a market where they long delayed was striking.”
Puma was the second brand, alongside Nike, to feel challenged to support women’s football after the Women’s World Cup tournament. They answered this challenge with a signing campaign of star players and its first women’s football footwear and kit collection: the gamechangers pack, support pack, and Women’s World Cup collection. At Puma, we are deeply committed to inspiring the next generation not just in women’s football but in all sport. Partnering with FIFA and joining the Women’s World Cup journey drives our continued investment in product creation, innovation, and programming designed to inspire the future.
A Kids’ Boot with a Difference: To celebrate the role women play in the future of the beautiful game, we created a different-sized Dreamer 2. The Dreamer 2 Future is presented asymmetrically and in a kids’ size to be worn on the right foot only (the left foot is for girls and women). This boot is symbolic of the brand’s support of women’s football with all proceeds going to combat gender inequalities. Made for kids aged between six and 11, aspiring players can wear the Dreamer 2 Future on their right foot whilst their left foot is bare. Kids love wearing mismatched boots, so what better way to highlight this initiative than by allowing kids to wear the right-sized Dreamer 2 boot?
Puma partnered with one of the leading non-profit organizations for girls and women in sport to further amplify the work we’ve been doing, moving beyond just sport. They envision a world in which all girls’ and women’s lives are free of violence, where they are able to claim their rights, be economically independent, and contribute to their communities at large. Through sport, and with the right support, girls can develop their leadership skills, build networks as well as a sense of confidence and body autonomy that empower them to act. They are able in their own lives to prevent and address gender-based violence effectively.
Corporate social responsibility actions positively influence consumers’ attitudes towards brands and companies. Licensing sporting goods for women’s events may appear to be a PR and CSR action on behalf of major brands. However, creating and selling stronger products that appeal to women consumers also opens the door for lucrative sales. This paper aims to bridge consumer behaviours and gender equity in sports with the aim of shedding light on why, despite branding efforts by companies, no signs of rooted female consumer brand loyalty exist.
To further investigate the question posed by this study, a survey was disseminated to male and female respondents who practice football recreationally. Some of the questions were intended to help classify generate consumer variables, while some questions incorporated Likert scales to help quantify consumer brand perceptions. Respondents answered questions on the perceived fit of branded football cleats, kits, and other protective gear by branding and gender. The survey also asked about consumers’ knowledge of and perceived exposure to female-targeting actions within football. Finally, it also included a rank-choice question on which sports brands the respondents would prefer to buy kit or footwear from. In the paragraphs that follow, we will explore the survey results and analyze what led to the brand image in women’s football.
The survey was able to gauge whether soccer consumers of different demographics possessed any brand loyalty to Nike with regards to women’s football. In semi-structured interviews conducted with both Nike and Adidas HQ representatives, a number of questions revolved around Nike’s deliberate targeting of more masculine women consumers de facto positioning the brand as a better fit. In our survey, we sought to ascertain whether this positioning was sound – the survey included questions on perceived gender fit for different kits from different brands, which would let us know whether consumers correctly understood the market positioning strategies of Adidas and, specifically Nike, in relation to women’s soccer.
To investigate the impact of Nike on women’s football and thus on the development of a professional league in Spain, a questionnaire was implemented. The questionnaire was shared in various groups on social networks, focusing on women’s football communities. The total number of responses was 113; the survey had an average completion time of 2 minutes, and the response rate was high. In the distribution of participants by gender, there is 1 male for every 6 women. In percentage: 83% of the respondents are women and 17% men. The average age of participants is under 24 years, which may be associated with the high level of interest in the topic of social networks, especially Instagram and Tik Tok.
Of the sample surveyed, 58% have played football and currently only 27% still practice it. In terms of years of experience practicing football, up to 41% have an amateur level, 25% begin to compete within 1-3 years, and 28% maintain this competitive level for 5 or more years. On the other hand, regarding the league in which they have played or compete, 53% of the respondents state that they have played in the national league. Regarding their consumption of the sport, 38% of respondents watch more than 3 women’s football matches per week and 58% follow the competitions/staff on social networks. The majority opinion on the growth of the professional league indicates that 90% of respondents agree that there is a lot of potential to grow.
A total of 64% have bought sports products related to women’s football, but only 23% of the sample state that they have bought Nike products. Why is there such a gap, if Nike is the main sponsor of many female footballers, national teams, and clubs? They are followed by Adidas, Umbro, and Joma, but few players go to other brands. Regarding the club, 82% of those surveyed believe that the club is the one that should work the most on the brand image and promote consumption, as well as 69% say that they are the ones who sell the most products.
In the survey, participants were asked to explain why they would continue to purchase Nike products. Reasoning revolved around quality, performance, and fit. The performance and quality of the products become key predictors of brand choice. High-performance products with excellent quality would convince many consumers to continue repurchasing. Our interviewees felt that Nike’s product quality was higher than that of other brands. If the merchants manage to continue offering products with excellent quality, fit, and high-tech performance, brand loyalty should continue to exist. Nike’s high-tech specialization strategy has created the expected demand among elite players. Demand creates new high-tech products with trendy design features. This cycle will probably continue with elite player endorsements, as Nike’s competitors have been forced to lower quality standards in their effort to specialize or compete in the lower segments. Indeed, many interviewees thought all Nike brand products were the best quality, not only the football boots. Confirming the quality image of Nike, these results are in line with past studies, which have shown that football boot quality is the most important factor associated with Nike brand loyalty. Quality diminishes consumers’ decision risks involved in brand purchase: “The brand offerings are implemented under effective guarantees, warranties and service promises. The commitment to innovation and above-average resources supporting design, production, distribution, and communication promise consistent excellence.”
The sponsorship of women’s football by brands has increased over the years. Greater investment in women’s football involves greater exposure and visibility of the women players. It allows sponsors to display logos and present their messages, not only on the pitch, but increasingly also at the aspect, through the TV spot. A pioneer brand, appealing emotionally to the audience by connecting their core values with the players’ core values in sponsored women’s football. They used their communication resources to create awareness and support.
The revolution involved a strong marketing commitment to the players’ appetizing advertisement campaigns. A pioneer in their communication strategy by showing how women’s empowerment was achieved through the practice of sport. Promotional campaigns were centered on the athletes and the need of a powerful sport ally. Through their campaigns, they broke the traditional stereotypical images of women in the past and assigned them a powerful role in society. They showed grit, determination, independence, and dictatorship of their own destinies. Ads showed how sport could be the channel to unlock a woman’s full potential. These athletes, symbols of women empowerment, acted as role models and were revered in different parts of the world. Such was the engagement of these women players that they managed to motivate, rally and thrust soccer fandom among many female audiences.
However, the pressure to perform is heavy on these women athletes as their bodies and their lives are exposed to the public. They have kept up their supportive and empowering communication towards these athletes. They realized the detrimental impact of social media and society’s scrutiny on the physical appearance of these athletes. They described the pressure on these athletes, both from society and from within, and the importance of mental health on their career, their performance and their success. They told the story on how these athletes embraced their imperfections and converted them into strengths.
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