WOMEN’S WORLD CUP PULSE
Brands helping women’s football score on a global stage
Kicking into action this month, The FIFA Women's World Cup stands as a monumental event in global sports, capturing the hearts and minds of millions around the world, reinforcing Cassandra's latest finding that 75% of global Gen Zs agree “Popular Culture in my country has become more inclusive of women’s culture in recent years.” With the growing popularity of women's football, marketers are leveraging this event to promote gender equality, empowerment, and inclusivity, as Cassandra wrote in last week’s TWIVN.
Cassandra will dive deeper into this topic when we publish our Global Culture Forecast later this week, available for Cassandra members. In the meantime, we are taking a closer look at what brands are doing across the globe to contribute to the continued growth and visibility of women's football.
NEW ZEALAND: PERIOD FRIENDLY UNIFORMS
In April, the country’s soccer association announced that New Zealand’s women’s soccer team would not have a uniform that includes white shorts, acknowledging some players' concerns about periods. New Zealand’s women’s national team, known as the Football Ferns, will instead wear a white shirt with teal shorts as its primary uniform and an all-black kit with a silver fern pattern as its secondary uniform. The English national women’s team and Australian national clubs have made similar period-friendly moves recently.
U.K.: MARKS & SPENCER
The England Women’s Team is hoping to keep riding high off the back of their EURO 2022 win last year. With the support of the nation’s beloved brand Marks & Spencer, who announced earlier this month that it will be the official tailor for the England Senior Women’s Team, they have created the M&S X FA range, which will be worn by the team during the World Cup and available to buy from the retailer.
— Leslie, 25, TX (Cassandra Collective)
USA: NIKE
In honoring American soccer player Megan Rapinoe, who is set to play her final World Cup before her retirement, Nike has gone the extra mile to bring out a sensational video and pay tribute to her career. This includes the animated commercial “Let it Rip,” made in the style of the 90s classic Japanese anime, along with an earworm of a fictional cartoon theme song showing Rapinoe’s heroics on the field and her activism outside soccer.