On June 5, 2011, just days before the start of the 2011 Women’s World Cup, the U.S. women’s national team played host to Mexico at Red Bull Arena. Following a disappointing third-place finish in the 2007 tournament, the U.S. women were a heavy favorite to return to the final.
Even with a number of compelling storylines, only 5,852 fans attended that match, representing less than 25 percent capacity of the New Jersey stadium.
Fast-forward to the buildup for this year’s Women’s World Cup and it’s a bit of a different story.
Once again, the U.S. women were set to close out their send-off series with a match at Red Bull Arena, but this time
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The U.S. women’s team celebrates a goal in a match at Busch Stadium in April.
Photo by: Getty Images |
a sellout of more than 25,000 was expected for the May 30 match. The team’s two other matches in this final string of games were also sellouts — 18,000 fans at Avaya Stadium in San Jose on May 10 and 27,000 fans at StubHub Center in Carson, Calif., on May 18. An April 4 friendly versus New Zealand at Busch Stadium in St. Louis drew the largest crowd ever to see a U.S. women’s friendly, with 35,817 in attendance.
Aided by last-minute goals and heroic performances, the U.S. men’s national team captured the attention of the U.S. at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Now, with a winning pedigree and expectations larger than the crowds going to see them, the U.S. women are prepared to follow suit.
“Even in 1999, when we were hosting the event, that level of excitement is something that we haven’t had,” said U.S. Soccer Federation President Sunil Gulati. “There is so much interest that even things like if Alex Morgan will be healthy enough to start or what Abby Wambach’s role will be are bubbling up to the surface — that wasn’t there before, either.”
Gulati credits the resources of the USSF this time around, which also came into play during the 2014 World Cup. He also highlighted the work that Fox Sports is doing around the games, providing a level of attention and “muscle” that he said is “absolutely tremendous.”
While much of the excitement around the matches is spontaneous, said Gulati, who noted how certain players like Tim Howard and John Brooks became their own sort of cult heroes as a result of their performances in Brazil, the USSF is still preparing as best as it can.
“For us, there’s a two-part approach — what happens on the field, and everything that happens as a result of what happens on the field,” Gulati said. “Expectations for this team are high, and if the team lives up to them, we’re hoping that we’re on the winner’s stand, but at the same time storylines will develop that we’ll adapt to.
“It’s really hard to predict spontaneity by definition, so we’ll follow the storylines. It may be a social media explosion around a player or it could be around a goal or a late winner.
I won’t be disappointed if we don’t have watch parties in bars this time around, that’s just one manifestation of that — there are a lot of different ways that people will show their support of the team, and we’ll look to capture that.”
Having Canada as the host also has been a boon, Gulati said. Aside from Canadian fans, no other country has more ticket buyers than the U.S., and with games scheduled to be played in prime time, the expectation is that ratings could surpass the record totals seen in previous Women’s World Cups.
Still, for the amount of positive forces for the U.S. women’s team and women’s soccer more broadly going into these games, Gulati is hesitant to look for a tipping point in all of this.
“At a certain point, if you try to turn too many corners you end up back in the same place,” he said. “A further buildup of the women’s game here in the U.S. will be helped by the performance and building of personalities that comes out of this event, but just like how the 1994 [men’s] World Cup didn’t make MLS successful the next day, we need to be careful not to put too much pressure on this one event.”
Another springboard for sport?
National Women’s Soccer League Commissioner Jeff Plush, who was named to that position in January, shares that approach.
“The way I’ve talked about it with our owners is that this World Cup should be looked at as a springboard,” he said.
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Fans have been enthusiastic leading to the World Cup, so strong play in the tournament could light a fire.
Photo by: Getty Images |
“It’s an accelerant to growth, but there’s still a lot of hard work to go.”
While expectations are tempered, it perhaps is the most visible moment yet for the 3-year-old NWSL, which has 47 players from the league playing for nine countries in the tournament.
To best capitalize on that, the NWSL is taking a page from the MLS playbook and the way it approached promoting players following last year’s men’s World Cup. The NWSL will play alongside the Women’s World Cup, aside from a two-week break this month.
“One of the things that MLS did well in my view was engaging fans on player links between club and country,” Plush said. “We’re lucky to have a number of star players not only for the U.S., Canada and Mexico but other national teams as well in the NWSL, so there is certainly an opportunity there for us to take advantage of our league’s star players.”
Said Plush, “It’s even more exciting that we’ll get the opportunity to do it all over again with the Summer Olympics next year.”
This all comes at the right time for the NWSL, Plush said, as there is rising demand from prospective owners in regard to expansion, a multiyear television deal that should be announced shortly, and increased interest in corporate sponsorship of the league’s athletes.
“Events like this are always a great platform, as those types of things are typically born out of great success between the white lines,” he said. “You look at the league deal we recently did with Coppertone, as well as a deal they did with Christen Press individually, someone who is top of mind in the league office.”
Marketing takes shape
It’s that excitement behind the stories of players like Press and Morgan that many corporate sponsors are looking to harness.
Mondelez International, whose Ritz, Chips Ahoy and Trident products serve as the official snacks of U.S. Soccer, is running one such campaign that it has titled Pass The Love.
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Mondelez launched #PassTheLove (above) while U.S. Soccer is toutint #SheBelieves.
Photo by: Enter Name Here |
Looking to rally fans across the U.S. with the #PassTheLove hashtag, the company will be engaging fans not only on social media but also in stores with interactive events and shopper marketing programs. A similar campaign was used during the 2014 World Cup.
“When we signed the deal with the USSF [in 2013], we knew what was on the horizon with the World Cup and the Women’s World Cup,” said Stephen Chriss, senior director of North American consumer engagement and marketing services at Mondelez. “We said then that we believe the sport was at a tipping point — what happened this past year in Brazil was not an accident, and I believe that this summer will continue the growth of the sport even further.”
It’s a sales pitch that resonates with Soccer United Marketing President Kathy Carter, whose work with SUM closely aligns her with the USSF, as well as her position as U.S. representative on FIFA’s Committee for Women’s Football and the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
“It’s the perfect time to be aligned with the women’s team — and with U.S. Soccer more broadly — because the sport’s popularity has never been higher in this part of the world,” she said. “We see that every day in the number of companies expressing interest in connecting with the sport.
“We expect the interest in the upcoming tournament to be huge, and it certainly doesn’t hurt that it’s right next door in Canada.”
USSF is running two marketing campaigns to help build out the popularity of the team and its stars.
The first, titled #SheBelieves, aims to inspire the young girls and women who will be watching the team this summer to follow and accomplish all of their own dreams and goals. The USSF also had a weeklong celebration of the message in each player’s local community, giving them a chance to interact with fans and young women in the community.
The 23-story series, presented by USSF partner Clorox, launched in April and showcases each member of the roster, telling a story from her life outside the soccer field.
“People love the stories of the players and where they came from,” said Lisa Murray, Octagon CMO and executive vice president. “I would hope as the tournament continues and we begin to learn more about these players, that more personalities rise to the top with media coverage to match.”
Who will buy in?
Gilt Edge Soccer Marketing founder John Guppy said he is keeping an eye on how much mainstream media and outside sponsors ultimately engage with the U.S. women’s team as a measure of true success.
“U.S. Soccer is doing a great job trying to get these stories told, and they’ve clearly figured out a recipe that they
used during the men’s World Cup that works,” he said. “But it’s not as much about what U.S. Soccer does, as it is about what broadcasters other than Fox does, or what do other soccer endemic sponsors do, or the broader media.”
Said Guppy, “In the early days of soccer marketing, we used to say that the sport was the only entity in the boat that was rowing, and you need other people rowing to propel forward. Will we see players and game results on the morning TV shows or the late-night programs? To see true success, they need those other entities to get in the boat and start rowing, too.
With only a few days until the tournament officially kicks off on Saturday and the U.S. women play their first match on June 8, it likely will take that first match or even the entire group stage to build out storylines that will capture the broader attention of the U.S. general public.
However, Guppy said, betting against this team or the draw of the World Cup wouldn’t be a wise bet.
“The recipe is there, and I think the excitement is going to sneak up on some people,” he said. “The red, white and blue is an extremely powerful passion point, and if history is any indicator, there’s no lack of excitement around this team or the tournament.
“Is the general consciousness of America thinking about the Women’s World Cup right now? Perhaps not, but that switch can get flipped very quickly.”
