Major brands launch Women’s World Cup ads in ‘late money’ TV market
Budweiser and Weetabix are among the first major brands to launch nationwide multichannel campaigns during a period of “late money” being spent on TV in the UK this summer.
This comes as media planners and experts previously told The Media Leader that the industry is seeing an extreme period of short-termism” for UK media-buying and the tournament had not seen sufficient long-term interest or investment from brands. This comes despite England’s female team winning the European Championships in 2021 and a general surge in popularity for women’s football.
Budweiser UK, the official beer of the 2023 championship, has been a partner of the England Women’s team since 2019 and says this is the biggest trade campaign the Budweiser Brewing group/AB InBev UK has ever launched.
The brand’s campaign, “Greatness is Yours To Take”, will run across video-on-demand, social, digital, and out-of-home (OOH), featuring a 30-second hero film tracking the sport’s progress from 1972 to today with footballers Beth Mead and Karen Carney.
The OOH ads will appear on the London Underground, bus stops and large formats across a range of locations including shopping malls and city centres around the UK.
Budweiser has also partnered again with online publisher LadBible to bring back its branded content series “Agree to Disagree” featuring the Lionesses, and has launched in-store activations with retailers like Asda and Tesco.
Weetabix also launched its £2.2m World Cup campaign this week, featured a TV campaign with three ads running throughout July and August alongside on-pack promotion for fans to win an official home nations shirts and footballs.
Weetabix Food Company previously agreed a partnership with both England senior teams as the official breakfast category partner in 2020, and as part of the deal it is the lead partner of the FA’s football participation programme for girls aged five to 11, renamed the Weetabix Wildcats.
The TV ad market is forecast by Channel 4 to be 6% down this year as inflation and ongoing supply-side issues dampen advertising demand in 2023. Jonathan Allan, the broadcaster’s chief operating officer, told The Media Leader at a press conference yesterday that Channel 4 had seen a surge of late media buys throughout June and July and agreed with media-agency assessments of there being a U-shaped spending pattern this year (high spending at the beginning and end of the year with a significant trough in between).
Weetabix’s campaign partnered with Bauer Media to place 30-second spots on-air to align with the on-pack promotions and geo-targeted digital audio, and has planned a branded takeover at BoxPark Wembley including a breakfast bar, entertainment and live reporters from Kiss on the days of England’s first stage matches.
There will be supporting activity on socials running throughout the tournament including a challenge to the crowd to break the record for the world’s largest goal celebration, as well as ecommerce and in-store shopper media activations.
The cereal brand has planned to use the time difference of the World Cup, which is happening eight to 11 hours ahead in Australia and New Zealand, to gain “a Weetabix advantage” over other categories as people will be eating breakfast as they watch the matches.
It also plans to maximise the opportunity of “the second biggest cereal trading period”; namely back to school, with last September registering the highest volume of sales of the last 12 months.
Above: Weetabix’s “hat trick” of TV ads as part of national £2.2m for Women’s World Cup.
The Fifa Women’s World Cup 2023 match broadcasts will be shared between ITV and BBC and News UK’s TalkSport will carry commentary of all England and Ireland games, plus selected games in the knockout stages.