Who's winning the Euro 22 ad race?
When it comes to advertising around the Euros 22, do women want to be reminded of the struggle? Or do they just want to get excited about supporting their team?
England’s Euros 22 opening match against Austria drew a stadium crowd of 68,871. A massive 3.7 million watched on BBC with a further 750,000 streams on iPlayer. And that’s just in the UK – with 16 nations taking part in the initial stages, there’s clearly plenty of opportunity for sponsors and advertisers.
YAY for the sport and YAY for business!
As the competition gets underway, we looked at the ads picked by The Drum magazine as the best examples from some of the many sponsors of this year’s Euros, which include behemoth brands like Booking.com, Euronics, Grifols, Heineken, Hisense, Just Eat Takeaway.com, Walkers (PepsiCo), Visa, Volkswagen, Adidas, Hublot, Nike, TikTok, Lego, LinkedIn, Pandora, Starling Bank and Gillette Venus.
Great advertising doesn’t just mirror the problem, it presents solutions. Many women already know that our sports are under-supported and underrated, from grass roots to top competitions. We know and perhaps have even experienced the myriad of challenges and barriers that exist when girls and women want to take up ‘traditionally male’ sports like football. And we obviously want to drive change.
Businesses do have a role to play. It takes a village to make change and it takes investment to support it. But on the day, when the whistle blows, do we want to be reminded of the struggle it’s taken to get here? Or do we just want to feel excited, elated, passionate and ready to support our team come what may?
The Drum’s top ad picks can be divided into those that mirror the problem and those that do more to evoke positive emotions and give a real reason to buy their brand.
Perhaps the highest profile offender in the mirroring camp comes from Heineken. Their ‘12th Woman’ ad features Harry Rednapp driving a discussion on gender bias in the female game, encouraging fans to be the 12th woman and get behind the team. Aside from the fact the women are literally being picked up and driven by a man and a man is leading the conversation, it lacks any real sense of drama to achieve what it supposedly sets out to do in terms of getting people excited and engaged in watching the games. Or to buy Heineken for that matter. It’s all about the problem and what divides us!
It's a shame that The Drum chose this ad frankly, because Heineken are doing great things to support the sport and indeed have made a better ad that sits in the second camp – evoking positive emotions and framing a reason to buy the brand.
‘Cheers To All Fans’ features all the passion and excitement we expect in the build up to the Euros 22. The familiar soundtrack sung in a female voice, the clever switch from our innate ‘default male’ bias when we see the first character is a woman, the showing of the traditionally male experiences of the desire to watch the beloved game as something that women share, is exactly where Heineken should be – even if the ‘including men’ at the end is a little grating!
Nike know how to do advertising for women’s sport. In fact, Nike know how to do inclusion in their advertising (even if the same can’t be said for their senior management teams). Their ad for the Euros 22 is exciting, it builds tension and interest and makes you want to watch the game. Women are shown playing football, training and in dynamic, strong poses (rather than being made-up and ‘toned down’ for the male gaze). The messaging is ‘Never Settle’. It’s not an ad – like so many for the Euros 22 – with a slightly patronising and apologetic, ‘well done for getting so far’ tone and a plea to support these poor patriarchy-battling women. It’s saying, of course we are here – we are as good as you, we will make this sport better by being here and we are not ‘grateful’, we want more.
This follows on from their equally powerful 2021 ad, ‘Lose Count’, whose script includes phrases like ‘We are not here to break barriers anymore, we are here to steal your trophies’, and ‘we don’t want empowering anthems, we want fight songs' and even 'sing our praises but do it because we are tough, we make football better'. They have got to the real reason we should support and watch the women’s game.
If the purpose of an ad is to resonate with its target audience, create meaning and saliency, Nike does this. When women and girls are in the market for their first, or next pair of football boots, you can bet Nike will not just be top of mind will have created enough affinity to seal the deal.
And that’s what advertising is there to do. Purpose messaging has a place, but if you want to show that you really get your audience you need to go beyond simply mirroring the problem. Whilst many of this year's Euros 22 ads fall short, Nike are killing it!
Links to The Drum article and ads mentioned below..
Heineken Euros 22: 12th Woman
Heineken Euros 22: Cheers To All Fans
Nike Euros 2022: Never Settle
Nike: Lose Count
The Drum: Best Euros 22 Ads
