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‘We’ve been there long before this tournament’: Nike on leading the charge in women’s sport
As the Matildas frenzy begins to fade, Nike Pacific’s narrative and communications lead Abbey Wirth and marketing director Andy Keith reflect on the brand’s involvement during the recent global tournament, how to navigate in a crowded brand space, and their plans for the ‘next decade of her’.
Nike was one of many brands this year at the tournament, as a major sponsor of the CommBank Matildas. But the sporting giant is no fair-weather friend: Nike has been partnering with the team for 20 years already and leading the charge in commercialising women’s sport.
“We’ve been there long before this tournament,” Wirth says. “I think the spotlight definitely gives us an opportunity to accelerate the brand forward and push sport to the future, but we’ve believed in these athletes long before a global tournament was announced on home soil.
“We’ve worked with Sam Kerr from when she was just 16 years old, she was the first female ever to be the global face of a [football] boot…And we’ve had long term relationships with many of the team, Hayley Raso, Steph Catley, Ellie Carpenter, Mackenzie Arnold and more.”
Abbey Wirth
However, Nike invested more in the recent global tournament than ever before, and Keith says it came from a place of commitment and trust in the team.
“Investment, whether that was through the lens of storytelling, media investment, product investment and innovation, into the next generation as well as through the legacy, the investment has been significant across the board,” he says.
“This tournament was something that the partnership was always heading towards… It truly just became something more significant when this local moment arose.”
Wirth says the Nike team wanted to make sure that it was a part of the reason for the success of the Matildas campaign, and not just a passive participant in this moment.
“We’d been planning for this for three years to make sure we could be a part of it before, during and post tournament,” she says.
“The result from the Nike side is that we have been really responsible for driving better visibility for these athletes and this team, and there’s no greater success for us than that.”
Keith adds: “It used to be Sam and the Matildas, and now it’s Sam, and Steph and Alana and all the names of the athletes are now known by the broader public. That visibility that has been created, I think, will stick from here on in.”
Andy Keith
Keith says one of Nike’s biggest ambitions is to stand out beyond all others, and cut through in a saturated market. He says the strategy for this was driven out of a bold vision to showcase the power of the sport and brand in a way it has never done before.
“It was really this bold idea to be the accelerator for sport and culture, and we said we wanted to make this the most progressive tournament ever,” he says.
“We had to think of ideas that would cut through locally and globally, and we definitely delivered on that.”
A key strategy was understanding its audiences and the various levels of football knowledge people engaging with the brand have.
“We were really conscious that we had a lot of fans coming at this at different levels,” says Wirth. “And we wanted to make sure we were inviting as many people as possible into the moment and really speaking to them.
“So, from a communications lens, it was really layered and it’s really unlikely that any one person saw all the work that we did.”
“We are very much focused on us,” adds Keith. “For us, it was about connecting with the athletes on the pitch and the community that exists around football.
“When you look at it from a Football Australia perspective, they’ve got some other partners and we’re all aware of what each other is doing, but we work very independently and run our own strategies.”
A Nike OOH execution from during the tournament
As for moving forward, Wirth says the tournament has left a legacy like no other, and Nike is looking to keep the momentum going and celebrate the ‘next decade of her’.
She says Nike created four focus areas for the future: access, education, visibility and leadership.
The brand has new or existing partnerships and programs, including its Training Squad initiative in partnership with The Daily Aus, that fit within those pillars.
“We have five participants going through the Training Squad program at the moment, and its been incredible to watch them grow,” she says.
The brand’s bold vision strategy continues beyond the tournament, according to Keith.
He reflected on “the most significant moment” in women’s sport up until this point – Cathy Freeman’s iconic win at the Sydney 2000 Olympics – and suggested the metaphorical baton had passed to the Matildas in 2023.
“Now, the Matildas are what we’ll be talking about for the next 10 years leading to the Brisbane 2032 Olympics. These athletes are what boys and girls are aspiring to be – the next Matilda, the next Olympian. And that’s just incredibly motivating and powerful to get behind,” he says.
Wirth says the recent tournament has awakened everyone to the power and benefits of investing in women’s sports, and Nike hopes to continue leading the charge.
“We at Nike have known for years that investing in women’s sport is good for business and good for sports, and as leaders I think we have a real responsibility to set the standards high and lead with authenticity.
“We’re excited to be a part of this journey moving forward,” she concludes.
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