Australia sold the Matildas short — for the last time

This World Cup has set a grateful nation on fire. Emotions have soared, young and old. Few things unite us, capture the attention of the whole nation at once. But our team did. So imagine, just imagine, what it might have looked like with pre-hype.

Consider this: my kids still have a Sam Kerr sticker we got from a Woolworths Olympics 2020 sticker pack. But was there a Woolworths sticker pack for the Women’s World Cup? No. Instead, they’re giving away Disney collector cards and Coles is selling cartoon superhero figurines.

Was there yellow-and-green bunting down Melbourne’s Bourke Street Mall? Nope. Are the airports abuzz with green-and-gold posters? Not at all, and they didn’t light up the Sydney Harbour Bridge either.

Did big Australian brands get behind a Women’s World Cup tie-in? Cadbury, VISA and Rexona, and that is pretty much it. Other football-themed ads on TV during last night’s broadcast came from Adidas, Hyundai and Powerade, and were global ads, not local ones.

You should be able to buy a Coca-Cola with Hayley Raso dynamic ribbons on it, but you can’t. Weetbix should have a Matildas Heroes pack for sale, but apparently they didn’t think of that. Commonwealth Bank sponsored the Matildas, but couldn’t manage a half-time ad.

An opportunity squandered

The semi-final last night was the biggest TV event in Australian history. And powerful decision-makers in Australia just didn’t see it coming. A gigantic opportunity to build fandom, engage fans, win viewers, build brands — all of it squandered.

Ticket sales should have been a clue. The country was desperate to go and see the Matildas, which is why they sold out before the tournament even began.

To be fair, there were not a lot of signs in the Google Trends data that we were thinking about the World Cup before the first match kicked off on 20 July. This chart includes searches for the World Cup, the Matildas and, as a reference point, the Collingwood Magpies of the AFL, Australia’s most popular sporting club.

You can see that online interest in the Matildas and the tournament itself was pretty quiet until the event began.

The chart shows that interest peaked recently, far higher than pre-tournament.

Of course, this is a self-reinforcing cycle. If the world doesn’t remind us the event is coming up, if news helicopters aren’t circling over the training camps of the various teams, if influencers don’t realise they can get likes with Matildas content, etc, etc, then there is scant buzz.

What the past three weeks really shows is latent demand for the Matildas. A market with demand, and a product, but not enough marketing and distribution. The fact Optus Sport could win the rights to the World Cup and then sub-license games to Channel 7 shows that nobody expected interest to amount to much. If Channel 7 had known it was holding a powder keg of Australian enthusiasm, it might have won the bidding itself. And if Optus Sport realised how valuable those Matildas games were, it would have held on to them, rather than onselling them for a reported $5 million.

There’s going to be a lot of desperate catching up as brands try to associate themselves with these fresh national heroes. Someone is probably hanging up a Cortnee Vine billboard on an intersection near you today. One more match is left in this tournament for the Matildas — on Saturday we have a chance to grab third place by beating Sweden. But the best chance to do tie-in marketing is past.

Lessons learnt

Australia’s experience will teach broadcasters, host nations and brands not to ignore women’s sport in future. The next Women’s World Cup will be a very different affair. Bidders include Brazil, South Africa, USA/Mexico, and Germany/Netherlands/Belgium. None of them are likely to fail to notice the event is coming up. The fact this World Cup features a final between two big soccer nations — England and Spain — is also very good for the sport.

A lot of eyeballs will be on the final. A lot of other soccer nations will be burning with envy. When the Lionesses or La Roja hoist the cup amid an explosion of tickertape, marketing teams from major brands will be watching. This is the last time women’s soccer will be ignored.

Young Matildas — Mary Fowler, in particular — could be looking at a lifetime of much higher pay than the older ones. She’s only 20 and has an absolutely sublime ability on the ball. She is likely to feature for the Matildas in not only the next World Cup but the one after. She has a seat on what is likely to be a rocket to global superstardom.

After her? An even bigger generation of women’s soccer will follow.