The media has a bad habit of depicting female athletes as a monolith. They’re either one, big, smiling sisterhood bonded by sweat, or activists combining their powers to fight inequality.

For World Cup 23, Nike wanted to finally make these women famous for what they're best at.

Saving the world?

Being hot?

No!

FOOTBALL.

What followed was a film series designed to make each baller a household name for her unique game.

We needed to make these footballers household names. So we didn’t create ads. We created characters. Characters that kids would put on their walls. Characters that had their own super powers and theme songs.

Each athlete insight (above) inspired the character we created for her.

For example, Sophia Smith being a “smiling assassin” on the pitch inspired a horror villain character. Megan Rapinoe’s on and off pitch heroics inspired a literal American superhero character. Etc. By the end, we had a cast of characters to build an entertaining series around.

Before we could make these female footballers household names, we needed to zero in on her unique game. What did we (and she) want her to be famous for?

Insight for each athlete:

- Sophia Smith is a smiling assassin.

- Alex Morgan makes scoring look effortless.

- Debinha is resurrecting joga bonito. (The playful Brazilian style of football popularized by Ronaldinho in Nike commercials 25 years ago.)

- Megan Rapinoe is an American hero - on and off the pitch.

- Sam Kerr literally flips the game upside down with her backflip celebrations.

- Ada Hegerberg is an unstoppable force with zero remorse.

Each athlete's key visual featured a custom type treatment inspired by their film and playing style; for instance, Sophia Smith is known to be a smiling assassin on the pitch, so we created a type treatment inspired by vintage horror movie posters with an added flair and charm to reflect her personality. Debinha's film was an homage to 'Joga Bonito'; so the design reimagined the Joga Bonito type from the 90s Nike ads. Ada Hegerberg's film had her charging through defenses, and whatever came her way, we created a type of treatment that matched that energy.

The custom typography and athlete imagery were crafted to interact with each other to create dynamic and frenetic compositions. Each composition features the athlete's name, position, and federation, ensuring the world remembers who they are.

What the Football successfully maximized reach through paid support, which exceeded targets by 2x, securing Nike with the highest SOV during the tournament.

Overall, the campaign resonated with over half of global consumers included in Nike’s brand study, leading to a positive impact on brand perception and Nike’s commitment to women and girls. The campaign resulted in an overwhelming 15:1 positive sentiment ratio (+7x goal) against Nike’s campaign target of Gen Z women, with men also responding positively to the content. The key visuals were a key driver in overall brand perception. The campaign accomplished the goal of making these players household names as the brand study found that 45% of respondents are more interested in football, and an average of 40% had a positive perception of all the athletes after seeing What the Football films and accompanying posters.