It’s a film series about female footballers playing the 2023 World Cup.

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.

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.

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 create 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 a entertaining series around.

After we had our cast of characters, we built a world around each one. For example, Sophia Smith’s “smiling assassin” insight inspired a horror film. Megan Rapinoe’s “American Hero” insight inspired a theme song straight out of 1980s cartoons. Debinha’s “joga bonito” insight inspired a viral video with moves kids would try to replicate in the grocery store. The end results was a series of entertaining shorts that covered different genres inspired by each footballer.

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 series 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 series 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 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 40% had a positive perception of all the athletes after seeing What the Football films.