The Female Consumer: The almost-forgotten football fan

I have not spared much time to check out all of the campaigns for World Cup 2010 just yet, but I am sure the sponsors have gone all out in pimping out their brands and creating innovative campaigns which would maximise their advertising dollars (hopefully). But it would be interesting to see how many of these ads specifically target women. I am a football fan and I cannot say that in past tournaments, the advertiser has been speaking to me. He/she has been sending loads of messages to my father, my brother, my boyfriend etc, but the story ended there. There was no concern for the fact that I too sit down fixated by the movements of a black and white ball for at least 90 minutes; no real recognition of the fact that millions of women are also rabid fans of the beautiful game. Football is not a man's game by any stretch of the imagination, so I would expect that the marketing would no longer be tailored just for my male football viewing counterparts. Begone silly ads with scantily clad women in the background.

The great thing about social media is not only that it allows two way engagement, but it somehow also levels the playing field so to speak. The Coca Cola campaign is a good example. The campaign invites fans to share their videos, celebrating Roger Milla's infamous goal dance. It's great because now, with her camera or mobile phone, the football loving woman can get in on the action.

Campaigns now, because of the nature of the technology which has the ability to make them universal in a shorter time, have real community power and can no longer focus on the age old stereotype that men alone enjoy a football match with their mates. The nature of football in itself is that it is the centre of a huge global community, so it's time the marketing got on board that train. I watch more football than some of my male relatives and friends, and *gasp*...I'm a woman. Looking forward to the greatness!

Visa's 2010 spot, just one of the many ads that will be running during the beautiful month!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I come from a family where all the women are complete sports nuts, and especially love football, so I understand exactly where you are coming from. When you go to football games, there is also a very high proportion of women, especially when compared to the other big game int he West Indies, cricket.

I will admit, though that when I first read the post I thought of the women I know who follow football, and thought about why they watched. Some like my sisters and mother liked looking at the beautiful game, some also liked looking at the beautiful men who played the beautiful game.

Some started watching in high school because their little boyfriend used to play for the school and they developed an interest there.

I considered all these things and said to myself, but most of them do not know about the W W system, or 4-4-2, or the Diamond system preferred by "the special one". In fact most of them don't even know who "the special one is"!

And then I realised... it doesn't matter... the fact is that these women are watching the game faithfully, sometimes more faithfully than the men... I note your world cup countdown! Advertisers should then tap into this market (beyond the baby-T replicas) and reach out for this audience which I would hazard is no less than 40% of the total viewing audience, maybe even more.


By the way, that is an awesome awesome spot, the dream of any guy, but I see where it leaves out the female viewer, but if there others which reach out to that audience as well, all the better!

trinidarlin said...

As you said, it does not matter what the motivation is for women watching the game. The fact is they are, so the ads showing beer guts and women serving big lazy men chips and beer need to go.

And Mourinho is not Jesus. That's the bonafide special one eh. And seeing that the Azzurri are known for their uninteresting and not always effective 4-4-2 formation, I know about that too. :P

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