The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2023
Nike's What The Football makes 11 female stars household names in seven anthems
Nike and W+K made seven anthemic spots starring eleven top footballers for the Women's World Cup, each film built to make its player a household name.
Nike
What it had to solve
For the most anticipated Women's World Cup in history, Nike wanted each of its female footballers to be famous for her game and given her overdue flowers — and to turn the tournament's momentum into lasting recognition for women's sport.
How it works
For the most anticipated Women's World Cup in history, Nike's ambition was not another tournament ad but a change in who gets famous. The brand wanted each of its female footballers to be known for her game and given the recognition the women's game had long denied them.
W+K's answer, What The Football, was a global campaign of seven anthemic spots featuring eleven top footballers. Each film highlights one athlete and what she brings to the game, so every featured player gets her own argument for becoming a household name.
The campaign was built to feed the momentum in women's sport and to inspire a new generation of players to play like these icons. D&AD preserved the work in its awards archive; the page records no view or engagement figures, so the idea stands on giving eleven athletes eleven anthems rather than one.
Why it lands
- Eleven players across seven films signal that women's football has more than one star worth knowing.
- Each anthem is built around what an athlete brings to the game, so fame follows skill instead of a narrative hook.
- The campaign met the most anticipated Women's World Cup in history with household-name ambition, not awareness messaging.
- Showing icons at play makes the inspiration concrete for the next generation of players.
What it did
The campaign put the athletes, not the tournament, at the center of Nike's World Cup moment, and D&AD preserved it in its awards archive. The archive page records no view or engagement figures, so the case stands on the mechanism: eleven players each given their own anthem.
What you can take
When a category's talent is undervalued, build the campaign around the talent itself: eleven separate anthems make each athlete a reason to watch, not a supporting detail of one big ad.
Since then
What The Football ran for the Women's World Cup and now sits in D&AD's awards archive as an example of athlete-led anthem work. The archive page records no view or engagement figures; the transferable idea is that a sport with under-known talent can build fame by giving each athlete her own film instead of folding them all into one.
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