Marketing Goals: World Cup win should net more play for U.S. women’s team.

All sports bra jokes aside, winning the FIFA Women’s World Cup should give the U.S. national soccer team greater support than it has ever had before. Sorry, we meant to say marketing support.

“We knew it was going to be the largest women’s sporting event ever, but we didn’t know exactly what that would mean,” says Dean Stoyer, corporate communications manager for Nike Inc. “You can’t expect 40 million TV viewers and sold-out crowds in every stadium.”

But that’s what the third Women’s World Cup drew in its debut in the U.S. As a spectator sport, soccer still doesn’t command much attention in this country, which means women’s soccer barely registers on the national consciousness. But nothing captures the attention of the populace – and marketers – like a rousing international victory on home turf.

“Obviously, I think all the sponsors have been very satisfied,” says Simon Wardle, assistant vp of Norwalk, CT-based research and evaluation consultancy Sponsorship Research International, which does evaluation work for FIFA and some of its sponsors (and is an affiliate of global sports marketing giant ISL Worldwide, which handles all of FIFA’s events). “And I think there are probably quite a few people kicking themselves for missing the boat.”

FIFA and ISL lined up 11 official tournament sponsors, each of whom paid between $1 million and $4 million for the rights – a mere pittance in the sports sponsorship realm. Sponsors like Adidas (a Soccer Lab tour, a retail tickets-with-purchase program), Anheuser-Busch (pre-game concerts, TV spots), Hyundai (sweepstakes, dealer signage), and second-tier “marketing partner” Allstate (a $1 million kicking contest) offered a strong presence. But such heavy hitters as McDonald’s and Coca-Cola did little but post stadium signage.

Beaverton, OR-based Nike wasn’t a Cup sponsor. But it has partnered with the U.S. Soccer Federation for five years, and has endorsement deals with five members of the U.S. team, including Mia Hamm (she of the Michael Jordan TV-spot duet) and Brandi Chastain (she of the post-victory, jersey-stripping solo). Nike took the team on a national tour last year.

The sports apparel maker “sat back and enjoyed the tournament for a few weeks,” watching as sales of Hamm’s new signature shoe and authentic jersey soared, says Stoyer. Nike will get back into the game now, because “from a media standpoint and a general public standpoint, there’s a hunger to find out who these players are now.”

VICTOR’S SPOILS

SFX Entertainment certainly hopes so. The New York City-based event producer and promoter struck a deal to “represent the players as a collective marketing group last year,” according to Lee Burke, head of SFX’s Marquee Group. Chastain barely had her jersey back on before SFX announced that the team would go on an 11-city indoor exhibition tour kicking off in October. The U.S. Soccer Federation first tried to block the tour (it wanted the players for an overseas jaunt), but offered its endorsement after reaching an undisclosed agreement with SFX that puts Federation uniforms on the team.

Nike signed on as a tour sponsor, as did Purchase, NY-based PepsiCo. In early August, the tour added a 12th date and became the Toys R Us Victory Tour, with the retail chain promising activities to honor individual players and put kids on the field with the stars.”It’s a way to bring the players closer to the fans,” says Pepsi spokesman Dave DeCecco. Like Nike, Pepsi didn’t sponsor the World Cup, but has been involved with the U.S. National Team and other soccer organizations for years.

Pepsi will tout Aquafina bottled-water and other brands as the tour’s exclusive beverage partner, but made plans to “go beyond the tour” by signing endorsement deals with players Julie Foudy and Briana Scurry. “It’s a sport we’re really trying to get beverage ownership in,” he says.

“It’s a sport that fits the direction we want to go in,” echoes Sylvia Oriatti, director of marketing for the dairy division of Dean Foods Co., Franklin Park, IL. Dean’s Milk Chugs brand launched a sponsorship of the U.S. Youth Soccer Association in July with an event in Chicago that featured local Cup star Kristine Lilly. The brand will support youth soccer club tournaments around the country in its first national sponsorship.

Women’s soccer “has strong participation from kids under 18, but it draws the entire family, so we can get to who’s drinking [Milk Chugs] and who’s buying it,” says Oriatti. “We’re also impressed with the level of commitment people have to the sport.”

Sponsorship Research’s Wardle stops short of predicting a long-term marketing windfall for women’s soccer. “It think time will tell what the residual effects will be,” he says. “But the [U.S.] players and team will certainly be used. You’re already starting to see that.”

Sometimes we see more than we expected.