Coca-Cola displays messages of progress on football pitches across Australia + New Zealand in new campaign via WPP Open X/AKQA + Ogilvy PR

With the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 moving to a nail-biting conclusion and set to become the biggest female sporting event in history, Coca-Cola has unveiled an innovative campaign, developed by WPP Open X/AKQA and Ogilvy PR, to build on the legacy of the tournament and celebrate the changing narrative occurring in women’s football. In football fields across both co-host nations, Australia and New Zealand, Coca-Cola has displayed and activated five powerful statements showing the progress being made.

Each statement takes a common misconception around women in football found today in online conversation and contrasts it with the powerful – and more positive – reality of today’s game.

Two messages in fields located in Australia and New Zealand share the inspiring stories of Team Coca-Cola players Ellie Carpenter and Katie Bowen. Ellie’s story is one of defying the odds and breaking through barriers to achieve greatness in sport, while Katie emphasises the power of believing in magic, highlighting the remarkable milestone of participating in her fourth FIFA Women’s World Cup.

The remaining messages celebrate the growing participation in women’s football around the world, the unprecedented growth of the game, the role models the game has created and the record-breaking number of viewers that the tournament has achieved this year.

The campaign also features a stunning video created with drones to showcase the state-of-the-art technology used to create the messages on the field. Using a gentle stream of air, each blade of grass is bent to create a shadow effect on the pitches that appears for up to 48 hours, without damaging the turf.

The six game-changing statements include:

A farm girl will never go far in professional football.
A farm girl is playing for her country in front of 75,000 home fans.

This game is not suitable for women.
This game now has more than 29 million women suiting up to play every year.

It is time to question women’s football.
It’s time to stand up and cheer for the fastest growing female sport in the world.

There are football mums, but not mums who play football.
There are football mums, and now there are more than 25 proud mums playing football for their country.

It’s women’s football. No one will follow it
It’s women’s football. A record 2 billion people just followed it together.

Katie Bowen won’t make it far at the international level
Katie Bowen just played for her country in her 4th FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Says Kate Miller, marketing director at Coca-Cola Australia: “Coca-Cola has been supporting the FIFA Women’s World Cup since the inaugural tournament in 1991 and we are really proud to celebrate the success of this year’s tournament, which is not only breaking records but is also breaking down long-held beliefs in society about women in sports. Our latest campaign challenges the many misconceptions around women’s sports and shows the new positive reality and celebrates the professional athletes who have inspired us all.”

Building on its legacy of supporting the FIFA Women’s World Cup and coinciding with the final matches this week, The Coca-Cola Company is hosting a one-day “Level the Playing Field” diversity, equity, and inclusion summit in Sydney on Friday 18 August, featuring influential business and societal changemakers.