FIFA Expects Surge In Women’s World Cup Viewing

The eighth Women’s World Cup kicks off in Paris this evening with 950,00 tickets sold for the tournament, and projections of a worldwide TV audience more than a thousand times greater.

France will meet South Korea at the sold-out Parc des Princes in the opening game.

Six groups of four teams are vying for the 16 places in the knockout phase, on the road to the final on 7 July in Lyon.

The £24 million to be shared by the participating teams in 2019 is double the amount of 2015, but a long way short of the £315 million pot at the 2018’s men’s World Cup.

The last Women’s World Cup, won the USA, pulled 750 million viewers worldwide, and FIFA is predicting this year’s event will reach an audience of 1 billion.

In recent weeks, hundreds of branded videos with content related to the Women’s World Cup have been published online, racking up a combined total of 72 million views across all social media platforms, according to video measurement company Tubular.

With big-budget ads from the likes of Nike and quality short-form productions by FIFA sponsors including Qatar Airways and Visa, marketers have been accumulating millions of interactions.

Have a look at ‘Dream Further’ by Nike, featuring stars including Lieke Martens (Holland), Chinese midfielder Wang Shuang (China) and Crystal Dunn (USA).

On Twitter, the video has racked up more than 19 million views since it was first posted to Nike’s official account last Saturday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOVkEHADCg4