Plan Ahead: Build Crossover Campaigns That Connect Sport With Culture.

Leverage Film, Music, and Gaming to Expand Women’s Football Beyond Sports Marketing

Women’s football fans are not just sports consumers—they are deeply embedded in entertainment culture. According to PepsiCo Passion Points research and Nielsen Sports 2024 data:

• 79% are interested in film (vs. 64% of the general population)

• 65% engage with music (vs. 45%)

• 64% are interested in video games (vs. 47%)

These overlaps unlock brand opportunities that go far beyond match-day sponsorships, enabling entertainment partnerships, content collaborations, and cultural activations that meet fans where they already spend time and attention.

Why the Audience Profile Matters Commercially

Women’s football audiences skew:

• Younger

• More digitally fluent

• More cross-platform in content consumption

They stream films, attend concerts, play video games, and engage with pop culture at rates traditional sports marketing struggles to reach. This makes them valuable not only to sports brands seeking cultural relevance, but also to entertainment brands seeking credible sports adjacency.

For multi-category brands like PepsiCo, this creates multiple consumption moments across a single weekend—watching a match, attending a concert, and gaming—where beverages, snacks, and hydration products naturally fit with coordinated messaging across contexts.

Case Study: PepsiCo’s Gladiator x NFL Crossover

PepsiCo’s “Make Your Gameday Epic” campaign demonstrated the power of intersecting passion points by blending NFL viewership with enthusiasm for the Gladiator film franchise.

• The campaign outperformed single-category activations, according to the Nielsen–PepsiCo study.

• It generated social sharing and conversation because it connected sports and entertainment, not just one or the other.

• Fans engaged because the activation reflected how they actually consume culture on game days.

The insight was simple but powerful: sports fans don’t stop being entertainment fans when games are on.

Organizational Implication: Break the Silos

Effective crossover campaigns require structural change:

• Sports partnerships

• Entertainment marketing

• Brand and portfolio teams

These functions typically operate independently. Successful crossover strategies demand cross-functional planning upfront, not forced collaboration after strategies are already locked.

Music: Extending Reach Beyond Stadiums

With 65% of women’s football fans engaged in music, brands can activate through:

• Music festivals and concerts

• Artist partnerships

• Tournament ceremonies and kick-off shows

Pepsi’s leading role in the UEFA Women’s Champions League Final kick-off show (2025–2026) positions the brand as an active cultural participant—not a passive logo sponsor.

Why it matters:
Music integrations offer year-round visibility, filling the gaps between tournaments when match-based sponsorships go dark.

Gaming: A Direct Line to Digital-Native Fans

• 64% of women’s football fans are interested in gaming

• Opportunities include:

  • EA Sports FC integrations

  • Esports and streamer partnerships

  • Twitch and YouTube Gaming activations

Women’s teams and players in EA Sports FC create natural digital extensions of physical sponsorships, reaching global audiences who may never attend live matches but engage deeply through gaming culture.

PepsiCo’s Portfolio Advantage in Women’s Sport

PepsiCo’s long-term, multi-property approach includes:

• UEFA Women’s Champions League (since 2019, extended to 2030)

• FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027

• WNBA and leading female athletes

This allows:

• Brand-level specialization (Pepsi for culture, Gatorade for performance, Lay’s for social occasions)

• Risk diversification across properties

• Deeper partnership privileges driven by long-term commitment, not one-off buys

Creative and Media Shifts Required for Crossover Campaigns

Cultural crossover demands different execution:

• Social-first storytelling

• Influencer and creator partnerships

• Streaming, gaming, and entertainment platform media buys

Creative formats must blend:

• Athletic achievement

• Narrative, emotion, and cultural relevance

This increases planning complexity—but unlocks reach that traditional sports media alone cannot deliver.

The Competitive Advantage: Cultural Relevance Over Logo Visibility

The brands that will define women’s football sponsorship will not be those with the biggest stadium presence—but those that help integrate the sport into music, film, gaming, and culture.

PepsiCo’s success stems from treating fans as multidimensional humans, not single-interest sports viewers.

With 200M+ new fans projected by 2030, brands that operate at the intersection of sport and culture will build equity competitors cannot replicate through media spend alone.

What Brands Should Do Next

• Map natural crossover points before buying sponsorships

• Partner with artists who authentically support women’s football

• Sponsor gaming tournaments tied to women’s football titles

• Create content for entertainment platforms, not just sports media

• Build year-round cultural presence beyond tournament cycles

Bottom Line: Sports sponsorship that ignores cultural context wastes half its potential.

Women’s football fans over-index in film (79%), music (65%), and gaming (64%), yet most sponsorships still treat the audience as if they only care about match results. Brands that recognize women’s football as a **cultural platform, not just a sports property, **will own relevance, conversation, and loyalty that pure sports sponsors cannot match, regardless of logo size.