Still of a woman blowing bubble gum with the Nike logo in Nike's Never Settle, Never Done campaign for the Euros 2022

The rise and rise of women’s football

Fresh from working on Nike’s new spot to mark the Euros this month, Wieden + Kennedy London’s Ankita Tobit talks to us about how the narrative around the women’s game has moved on in the last few years and where opportunities lie for brands

It is clear now that women’s football has exploded. Every time a new tournament arrives, with it comes a fresh wave of momentum and interest from fans, brands, and everyone in between. The speed with which the field is changing has had a knock-on effect on communications, and what might have been a dominant storytelling narrative even a couple of years ago soon becomes passé.

To find out what the picture looks like for the 2022 Euros, we talk to Wieden + Kennedy London senior creative Ankita Tobit. An alumna of the agency’s New Delhi, Amsterdam and Tokyo offices, Tobit worked on Nike’s 2016 film Da Da Ding, an energetic piece celebrating women’s sport in India that was warmly embraced at the time of its release. A quick glance at the steady stream of YouTube comments will tell you that it has remained a fixture in people’s minds ever since (the earworm that soundtracked it may have something to do with that).

In her first project since joining the London arm of the network, Tobit worked on Nike’s new spot, released in time for the eagerly anticipated Euros 2022 tournament. Titled Never Settle, Never Done, the film pinballs around the diversity of experiences and expressions of women’s football, from casual kickabouts in the street, to grassroots teams like Women’s Soccer School Barcelona and Grenfell Athletic FC, to the major stars of today, such as Leah Williamson and Pernille Harder.

The Never Settle, Never Done campaign has also been rolled out in outdoor executions by W+K Amsterdam, with a series of OOH ads supporting the Lionesses displayed in prominent locations around London. Women’s football is a fertile landscape with great promise, both culturally and creatively. As the Euros kicks off, we caught up with Tobit to talk about how to make a mark in this space.