How brands are celebrating England's historic Euros win

For nearly 60 years, the English have been waiting for soccer, aka football, to "come home." Now, it finally has—and brands are paying their respects. The England women’s team, known as the “Lionesses,” triumphed last night winning the Euro 2022 soccer tournament in a dramatic 2-1 victory over Germany. This is the first time since the country’s men's team's World Cup victory in 1966 that an England team has won an international tournament. Observers also predict that the victory will give a massive boost to women's soccer in the U.K. (which, unbelievably, was actually banned by the U.K. Football Association for nearly 50 years from 1922). Subscribe to Ad Age Sign up now for the latest industry news and analysis Click here Some of the brands jumping in to celebrate the Lionesses in creative ways this morning included Heinz, which, in a full-page print ad with the “Sun” newspaper, congratulated the team because “sometimes the wait makes the result taste even better.” It’s a follow-up to a previous ad it ran noting that it made consumers wait more than 150 years for a tomato pasta sauce. Created by Wunderman Thompson Spain, the ad is also running as digital posts. The BBC, which has been running a campaign around the Euros celebrating women and sport with the tagline “We Know Our Place,” projected a gigantic image of England captain Leah Williamson onto the National Football Museum in Manchester, alongside the words "Bringing it home." Nike, which before the tournament had run a TV spot spotlighting the female players and projected their images onto the White Cliffs of Dover in campaigns from Wieden+Kennedy's London and Amsterdam offices respectively, ran a cover wrap on the Metro newspaper turning the Nike “swoosh” into the word “home.” It’s a play on the evergreen song “Three Lions” by David Baddiel, Frank Skinner and The Lightning Seeds. Its chorus “Football’s Coming Home" has become the unofficial anthem of the England team since it first dropped in 1996. Nike also used the "Home" logo on a series of Instagram posts, including one that projected it onto the roof of Wembley Stadium. In another nod to “Three Lions,” Sony Music UK, publisher of the song, worked with media agency 7stars and Ministry of Experience on its own White Cliffs of Dover projection, proclaiming “Football’s Coming Home” and wishing good luck to the team and their coach ahead of the final. Other brands also piled into the “coming home” theme on social media. Royal Mail tweeted an image of a wrapped-up ball with the the word “Home” written on the parcel. Well done @Lionesses! #ItsComingHome #Home pic.twitter.com/R386wCnzZQ— Royal Mail (@RoyalMail) July 31, 2022 Amazon did something similar, adapted to the era of the "out for delivery" message: 1 stop away...Good luck to the @Lionesses tonight! 🦁🦁🦁#ENGGER #WEURO2022 #ItsComingHome pic.twitter.com/BDoHSWMKaw— Amazon.co.uk (@AmazonUK) July 31, 2022 Among the countless tactical responses, other brands made a more long-term contribution to furthering the cause of women's soccer in the U.K. Delivery service Just Eat, for instance, is kick-starting 101 new women’s football teams in a new campaign from Dark Horses encouraging more women and girls to pick up their boots and get out on the pitch. Meanwhile, the stars of the England women's team can no doubt look forward to an influx of sponsorship opportunities and commercial offers. A photograph of winning goal-scorer Chloe Kelly, who stripped to her Nike sports bra in homage to the iconic image of her heroine, U.S. star Brandi Chastain, featured on the front pages of U.K. newspaper this morning, prominently displaying the brand's logo. As one Twitter user pointed out this morning, it seems only a matter of time before the image becomes an ad. Next Nike ad is settled then pic.twitter.com/cnetpYjJrA— Ryan Catanese (@rcatanese) July 31, 2022

How brands are celebrating England's historic Euros win

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