PepsiCo Partnerships Play The Long Game To Inspire Women In Sports

Like all good partnerships, PepsiCo’s Gatorade, Pepsi Max and Lay’s are playing the long game to pave the way for female participation in sports at all levels, particularly women playing, refereeing, and coaching. These partnerships and their objectives include:

Gatorade: Partners with UEFA since 2020, the Gatorade Sports Science Institute (GSSI) supports officials with Gx Sweat Patches and personalized health and physical performance training from GSSI scientists. The objective is to enhance performance and gameplay supporting the critical role match officials play in the game.

Pepsi Max: Presented Becky Hill as the headliner for the first-ever UEFA Women’s Euro Final Show at the end of July. The objective is to celebrate female strength, power and achievement on and off the pitch.

Lay’s: Lay’s RePlay is a global initiative in partnership with UEFA Foundation for Children and streetfooballworld to create football pitches partially made of reused chip bags. These football pitches have opened in South Africa, Brazil, UK and most recently in Turin, Italy for the inaugural all-female Gatorade 5v5 Italian national final. The objective is to support grassroots initiatives to grow the game for women and men.

What is the key to growth?

It begins with elevating the people who inspire others to play and pursue careers—the coaches. As Mark Kirkham, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at PepsiCo International Beverages, explains, “If you elevate the inspirations, the ones who inspire women to play, it’s the coaches, who are mentors and who they watched as they were growing up. That changes the conversation around coaching, front office management, and over time will change the game.”

On a global scale, more females are now football coaches, but only about one-quarter of head coaches of women’s football are female, including the NWSL (note: 25% in 2022), Frauen-Bundesliga, Division 1 Féminine, and Primera División Femenina de España. England leads the way with over half of the FA WSL led by female head coaches—up from only one in four in 2015.

Sponsorships take time

Influencing culture by changing minds takes commitment and time. Research from Wakefield shows on average it takes 12 to 17 years for sponsorships to reach peak penetration with an audience. Conversely it takes four to five years for people to forget major sponsorship campaigns after discontinuation.

PepsiCo has long promoted women in the game. In 1997, Gatorade produced the iconic Mia Hamm and Michael Jordan campaign (see right).

Abby Wambach, reportedly inspired by that original campaign to pursue her dreams, continues the campaign with Usain Bolt. PepsiCo’s strategic thinking executed over three decades focused on inspiration has helped change culture and change minds about women in sports.

Undoubtedly, the continued success of the U.S. Soccer women’s team (check records here) for the last three decades has inspired more females to play, coach and officiate.

Sponsorships take integration

“Gatorade sponsors both men and women’s teams. We don’t separate it out. We make it one area of focus,” explains Kirkham. The Science of Success with Manchester City featuring storytelling from both men and women’s players is a good example of this.

Successful sponsorships require an all-in marketing communications strategy, not piece-meal add-ons to current advertising campaigns. Kirkham adds, “And it takes commitment.”

Making change

How many females will be head coaches in women’s professional football in five years? Can partnerships established by Gatorade, Lay’s and Pepsi Max make a difference?

Given Pepsi’s clear objectives, long-term commitment, and integrated strategies, their sponsorships will produce measurable improvement. But what else needs to happen?

Maybe when more organizations in the wide world of sports do not demand the “give-it-all-to-win-at-all-costs,” on and off the field, we’ll see more women (and men) choosing coaching careers to inspire others. Perhaps the superior emotional intelligence of women with respect to empathy, interpersonal relationships and social responsibility compared to men contributes to fewer women choosing a coaching career path.

Some, like PepsiCo, are willing to invest in a long range plan to create change. Possibly others will be inspired across the leagues, teams, front office, and coaches to follow suit.