We never intended to launch our campaign for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 in September 2025.
But amongst the many data points we’re working with, one is particularly stark: two-thirds of sports fans don’t know that the World Cup is taking place in England and Wales next year.
So here we are, launching our campaign six months earlier than we’d planned. And that decision is a powerful reflection of our mission: to reset normal for women’s cricket.
Our Tournament Director, Beth Barrett-Wild, has talked passionately about our vision for 2026 to be the year women’s cricket breaks into the mainstream. We will do that by creating a new baseline for attendances, revenues and viewership of women’s cricket, a new baseline that propels the sport forward.
But to achieve that, we must reset the standards behind the scenes: the research, the strategy, the delivery. This campaign is built on that foundation.
A legacy of standard-raising
Women’s cricket has a proud history of redefining what’s possible.
In 2017, the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup final sold out Lord’s, the first time that a traditionally male-orientated sport had filled the biggest cricket stadium in England for a women’s match.
In 2021, The Hundred launched with a standalone women’s fixture, capturing national attention for the tournament.
In 2023, the Women’s Ashes were marketed and balloted alongside the men’s, driving record attendances.
These landmark moments had something in common: they started with an intent that was bold, brave, and ambitious.
Setting new standards
A comprehensive approach to research has been at the heart of our efforts to reset normal.
Our research has extended across:
- Qualitative work to understand the drivers to grow women’s cricket
- Audience segmentation, to identify the best prospective audience groups to target
- Quantitative pricing research
- Brand tracking to understand our current awareness levels and where we’ll need to take them
These insights build on a decade of ticketing and purchaser data, shaping everything from our creative brief to our pricing and on-sale strategy.
Our research identified two key barriers to engagement: awareness and care. Put simply, our audiences knew less about the women’s game, and cared less about it than they did the men’s.
These insights also helped shape the strategies and tactics designed to overcome those barriers:
- Leveraging high-profile male allies of the women’s game
- Capitalising on peak public interest moments
- Smart crossover with the men’s game
- Breaking out of the “cricket bubble”
- Marketing “entertainment” over “inspiration”
- Using competitions that borrow credibility from the men’s game
“Selling the sport”
After an exhaustive agency search, the team at House 337 nailed the brief with a powerful strategy:
“Stop selling the progress. Start selling the sport.”
This resonated so strongly because our target audiences are sports and cricket fans. The biggest appeal is the action on the pitch, or court, or track. The stories off it serve to deepen and enrich that engagement.
House 337 also highlighted the power of FOMO for our target audiences; the desire for belonging we want to build around the women’s game, characterised by community, passion and connection.
And that’s how we landed on Catch the Spirit. It’s playful, joyous, and encapsulates the infectious nature of a World Cup can bleeding into everyday life, inviting the nation to get swept up in the excitement.
The line resonates on multiple levels—not only through its cricketing connotations, but also in the sense of enduring legacy we aim to build. Our goal is for people to catch the spirit not just in 2026, but for the long term.
The making of Catch the Spirit
We’re fortunate to work with a committed rightsholder in the International Cricket Council (ICC), whose investment in marketing reflects a genuine desire to grow the women’s game. This enabled us to deliver a high-production campaign in collaboration with House 337 and Irresistible, both of whom brought exceptional care and creativity to crafting a campaign worthy of mainstream attention.
Featured talent included professional actors alongside some of the biggest names in world cricket—Ellyse Perry, Hayley Matthews, Lauren Bell, and Richa Ghosh—with a standout cameo from cricketing legend, Freddie Flintoff.
Across a 13-hour shoot, supported by 143 cast and crew—we battled classic British four-seasons-in-a-day weather to bring the energy of Catch the Spirit to life.
And we were delighted to feature players and volunteers from the recreational game as background cast. Despite early call times and plenty of waiting around, they kept spirits high with impromptu on-set cricket matches!
Our behind-the-scenes film offers a glimpse into how it all came together.
Freddie Flintoff: the perfect ally
We were thrilled to include a cameo from Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff, whose charisma lights up the ad. He brings the perfect blend of mainstream appeal and cricketing credibility. A genuine supporter of the women’s game, as seen in his latest Field of Dreams series which has introduced a girls’ team, he was unsurprisingly brilliant on set.
Launching with impact
Once we realised that we needed to launch the campaign six months earlier than planned, we also knew we would need to launch with significant impact, without burning through all our budget.
We’ve landed on an extremely hard-working, integrated campaign across paid, earned and owned channels. Working with media agency, Three Pipe, every platform was chosen not just for reach into our target audiences, but for what they signal in terms of scale.
The tournament’s host cities have played their part, securing value-in-kind out-of-home placements, and leveraging their digital channels. Early media engagement has driven earned coverage, and the tournament’s UK broadcast partners—Sky and BBC—have, as ever, been hugely supportive.
Resetting normal, one strategic choice at a time
Resetting normal won’t be about seismic headline-grabbing changes—it’s about making considered, strategic choices that elevate the game. From the timing of our launch to the depth of our research, every decision has been rooted in insight and intent.
We’ve built a campaign that respects the intelligence and passion of our audiences. We’re laying the groundwork for a new era in women’s cricket—one defined not just by progress, but by permanence.