By Michelle Castano, Professional Master’s student

How could FOX Sports best promote the prestigious FIFA Women’s World Cup™? That was the task for five University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications students as part of the annual FOX Sports University challenge. The result: first prize in this year’s challenge.

FOX Sports University is a program that FOX Sports developed with prestigious academic and athletic institutions from around the country. Each year, FOX Sports Media Group partners with participating universities to address a marketing, research, technology or strategy challenge. Students team up to create real-world solutions, products and campaigns to address the business need.

This year, FOX Sports was looking for suggestions on how to promote the Women’s World Cup, which would be broadcast on their platforms. The team, comprised of five students from Advertising Associate Professor Robyn Goodman’s spring 2023 Creative Advertising Competitions class – Advertising seniors Katherine George and Ursula Duran (now in the College’s Online Master’s program) and Professional Master’s students Emma Barrett, Michelle Castano and Erika Rodriguez (who graduated in August 2023) – conducted interviews to get to know the target audience and to learn about their motivations to watch soccer and their media habits.

With the U.S. Women’s National Team having the chance to win the first three-peat in both men’s and women’s World Cup history, their campaign focused on the “three” factor.  Playing off the superstitious term “bad things come in threes,” they turned it into “Good Things Come in Threes.” They created two videos, a bar/nightlife concept for viewing parties, a social media component and influencer promotions.

After showcasing their strategy, creativity and enthusiasm for the “beautiful game,” the team, known as “Kick Like a Girl,” emerged victorious, earning the right to represent UFCJC at the Soccerex conference in Miami on Nov. 14-15, 2023. Soccerex runs events for the soccer industry.

Throughout their time at Soccerex, the team had an opportunity to attend insightful panel discussions and workshops, and meet one-on-one with industry professionals including Alexei Lalas, former team USA defensive player and FOX Sports analyst and commentator. The students got to showcase their winning campaign to Lalas, where he saw a video presentation of the campaign and various storyboards and concepts.

“A lot of what I knew before falls into the more creative side of campaigns, but hearing some of the speakers allowed me to see how the creative can be inspired by the soccer industry,” said Emma Barrett.  “Throughout our project, we made guesses about how FOX Sports could market the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, but it was amazing to hear from actual FOX analysts and see the game through their lens and get a sense of marketing around it. I also liked learning more about FOX Sports University in general by spending time with Catie Hance, our FOX Sports University representative, and seeing how the network is doing PR networking through that process.”

Posted: November 28, 2023
Category: College News, Profiles, Sports, Student News
Tagged as: Emma Barrett, Erika Rodriguez, FOX Sports, Katherine George, Michelle Castano, Ursula Duran