Australia’s Nation Brand showcased globally during the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023

The highly successful FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023 - which shattered match attendance and television viewership records largely due to the Matildas’ history making performance - also delivered a win for Australia’s Nation Brand.

Raising awareness of Australia’s Nation Brand to the world began with an event during the FIFA Women’s World Cup Trophy Tour stop in Adelaide and then during the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023.

Australia’s Nation Brand appeared on electronic rotating boards positioned on the halfway line at 32 matches held in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.

Advising that Australia’s Nation Brand is used to promote and tell the stories of Australia’s people, places and their products across trade, investment, international education and the visitor economy,

Austrade General Manager Communication and Marketing, Jessica Hamilton explained “the Nation Brand helps to show international audiences that we are as famous for our smarts as we are for being friendly and down to earth. We are a country that drives breakthroughs in science, technology, medical technology and energy, and we offer world-class products in education, culture.

“Austrade acts as the custodian of Australia’s Nation Brand, and we are privileged to manage the unifying brand that provides more than 440 free marketing assets - including the logo that was used on the sidelines - to help Australian businesses and government organisations promote Australia.

“More than 36,000 assets have been downloaded from the asset library, which includes the Australia logo, graphic devices, fonts, and colours; templates to support digital marketing, events and exhibitions, reports, brochures; a storytelling guide; and a suite of photography reflecting Australia by people, place and product.”

Co-created with Indigenous designers, Balarinji, it is an ‘umbrella’ brand to create a more unified presence for Australia on the world stage.

Hamilton added “during the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™, the largest women’s sporting event in the world, Australia’s Nation Brand was seen by over 1.2 million fans across the 32 matches held at Australian venues.

“The Nation Brand was also seen by tens of millions of record-breaking television audiences domestically and internationally, across markets such as Canada, China, England, France, Germany, South Korea, and Spain, all important trade and investment partners.”

According to data from FIFA, the China PR v England match had the highest reach for a single match anywhere in the world with 53.9 million Chinese viewers watching some part of their team take on England.

The Final which featured Spain and England attracted record breaking numbers and was another platform to increase awareness of Australia’s Nation Brand.

Across England - now part of the recent Australia-UK Free Trade Agreement - the BBC attracted a peak audience of 12 million viewers on BBC One while ITV, which also aired the Final, hit a reported peak of 14.4 million, according to figures from ratings compiler Barb.

In Spain, 5.6 million watched the final, and peaked at 7.4 million viewers, with data published by Barlovento Comunicacion noting it was the highest ever TV audience for a women's football game.

Across Australia, driven by the Matildas’ history making performance, almost 18.6 million Australians watched the tournament across the screens of Seven, including 14.76 million reached on broadcast and 3.82 million on 7plus.

While Australia’s Matildas’ Semi-Final against England’s Lionesses became the most-watched TV program in more than two decades. It reached 11.15 million and had an average audience of 7.2 million, attracting the highest viewers of the Matildas’ seven matches.

The Final reached 5.54 million Australians and drew an average national total audience of 3.08 million on Seven and 7Plus.

The Economic Return of Nation Brands study notes the value of a nation’s brand correlates to factors that contribute to economic prosperity.

Australia’s Nation Brand was ranked 10th overall and in the top 10 across all key areas according to the 2022 Anholt-Ipsos Nation Brands Index (NBI) index. Rankings were informed by feedback collected from 60,000 interviewees in 20 panel countries.

The Nation Brand has also been showcased at other significant international events. In 2022, it was featured at COP27 in Egypt, Asia Fruit Logistica in Bangkok, GamesCom in Germany, and during the Prime Minister’s visit to Indonesia.

To learn more about Australia’s Nation Brand visit www.brandaustralia.com

Images (from top): The Matildas huddle before kick-off in Brisbane with Australia’s Nation Brand on display on the half-way line (credit, photo by Chris Hyde - FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images), Australia’s Nation Brand at the match between Australia and Nigeria in Brisbane (credit: photo by Matt Roberts - FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images), Matildas’ star Alanna Kennedy in action against France with Australia’s Nation Brand in the background (credit: photo by Elsa - FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images) and Australia’s Nation Brand on show during FIFA Women’s World Cup Trophy Tour - from left: Tom Rischbieth of Football Australia; Jessica Hamilton of Austrade and Ben Robertson of the Office for Sport (credit: Austrade).