The NWSL season kicked off on Friday with two new teams and a new approach to marketing.<\/p>\n
The league\u2019s fourth annual marketing campaign, \u201cImagine Missing This,\u201d will be targeted more narrowly than campaigns from previous years, though it\u2019s still geared toward top-of-funnel goals like awareness and brand building as the NWSL continues to grow, according to Andrew LeRay, the league\u2019s director of brand marketing. The 2025 season capped off with a record-breaking championship game that averaged more than 1.2 million viewers, up 22% from the previous record set in 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year, we had the same goal, but I think the strategy was a bit too broad,\u201d LeRay told Marketing Brew. \u201cWe did a lot of research at the end of last year, some segmentation studies, that gave us two very distinct audiences that we felt it was most appropriate to target this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
The campaign may also represent the league\u2019s most high-energy to date\u2014literally. It\u2019s narrated by NWSL superstars Trinity Rodman, Mallory Swanson, and Sophia Wilson, who earned the nickname \u201cTriple Espresso\u201d during the USWNT\u2019s gold-medal run at the 2024 Paris Olympics.<\/p>\n
The combination of targeting and talent is meant to capture two different types of soccer fans while also positioning the NWSL as the league to watch for everyone in between.<\/p>\n
Just like me fr<\/h2>\n
One group the NWSL\u2019s marketing arm is focused on this year is young women who are \u201cpredisposed to soccer in some way,\u201d LeRay said. That could include women who play soccer, have family members who play, or are fans of the sport in general but don\u2019t yet follow the NWSL.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re in a very unique position where our audience is also on our stage, and putting the spotlight on them and letting their personalities shine is a great way to make connections with exactly who it is that we want to bring into this fold,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
To maximize those potential connections, \u201cImagine Missing This\u201d features players beyond Rodman, Swanson, and Wilson, who are all active now after last taking the field for the NWSL during the same time period in November 2024. There\u2019s also voice-overs from last year\u2019s leading rookie goal-scorer Riley Tiernan and back-to-back MVP Temwa Chawinga, as well as on-pitch shots of players like Gotham FC midfielder Rose Lavelle and Kansas City Current midfielder Lo\u2019eau LaBonta.<\/p>\n