With the U.S. Women’s National Team roster (finally) revealed and under a month to go until the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup kicks off, Fox Sports unveiled its massive marketing campaign for the tournament.
The USWNT is targeting an unprecedented third-consecutive title, and Fox has the exclusive television rights for the July 20-August 20 event—kicking off a host of activations throughout the country, many of which will continue throughout the tournament.
The company will present all 64 matches on Fox and FS1, with every match streaming on the Fox Sports app.
“There’s going to be a moment this summer when the world is going to focus on these athletes from all over the country, and at the red-hot center of that is the U.S. team,” Robert Gottlieb, president of marketing at Fox Sports, previously told Adweek.
Perhaps no element of the campaign is more prominent than Liberty Alex: a 20-foot, 825-pound real-life statue of USWNT star and captain Alex Morgan as the Statue of Liberty.
Fox made the sculpture from a 3D scan the network took of Morgan back in 2019, and the star wore the flag/dress at a photo shoot in April. It took a little over a month to complete the build.
Like the snow globe installations during the 2022 Men’s FIFA World Cup, the statue will tour the country, making several high-profile stops.
Morgan herself saw the statue for the first time at the USWNT on Wednesday as part of a special unveiling ceremony in Los Angeles. Next up, Liberty Alex heads to the Concacaf Gold Cup match, where the U.S. men’s team faces Trinidad & Tobago in Charlotte on July 2 before appearing at the MLB All-Star Game in Seattle on July 11.
After that, the next stop is Fox Square in New York from July 16-26, with additional stops to be announced.
“Fans can interact with it. They can take pictures,” Gottlieb said, noting that, like the snowglobes, the statue provides further exposure opportunities for the tournament across marquee events and through a social presence.
Fox also plans to utilize the statue as part of a larger out-of-home campaign in a fully integrated capacity through billboards, digital and print. There will also be full billboards of the statue in New York, Los Angeles, Seattle and Dallas.