In a new episode of our Private View(s) podcast, we discuss how MERCURY/13 is betting on branding, marketing and creativity to help women’s football become a major cultural and commercial force.
Mercury/13 is a pioneering new club ownership group that’s set their sights on one huge ambition: transform women’s football. Established by Victoire Cogevina Reynal and Mario Malavé, Mercury/13 has pledged $100m to build a portfolio of women’s super clubs – and a major part of that is investing heavily in those clubs’ brand presence.
In 2024 they acquired their first team, FC Como Women, and asked us to introduce them to agencies that could rebrand the club to build a global fanbase. Since then, FC Como Women has been featured in Vogue and BBC Sport, and signed on Nike as the club’s official partner. Co-CEO Victoire joined us for episode 24 of Private View(s) to share why brand and marketing is such a crucial factor in Mercury/13's mission to emancipate women’s sport around the world.
Scroll down for some soundbites from the episode, and listen to the whole thing on SPOTIFY, SOUNDCLOUD AND APPLE PODCASTS.
A ONCE-IN-A-GENERATION CHANCE
“Brands are seeing this once-in-a-generation opportunity to not only get eyeballs and recognition, but to truly support what is going to be, in my opinion, one of the biggest and most important gender equality movements of our generation.”
COPY-PASTE ISN’T THE ANSWER
“Copy-pasting or just transferring whatever has been done in the past to now was just not good enough. It was being done and some had reached some level of success because we women can do the impossible with no resources, but ultimately it was not optimum at all. And I think now we're seeing that change dramatically. But those properties, those tournaments, those brands that are out there are still built in the old model. And that to us was an opportunity.”
WHAT DOES A WOMEN’S SPORTS BRAND LOOK LIKE?
“If women are going to start consuming sports, what do they want to consume? Is it what men have been consuming? Do they want to consume something new? So it’s having the freedom to rethink what a club crest needs to look like, and the use of colours, and the use of fonts, and how we show up in socials, and how we show up on our website. It’s things that feel minor but ultimately were a chance to rip up the blueprint and think something new and different.”
FINDING AN AGENCY WITHOUT ‘BAGGAGE’
“Ultimately, we needed creative people that didn’t have baggage of what football felt like, so they were able to create a brand that really broke rules. That was part of the brief: I didn’t want to see a crest that’s been built like every other football crest. I wanted them to reimagine the use of colours, in a way that other football clubs have never done.”
MERCURY/13 AS A HOUSE OF BRANDS
“We always knew that every club we would incorporate in our portfolio would have a distinctive brand that would speak to a very well-defined segment and that would be able to live independently. To serve a female population, you’ve got to understand the segments and understand what matters to them, and deliver a brand and an experience and values that are aligned to those segments. We believe that will build a diverse portfolio that speaks to different segments, and will look very different from one another.”
IMPACT AND SUCCESS AREN’T EXCLUSIVE
"You can be very successful in a business forum and you can also have great impact – and that's the big vision here. If we build these clubs into globally renowned brands that people love and follow and make a part of their daily lives, then we've taken a massive step forward, and we've proven the magic that happens when there is emancipation and when there is freedom for women. And that, I think, is the most important thing that we're trying to achieve.”
A GOOD BRAND CHANGES THE COURSE
“The whole point of a good brand is to make someone feel seen, and to feel celebrated for what they’ve done. And that can really change the course of a person’s life at the right time. The right moment, the right ad, the right copy, the right image can all make someone find motivation to do something. They can make someone feel like they matter. So to me, brand is everything, and when done right it’s truly life-changing.”
