WHATEVER IT TAKES | ICC WOMEN’S T20 WORLD CUP 2024 - OFFICIAL EVENT SONG | W.i.S.H. | Mikey McCleary - Ad Analysis

The International Cricket Council's 2024 Women's T20 World Cup anthem, 'Whatever It Takes,' is a calculated strategic pivot. It moves away from the traditional sports marketing playbook of epic player montages and soaring orchestral scores, and instead dives headfirst into the world of global pop. The core insight driving this campaign is that to capture the next generation of fans, you have to compete for their attention not against other sports, but against all forms of entertainment—music, streaming, and social media. By packaging the tournament as a blockbuster entertainment event, complete with a dedicated pop anthem and high-production music video, the ICC is attempting to place women's cricket directly into the cultural conversation of its target audience. [5]

The execution follows the classic AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) model, optimized for a social media environment. It grabs Attention immediately with the sound and fury of a modern pop track, showing the girl group W.i.S.H. on a red carpet. There's no cricket for the first ten seconds; the hook is pure style. Interest is built through the cinematic metaphor—the band works at a movie theater where posters of cricketers replace film stars, framing the athletes as blockbuster heroes. This clever device attempts to transfer the 'must-see' status of a movie onto the tournament. Desire is generated by intercutting the high-energy dance choreography with archival footage of peak cricket action. The chorus's refrain, 'we're gonna make the ground shake,' is the bridge that connects the dancers' energy to the players' on-field power. The quick cuts and vibrant visuals maintain high engagement, but the final step, Action, is where the execution falters. The ad concludes with a logo and dates, but no clear directive, leaving the viewer hyped but directionless.

Ultimately, the debrief for this campaign should focus on the inherent trade-off. In its quest for a younger audience, the ICC has created a piece of content that is undeniably modern and energetic. [4] It successfully borrows equity from the world of pop music to feel relevant. However, the connection to the sport itself feels secondary, almost like B-roll in the artists' own music video. The risk is that the ad entertains without converting. It might earn millions of views from music fans who like the song but fail to translate that attention into dedicated tournament viewership because it never truly sells the core product: the drama and skill of the game itself.