The International Cricket Council (ICC) has invited agencies and other qualified entities to submit proposals for marketing and PR services for the inaugural ICC Women’s Champions Trophy 2027.
The tournament will be held from February 14 to 28, 2027, at the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai and the Vadodara International Cricket Stadium. It will feature Australia, England, India, New Zealand, South Africa and Sri Lanka in a T20 format. The 15-day tournament will comprise 16 matches, with the top two teams from the round-robin league progressing to the February 28 final. The teams qualified based on their positions in the ICC Women’s T20I Team Rankings as of July 6, 2026.
According to the Request for Proposals (RFP), the appointed agency will be responsible for developing the tournament’s strategic and creative platform and delivering an integrated marketing and PR campaign. The mandate covers positioning, campaign narrative, creative development, PR, digital and social content, experiential and community initiatives, as well as campaign measurement and optimisation.
The ICC is also looking to use player, team and tournament storytelling, along with creators, influencers, ambassadors and other talent. The brief includes outreach to non-traditional media and the development of earned-media opportunities.
The RFP identifies female fan acquisition and engagement as a growth opportunity. The ICC’s fan data shows that its digital audience remains male-skewed, while the largest known age group in its wider fan database is 25-34, followed by 35-44. T20 is also the most-selected format preference in the ICC fan data warehouse.
Data from the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 showed that, across its web and app platforms in the subcontinent markets covered, men accounted for 87% of web users and 80% of app users, while women accounted for 12% and 20%, respectively. The 18-24 age group was the largest segment, representing 45% of web users and 52% of app users.
The RFP also cites learnings from previous ICC T20 events, noting that player-led narratives have generally generated more search, video and social engagement than generic tournament messaging. It also points to multilingual content as a way of extending reach beyond traditional audiences.
Three key activations are part of the brief. The first is a match schedule and general ticket sales launch on December 2, 2026, for which the agency will develop an activation involving participating-team talent, cricket legends and content creators. The event is expected to be telecast live by JioStar.
A Trophy Tour across the host cities is scheduled to begin on January 15, 2027. The appointed agency will be expected to propose the itinerary, locations, creative concept and audience engagement opportunities, along with PR, media, digital, social, content and community activation plans.
A Captains’ Carnival/Media Day is planned for February 12 or 13, bringing together the six participating captains for media access, tournament storytelling and editorial and social content ahead of the competition.
The ICC Business Corporation (IBC), a wholly owned subsidiary of the ICC, will assess proposals through technical and financial evaluations, along with assessments of applicants’ suitability, experience, qualifications and proposed organisational structure. The RFP also allows IBC to appoint separate applicants for different elements of the services rather than necessarily awarding the entire mandate to one agency.
The RFP was published on October 21, 2026. Agencies have until 5 pm Gulf Standard Time on November 4 to submit proposals. Shortlisting is scheduled for November 6, presentations, if required for November 10, and the final selection for November 11.
