Millions of English football fans ask the same question before every England match: “What time is kickoff?” For England’s opening 2026 World Cup fixture against Croatia, Women’s Aid and ELVIS gave everyone the wrong answer. Deliberately.
The Campaign
The Other Kick Off launched on June 17, 2026, the day before England’s opening World Cup match. Across digital billboards, mobile ad vans, fly posters, fan zones, transport hubs, and areas near pubs in London and beyond, Women’s Aid displayed a kickoff time of 11:37 pm. The England match against Croatia kicked off at 9 pm. 11:37 pm is not a football time.
It is estimated that domestic abuse is most likely to surge after the final whistle.
The time was not invented. ELVIS calculated it using a specific methodology: historical domestic abuse reporting data, average match duration, half-time length, added time, and documented patterns of post-match drinking and travel time home. The calculation produced a specific number because the threat it describes is specific. 11:37 pm marks the moment thousands of women dread most, one that never appears on any fixture list, only in the data of police reports and emergency calls.
The Behavioural Insight Behind the Media Strategy
ELVIS built the campaign around a behaviour that happens before every England match, not during it. Before the game starts, millions of people search, text, or ask aloud: “What time is kickoff?” ELVIS intercepted that question in search, social, and OOH simultaneously, at the exact moment fans were already looking for a kickoff time, and gave them a different one.
Josh Green, CCO at ELVIS, described the campaign’s psychological engine precisely: “Getting the wrong answer to a question you were already asking is a very different experience to being told something you didn’t want to hear.” That distinction is the campaign’s entire strategic logic. A conventional awareness campaign about domestic abuse and football reaches an audience that has opted in to receive the message. A campaign that disguises a kickoff time reaches people in the middle of doing something else, before they have decided whether or not to engage with the subject.
A QR code on every placement revealed the story behind the time and directed visitors to womensaid.org.uk for support, resources, and ways to take action.
The Time Zone Problem That Made 2026 More Dangerous
The 2026 campaign addresses a structural problem that the 2022 campaign, “He’s Coming Home,” did not face: the tournament is hosted across North American time zones. England’s matches begin at 9 pm UK time. The final whistle falls at approximately 11 pm. Post-match drinking and travel home push that window to 11:37 pm, well into the hours when victims are most isolated, support services have reduced capacity, and the streets where help might be found are quieter.
Farah Nazeer, CEO of Women’s Aid, described what the campaign is communicating: “When it comes to kick-off, we’re not talking about football, we’re talking about what happens after. For many women and children, the final whistle signals the beginning of something frightening and potentially life-threatening. Whether England wins, loses, or draws, no woman or child should live in fear of that final whistle blow.”
The Research That Makes the Claim Credible
The 38% and 26% figures underpinning the campaign come from Lancaster University research by Kirby and Francis, published in the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency in 2014. The study found that reported domestic abuse incidents in England involving the national team rose by 38% when England lost and by 26% even when they won. The research is peer-reviewed, widely cited, and directly sourced. Women’s Aid does not claim that football causes domestic abuse. The organisation explicitly states that domestic abuse is never caused by any external event. What the research documents is that an existing pattern of abuse escalates when specific triggering conditions, including heightened emotion and alcohol, are present.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper responded to the campaign’s launch directly: “Nobody should live in fear because of a football match. As a Mum and a Nana, I find it heartbreaking that while many families come together to enjoy the World Cup, some women and children are left dreading the final whistle. The latest Women’s Aid campaign shines a powerful light on this reality. We know domestic abuse can escalate during major sporting events, and there is never any excuse for it. Tackling this is central to our VAWG Strategy, including placing domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms through Raneem’s Law and rolling out Domestic Abuse Protection Orders.”
The Monster AdVan Placement That Made the Argument in One Frame
The campaign’s most precise single execution came from Monster Outdoor’s AdVans, which were positioned outside specific pubs in Central London. On one side of the van: “11:37pm Kick Off.” Directly beside it, on the pub’s own matchday board: “England v Croatia, 9pm Kick-Off.” Two kickoff times. The same street. The campaign’s entire argument visible in a single glance for anyone walking into the pub.
The Campaign It Follows
The Other Kick Off is the direct successor to Women’s Aid’s 2022 World Cup campaign, He’s Coming Home, which reimagined the lyrics of England’s most famous football anthem as a warning. He’s Coming Home also won recognition across advertising award shows for using football culture to deliver a domestic abuse message. The Other Kick Off is structurally more precise: rather than reframing an existing piece of culture, it intercepts a real-time behaviour that millions of people are performing, the pre-match kickoff search, and delivers a different answer inside that behaviour at the exact moment it is happening.
All media space for The Other Kick Off was donated by The Outernet, Ocean Outdoor, JCDecaux, Open Media, Alight Media, Grazia, and Metro. PR support was provided by Mischief.
Campaign Name: The Other Kick Off
Agency Name: ELVIS / PR: Mischief / OOH: Monster Outdoor (AdVans); The Outernet, Ocean Outdoor, JCDecaux, Open Media, Alight Media (donated media)
Brand Name: Women’s Aid
Location: London and national OOH, United Kingdom (England v Croatia, FIFA World Cup 2026, June 17, 2026)
