Matildas lifted Optus brand by almost $1b after cyberattack
The Matildas’ record-breaking FIFA Women’s World Cup campaign has contributed to a near $1 billion recovery in the brand value of Optus, almost erasing the catastrophic falls after last year’s cyberattack.
Every year, Brand Finance Australia measures and ranks the top 100 brands in Australia by brand value. In 2023, Woolworths topped the list at $16.2 billion, but it was Optus’ $1.2 billion nosedive that raised eyebrows. The telco brand’s valuation would have grown to $4.5 billion, but instead fell to $3.3 billion.
A hacker accessed the personal information of about 9.7 million former and current customers in September 2022, leaking driver’s licences, Medicare numbers and passports on the dark web. The company has since blocked a Deloitte review of its security systems from being released amid class action proceedings on behalf of Optus customers.
Matildas fans at live sites watched an Optus Sport stream. Getty
But the market has a short memory, and Optus’ big bet on the FIFA Women’s World Cup, in which the Matildas united the largest TV audiences in history as they competed on local soil, have driven big returns for the telco’s reputation. It has been a big part of Commonwealth Bank’s marketing strategy as well. More than 11 million people tuned in for the Matildas’ semi-final loss to England.
“We took a huge knock,” said Matt Williams, Optus’ managing director for marketing and revenue. “The Brand Finance valuation occurred exactly at the time of [the cyberattack], in October… But we went all out to engage Australia. The Matildas and Women’s World Cup captured the imagination of the whole of Australia.”
A brand’s value is a measure of how much of a company’s profits are attributable to its “brand”. It is a
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