Why Marketers should have women's sport sponsorship FOMO

Sport is unrivaled when it comes to the ability to spark passion and a sense of community. This is well known by sponsors who are expected to spend over USD $46 billion this year trying to capture the emotional rub-off effects for their brands. Sadly the women’s game has accounted for a tiny fraction and while key events like the Women’s World Cup hopefully increased this proportion the last recorded data showed women’s sport sponsorship accounted for a mere 0.4% of total sport sponsorship.

This hasn’t been due to a lack of opportunity provided by women’s sport but rather a lack of brands prepared to take the leap. However, times are changing and big name brands are seizing the opportunities women’s sport is offering. Visa recently committed to a 7-year partnership with UEFA Football, AIG signed on to a 5-year title sponsorship deal with LPGA’s British Open and Barlays committed to a 3-year partnership with the English FA Women's Super League for a reported 10 million pounds. Those brands prepared to get behind the game now will see the biggest returns down the track.

5 reasons to become a women’s sport sponsor right now

1. Unprecedented growth and scale

a) Audience

This summer in France, we saw audience records smashed. We had the biggest viewership for a women’s football game ever with 59m Brazilians watching Brazil vs France. England vs USA was the highest peak UK audience this year with 11.7m viewers watching on BBC, beating the men’s FA Cup final just months earlier. The final between the USA and the Netherlands garnered 14m in the USA and FIFA estimated 1b watched across the 4-week tournament. The interest is across channels too with FIFA social accounts getting over 433m views. It’s not just football either, the Wimbledon women’s final last year pulled 4.6m viewers which was 100,000 more than the men’s final and the Women’s Rugby World Cup game between England Roses and NZ Black Ferns netted over 2.6m viewers on ITV while the Cricket World Cup a couple of years ago estimated over 180 million people around the world watched with a 300% increase in viewing hours compared to the previous World Cup.

b) Attendance

People are getting out to support their favourite players in the flesh too. The AFLW Grand Final reached stadium capacity with over 53,000 fans walking through the gates to watch the Adelaide Crows beat the Carlton Blues. The initial estimates of 25,000 saw organisers scrambling to open extra sections and gates on the day. Over in Europe more than 63,000 fans turned up to watch Barcelona take on Atletico Madrid in Spain and just two weeks ago we saw over 31,000 fans pay to watch the opening round of the Barclays Women's Super League at Ethiad Stadium.

c) Fan following

People are gaining a stronger relationship with their favorite teams, players and sports with more than half of Australians following women’s sport and 66% of the population being interested in at least one female sport. When we drill specifically into sports fans there’s even greater interest with 84% of people interested in women’s sport. We’re seeing an explosion on social media around female athletes with Serena Williams capturing an incredible 11m fans on Instagram and Alex Morgan, USA’s star striker hitting over 9m followers. During the Women’s World Cup there were over 2m conversations using #WWC and FIFA social accounts picked up another 2m followers.

“84% of Australian sport fans are interested in women’s sport”

2. Affordable entry point and balanced pricing

With price tags starting in the tens of millions to become a sponsor for the world’s best men’s teams and events it means you have to be a big company with big profits. Huge demand for these men’s properties means prices can be grossly inflated pushing sponsorship deals well beyond the value they can deliver.

Women’s sport on the other hand provides an opportunity for brands to be part of the passion that sport brings but often at a fraction of the price of their male counterparts. Lower entry-points can open up an opportunity for smaller brands who may not ordinarily be able to get into sport sponsorship. Right now brands have an opportunity to lock in long-term partnerships at current rates knowing that the value is going to increase in the coming years giving them not only value for money but also certainty in their future marketing plans and calendar.

People could argue that the women’s game doesn’t reach the mass audiences that men’s sport can but you pay for this greater reach even when some of this audience may not be in your target market. Also any sponsorship pricing including women’s sport should already factor in audience reach anyway.

3. Flexible partnerships and greater value exchange

A historical lack of commercial and media interest have meant many women’s sports have had to be creative when it comes to attracting partners. There’s often more willingness and less red-tape to push the boundaries and in many cases the sports haven’t been bogged down with third parties so sponsors can directly shape their activations with right’s holders in the early stages of negotiation.

For example, in 2016 Manchester City decided to stream a competitive women’s game on Facebook, becoming the first UK football club to do so. They didn’t have to appease rights holders across multiple regions and could be where fans were and create a conversation and community around the game - a great thing for sponsors to be a part of.

Many female athletes want to see the game grow and are willing to go the extra mile when it comes to media interviews or sponsor content and activations. My PR colleagues have been known to deal with disgruntled men’s players reluctantly doing a half-ass media interview whereas their female counterparts who have spent all day at their ‘real job’ are enthusiastic to do an interview at 9pm after finishing training - even thanking the PR team for getting them the coverage!

4. Brand story-telling power

More than anything, what women’s sport offers the most right now is the staggering ability to tell powerful and inspiring stories and sponsors have an opportunity to be part of this.

Last year a Nielsen report found that people viewed women’s sport as more inspiring and progressive than men’s. When it comes to being clean, unsurprisingly women sport again came out on top when compared to men’s sport.

When it comes to brand alignment, being inspiring, progressive and clean are some of the most desirable values a sponsor could sit alongside. Combine that with other sought-after brand pillars that women’s sport offers like equality, resilience, achievement, teamwork, diversity and well-being and you have a very powerful platform to communicate your story to consumers but also to stakeholders like employees. Arkema, a french chemicals and materials giant sponsored the FIFA Women’s World Cup with their Chairman and CEO saying it offered a great opportunity for them to support and enhance the status of women both in sports and at work and on the field.

“People find women’s sport more inspiring, progressive and clean than men’s sport”

With women’s sponsorship still being relatively uncluttered, the opportunity for your brand to stand-out and connect with people is greater and you can have a bigger share of voice and play a stronger part in the conversation. You have an opportunity right now to establish yourself as an early player and own this space.

5. Opportunity to test, learn and validate ideas

With progressive CMO’s moving to a more agile approach and using data to help evaluate long term decisions, women’s sport offers a great market to test ideas, validate campaigns and learn from them without the risk of many of it’s male counterparts where a bad campaign may end up on the front page. Women’s sport can be more forgiving with fans still cheering on its success. Also, with lower entry points and potentially lower talent costs it can be a more cost effective way to capture valuable data and insights when compared to the men’s game.

The Gist

• Brands have been passing on the opportunity to back women’s sport with just 0.4% of total sport sponsorship going to the women’s game
• Forward-thinking brands are seeing the value that women’s sport is offering with big name brands like Visa, AIG and Barclays locking in long-term sponsorship’s with UEFA, British Golf Open and Women's Super League respectively 
• 5 reasons you should get into women’s sport sponsorship now:

1. Women’s sport is experiencing unprecedented growth in viewership, attendance and fan following
2. It offers an opportunity to be part of the passion and community that sport offers but with more balanced pricing than the men's game
3. Women’s sport has historically had to think creatively and push the boundaries to gain interest and sponsorship so are open to being more flexible, agile and ground-breaking to offer value and ensure successful partnerships
4. The brand values associated with women’s sport through being inspiring, progressive, clean, inclusive, resilient and good for well-being along with equality offer unbelievable brand storytelling power. Also, women’s sport is still an uncluttered market so brands have an ability to cement themselves as a leader and be heard
5. Women’s sport offers a platform to test, validate and gain key insights and data 

Don’t miss the boat on the opportunities that women’s sport is offering brands. Get on-board now to reap the biggest rewards and establish your brand as a leader in this space.

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First published on www.teamheroine.com - Champion's of Women's Sport Sponsorship.