Heroine Hit - August

Get ahead of the game with my monthly must & want-to-know women’s sport sponsorship & marketing hit

Michelob beer’s Instagram hack

Michelob Ultra beer is beating Instagram’s algorithm to increase the visibility of women’s sport. Instagram prioritises ‘saved’ posts in it’s feed so Michelob are asking people to hit ‘save’ whenever they see a women’s sports post so female athletes get more exposure.

The campaign is original, cost effective and most importantly has a tangible outcome with instant results. It’s a smart move by Michelob who are claiming a leadership position in women’s sport yet haven’t paid a cent in sponsorship rights. By playing an ‘Enabler’ role with this campaign, they are benefiting the wider women’s sport ecosystem as well as their own brand.

They have also committed $100m media inventory to women’s sport over the next 5 years and will ensure equal representation in their lifestyle marketing and Influencer roster.

Check out their ‘campaign explainer video’ and let’s get ‘Instagram saving’.

Gotta-know

1) Heineken scores women’s sport trifecta with sponsorship of W Series motor racing, Women’s Euro and UEFA Football Champions League.

2) The Hundred, cricket’s more entertainment based competition smashed their inaugural season with record audiences including 16.1m viewers and 267,000 attendees.

3) WTA and ATP have teamed up for their first co-branded campaign called ‘Tennis United’ which includes a content series, Cross-Court to promote both competitions. About time!

4) NCCA have finally seen sense and will use the hugely successful ‘March Madness’ branding on the women’s tournament. Talk about a no-brainer!

5) AIG have double-downed on their support of women’s golf, helping increase the AIG Women’s Open prize pool by $1.3m to $5.8m, with a promise to increase it again next year.

Women are most marketable athletes

Even as a huge women’s sport supporter, I was surprised (pleasantly) to see the top 3 places on SportsPro Media 50 Most Marketable Athletes list go to females.

1) Simone Biles
2) Naomi Osaka
3) Ashlyn Harris (USA soccer goalie)

The list goes beyond simple Reach and engagement metrics and measures athlete’s influence on social media by analyzing the value of their fans and the depth of their engagement.

Here are my key outtakes:

1. Diversity wins - The list includes a truly diverse range of women.
2. Social issues matter - The top athletes are big voices on social issues like mental health, LGBT+, Black Lives Matter.
3. Personality & family lives - Ashlyn Harris isn’t even a starter for the US team, in fact she didn’t make the Olympic squad but she is one of the biggest sharers of personal and behind-the-scenes content.
4. Female athletes are finally getting the recognition they deserve - Female athletes make up 40% of the list and half of the top ten were women.
5. Soccer dominates - 9 of the 20 female athletes on the list were footballers.
6. Social media is a key part of women’s sport - This list is another proof point that women’s sport fans rely heavily on social media to get their fix.
7. Value for money - Female athletes can offer immense value for brands given their social influence and often lower price points & less cluttered environments when compared with their male counterparts.

Insight winner

I normally try to avoid singling out feminine hygiene campaigns as I find right’s holders already place too much focus on these type of products when working to secure sponsorship around women’s sport but this is a great example of how using a simple yet powerful insight and execution can be effective.

Poise found that 27% of female athletes experience bladder leaks and 3/10 alter how they play or quit altogether. They combined this data with fun sport specific executions and tags like ‘For 1 in 3 who need leak protection as strong as their backhand’.

Athlete-to-fan commerce on the rise

Direct athlete-to-fan business is on the rise in women’s sport as more athletes look to be a part of all decisions as owners rather than just as the face of an established brand.

Track sensation, Allyson Felix is the latest athlete to create her own commerce platform, launching lifestyle brand, Saysh. US soccer stars, Tobin Heath, Christen Press and Megan Rapinoe formed community membership site, Re-inc after the World Cup and we’ve seen it on a smaller scale from players like Alanna Kennedy who sells personalised tattoo sheets.

We’re seeing more direct athlete-to-fan commerce sites emerge for reasons including:

1. More control of an athlete’s brand and post competition future
2. Greater revenue opportunities in what has historically been an undervalued female athlete sponsorship market
3. To take ownership of and leverage fan relationships
4. Mis-aligned or unhealthy sponsor partnerships
5. Involvement from product ideation to distribution

Expect to see more female athletes creating their own commerce platforms and more technologies emerge to support them to do this.

Olympic equality gold

The Olympics is one sport event where true gender equality exists; same marketing, same opportunity, same prize money, same facilities, same excitement, same attention and same media coverage. In fact the below chart shows that female Olympians took out the lion’s share of media coverage in Australia.

The Olympics just re-enforces that women’s sport has a supply-side issue, not a demand one so we need to give every women’s sport event the platform it deserves upfront in order to get the outcomes we want to see.

Innovation dominators

Women’s sport fans are early adopters of technology and they’ve certainly been getting a healthy dose of innovation this month.

The WNBA was busy launching technology-firsts in August:
1. TopShot, the NFT marketplace for authenticated basketball videos will now feature WNBA moments
2. WNBA is the first women’s sport on Buzzer, a mobile platform for personalization and discovery of live sports
3. WNBA players are now part of Parity Online Marketplace which matches players and brands for commercial opportunities

Other women’s sports also had killer technology moves this month:

4. NWSL gamified their international Twitch broadcasts, making viewing more interactive with real-time polls, trivia, predictions and more
5. Collective Marketplace launched an online platform that sells women’s sport memorabilia and merchandise
6. Burnley FC became the first women’s sport in the UK to broadcast their entire match over TikTok
7. WTA added Fanduel as it’s first ever Fantasy/Betting partner

My favourite technology innovation of the month:

8. AFLW launched a super cool partnership with Workplay to link female athletes up with companies to enhance their career skills, networks and work experience

Most excited about

🏊‍♀️ Paralympics: 24 August - 5 September

🎾 US Open: 30 August - 11 September

🏏 Cricket, NZ VS England: T20 - 2,5,10, ODI - 16,19,21,23,26 September

🏎 W Series, round 6 Zandvoort: 3-4 September

⚽️ FA Women’s Super League kicks off: 4 September

⛳️ Solheim Cup golf: 4-6 September

🏄‍♀️ WSL Rip Curl finals: 9-17 September

🏀 NZ National Basketball League final: 11 September

🏏 Cricket, Australia VS India ODI: 19,22,24 September

Spread the love

Please forward this on to anyone who may benefit so they can sign up. Thanks !