Heroine Hit - May

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

Rise Of The Avatars

Kiwi Paralympian, Holly Robinson is one of nine athletes who feature in the official video game of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics. The game places players into a virtual Paralympic Games held in a futuristic and inclusive metropolis and players can equip themselves with prosthetic arms, legs and wheelchairs and train in a number of para-sports.

The developers said the game was an important milestone in embracing diversity in a way that hasn't been seen in the video game industry elsewhere.

I’m excited to see female and para-athletes play a bigger part as the virtual and real worlds further merge. Lets just hope industry leaders like Epic Games and the NBA will have the same mindset in the future when announcing partnerships like their Fortnight NBA game crossover.

5 Gotta-know

1) 20 upcoming games of Vitality Superleague Netball will be offered as a unique and immersive live Virtual Reality experience in a broadcast-first by Sky

2) Women’s Tour De France will be revived in 2022 after a 32 year absence

3) 22 year old, Naomi Osaka pulled in a record US$55 million over the past year - $50 million was from brand partners, only trailing Roger Federer, LeBron James and Tiger Woods

4) NWSL have nabbed Mastercard in what is now a long list of new sponsors with star defender, Crystal Dunn joining as a global brand ambassador

5) Google has become a sponsor of the WNBA and are already activating creatively (read on)

Unwanted Gold Medal

New Zealand took out global first place in what could arguably be the most undesired gold medal win. Research uncovered New Zealand as the world leader when it comes to women’s sport coverage vs men’s but the depressing news was it sat at just 15% of total coverage - hardly a desirable proportion in 2021.

While it is great to see New Zealand leading the charge, coverage shrunk to just 7% when evaluating the top 5 sports and had only improved 4% since 2011.

While it was hardly uplifting reading, it’s great to have this research available as a benchmark for serious change in NZ and globally with sponsors, sport organisations and media all aggressively needing to look at tools to tip this balance.

Media Gold Rush

Just Women’s Sport, a media platform which solely covers women’s sport has attracted US$3.5m in funding from investors which includes basketballer, Kevin Durant.

The Gist, a witty 3 x weekly newsletter that caters to female sport fans also secured US $1m funding to further build their offering.

People are finally starting to see the women’s sport gold mine!

It’s Raining WNBA

Google launched their new WNBA partnership with this fun little execution for the competition’s tip-off.

They also displayed WNBA schedules, news and content whenever anyone typed WNBA in Google Search - streamlining content, driving discoverability and making it easier to draw in new fans.

Google are also helping bring the broadcast of 25 WNBA gams to ESPN and are part of their 30/30 documentary series.

She Shoes

Puma have been driving change in the women’s sport shoe department this month. As part of their partnership with Motorsport’s innovative W Series they have produced customised race gear specifically tailored to the female body - rather than redesigned versions of their male counterparts.

A few days earlier they announced they were teaming up with WNBA Finals MVP, Breanna Stewart to create a signature basketball shoe - the first female signature shoe in more than a decade.

Social Media Blackout Hurt Women’s Sport

While we all want to see the eradication of online abuse, rugby journalist Stella Mills had an interesting take on sports social media boycott which took place over the first weekend in May.

She questioned whether it was the most effective form of action for the likes of women’s rugby when social media is often the only form of coverage that women’s sport receives.

She agreed the boycott was well-intentioned but when evaluated against the context of the development of the women’s game and on a massive weekend of women’s rugby with England playing France that women’s sport didn’t have the luxury to go silent.

I tend to agree and wonder if the blackout campaign was thought up through a male sport-first lens.

Marketing Action Plan

Here are 7 of my favourite easy-to-action steps as part of my Women’s Sport Marketing Action Plan that helps sponsors and sport organisations avoid simply replicating men’s sport;

1) Provide player names alongside images so fans can familiarize themselves with athletes
2) Present personal stories in the context of sport and as elite athletes
3) Provide athletes with access to training and game imagery so they can edit and distribute on their own channels
4) Negotiate rights to maximise the distribution of broadcast snippets and side-line antics on your own channels
5) Adapt your match-day experience, food options, ticketing and content to reflect your women’s sport audience and brand
6) Demonstrate ROI by showing how women’s sport has stronger sponsor outcomes and get away from broadcast and Reach focused metrics
7) Allocate a higher proportion of your sponsor budget to ‘leverage’

Mom-athletes Dominate Yet Again

I posted the below photo on Linkedin one week ago and it’s had over 35,000 views and 1300 reactions…..and counting.

It features Orlando Pride players Alex Morgan, Sydney Leroux, Ashlyn Harris and Ali Krieger with their kids. Its organic nature is obviously a reason for it’s popularity but more interestingly is that the only other post I’ve had more reaction to was an Adidas campaign celebrating a breastfeeding activist mom in Adidas sports gear.

My take - people love and want to see mom’s and sport together. I think this is such an untapped and powerful territory for brands and sport organisations to play in!

Most excited about

🎾 Roland Garros French Open: 30 May - 13 June

🏑 NZ Vantage Black Sticks vs Australia Hockeyroos: 1 June

⛳️ US Women’s Golf Open: 3-6 June

🏄‍♀️ Jeep Surf Ranch Pro: 18-20 June

🏉 Australia Super W Rugby starts: 19 June

⛳️ KPMG Women’s Golf Championship: 24-27 June

🏉 State of Origin Rugby League: 25 June

🏎 W Series Motorsport launch: 26 June

🏆 Vitality Superleague Netball Grand Final: 27 June

🎾 Wimbledon starts: 28 June

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