Heroine Hit - July

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

The Hundred smashes it for six

The Hundred which has gender equality at it’s heart - investing equally in marketing men and women and using gender neutral terms like batsperson has scored a hattrick for the launch of it’s new 100 ball cricket competition.

1. A women’s game opened the tournament and broke viewership records with 1.95 million people tuning in. 3 days later, domestic attendance records were broken with 13,537 fans turning up at Lords for London Spirit Vs Oval Invincibles.

2. Innovative marketing included female stars, Ebony Rainford-Brent, Heather Knight and Kate Cross as Lego figurines in a video that educated fans on the rules in a fun and entertaining way.

3. Spirit’s captain, Heather Knight was also turned into a hyper-real avatar to provide fans with a state of the art digital experience that gets them closer to their heroes.

Great to see such strong results when female athletes and competitions are profiled with the same importance as their male counterparts.

Gotta-know

1) Gatorade has become the newest partner of Hollywood’s star-studded NWSL team, Angel City FC.

2) The Matildas have delivered the largest TV audience by an Australian women’s team, attracting nearly 1.5 million viewers for their Olympic football game against Sweden.

3) UEFA have nabbed their 6th women’s sponsor with Spanish pharmaceutical company, Grifols signing a 4-year deal.

4) Despite bowing out of the Olympics, it’s been a huge month for Naomi Osaka’s brand, claiming ESPY female athlete of the year, lighting the Olympic cauldron, starring in the official Tokyo Olympic ads and having her documentary released on Netflix.

5) US Olympic flag bearer and basketball sensation, Sue Bird has teamed up with Moët & Chandon in a slick and unique execution to toast greatness under pressure.

Adidas score shocker own goal

Another women’s jersey launch and another sponsor red card. This time the penalty was against Adidas, who embarrassingly got the name of Manchester United defender, Millie Turner wrong, calling her Amy Turner on their promotional material below. What was more shocking is that she is part of the Adidas family as one of their sponsored athletes. 

Adidas immediately owned it but the damage had already been done and is another example of why it pays to have dedicated resource for women’s programmes with people who are familiar with and immersed in the women’s game.

Avoid being an offender by taking a refresher with my Dummies Guide to Kit Launches.

Creating male athlete allies

Male athletes can play a powerful and important role in championing women’s sport. Their influence, scale and brand power can pull in new fans and interest.

I’ve created a 5 Step Guide that outlines the power of male athlete allies and 5 ways to create them which goes into more detail on the below points.

5 ways to create male athlete allies:

1. Inspire them and make it connect

2. Put them at the centre of the story

3. Supply them with the goods

4. Incentivise them

5. Remind and proactively engage them

Athleta lead the way….again

Gap’s activewear brand, Athleta continue to establish themselves as the biggest champion of female athletes. Having nabbed sprinter, Allyson Felix from Nike after controversial maternity clauses, they have double-downed on their support for athlete-moms by offering $200,000 in childcare costs for professional female athletes. They also lured Simone Biles away from Nike earlier this year and are teaming up on an apparel line and post Olympic tour.

There are huge opportunities for brands to win the hearts of fans by creating partnerships that add to the wider women’s sport ecosystem rather than sponsorships that simply deliver transactional value.

Female athletes on a high

Cannabis and athlete wellbeing has been a hotly discussed topic after the suspension of Olympic gold medal track favourite, Sha’Carri Richardson.

She garnered huge support from fellow athletes and now US Olympic basketballer, Sue Bird has joined fellow female athletes, Megan Rapinoe and softball sensation, Haley McLeney to become the newest face of athlete-built cannabis brand, Mendi.

Mendi provides all-natural solutions for sports and athletics recovery and sells products like inflammation sticks, lifestyle gummies, massage oils and creams.

What female athletes want to wear

It was great to see that everyone was as outraged as I was at the ‘short’s disgrace’ with my Linkedin post below garnering over 50,000 views and thousands of reactions.

Here is what girls in sport want from sport uniforms:

1. Uniforms that make them feel ready for sport

2. Clothing that fits them well

3. Dark coloured bottoms

4. Uniforms made from appropriate material

5. No unisex clothing

6. Do not want to feel overexposed in their uniforms

Check out the full Sport Uniform Report by Victoria University & Government but if you work for an apparel or sport organisation, above all stop critiquing and making female athletes feel uncomfortable.

Game on for women’s sport

Sport’s gaming is a multi-billion dollar business and it’s good to see companies finally realising the opportunity that women’s sport presents for the industry.

Sega’s hugely successful, Football Manager simulation game which has sold over 20 million copies is planning to add women’s professional teams to their game.

EA Sports’ new golf game will incorporate female players and one of the LPGA’s Championship courses and their FIFA 2022 game will feature former England player and sport’s presenter Alex Scott as the first female English-speaking commentator.

Sticking with firsts, WNBA star, Candace Parker will be the first woman to feature on the cover of the billion dollar NBA2K video game as part the WNBA’s 25th anniversary celebration.

Immeasurable ROI

It’s easy to get caught up in sponsor measurements of ROI, KPI’s, ‘likes’, engagement, Ratecard and views but if this isn’t what a successful sponsorship looks like, I don’t know what is.

This is Mia Stewart at her local Woolworths next to a poster of Paralympic swimmer, Ellie Cole.

Remember, sponsors have the opportunity to create and be part of powerful and immeasurable moments like this!

Most excited about

🏋️‍♀️ CrossFit Games: 27 July to 1 August

🏆 Suncorp Super Netball final round: 4-7 August

🏆 ANZ Netball Premiership finals: 1 & 8 August

🏅 Tokyo Olympics finishes: 8 August

🏄‍♀️ Corona Open Mexico: 10-19 August

🏀 Commissioner’s Cup: 12 August

⛳️ AIG Women’s Golf Open: 19-22 August

🏉 NRLW starts: 21 August (tbc)

🥇 Tokyo Paralympics open: 24 August

🏎 W Series Germany: 27-28 August

🎾 US Open starts: 30 August

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