Women's Sport Marketing Action Plan

Women’s Sport Marketing Action Plan

A number of women’s sport organisations and sponsors are missing opportunities to capture new fans and revenue because they are simply replicating men’s sport marketing. 

Women’s sport has its own unique audiences, values, history and opportunity and needs to be marketed differently to men’s sport. 

Read my blog on the 5 differences between marketing women’s and men’s sport HERE.

In addition to the above blog post, I’ve created this ‘Women’s Sport Marketing Action Plan’ that includes actions that women’s sport can easily take to create winning women’s sport marketing and ensure it’s not just a copy and paste of men’s sport marketing.

Actionable steps for a winning women’s sport marketing plan

1. Overshare

Given the lack of media coverage women’s sport has received, people may not be as familiar with athlete’s names, faces, team quirks or triumphs so more context, backstory and details about personal journeys need to be shared when compared to men’s sport.

Actionable steps:

  • Provide player names alongside imagery so people can better familiarise themselves with athletes

  • If execution allows, include more personal details like nickname, age, position, hometown

  • Share athlete’s personal stories in the build up to events and matches to strengthen connection rather than just crossing straight to the game i.e. playing against her old college roommate and has overcome two broken legs to be here today

  • Give stories context i.e. defender, Sally Pearson transferred to OL Reign from her hometown club of Kansas City

  • Showcase personality i.e. Sally is a bull-dozer on the rugby field, Sally is the resident team jokester who entertains everyone on bus trips to away games

  • Create strong narratives by presenting more personal and lifestyle stories in the context of sport and as elite athletes

2. Social Media Ka-pow

Given it’s social media origins, it’s less restrictive right’s and ability to pull in ‘Casual Fan’s, social media has a disproportionate influence on women’s sport when compared to men’s.

Actionable steps:

  • View social media as a key part of your women’s sport marketing strategy, not as an after-thought left to the university intern

  • Use social media to keep existing fans updated with basic information like squad announcements and scores as it’s often the go-to for existing fans given media coverage inconsistency (graphic templates are an effective way to do this)

  • Leverage female athlete’s social media savviness and use as a portal to generate greater fandom and participation

  • Support athletes by supplying them with footage and imagery (from games & training) to edit and distribute on their own channels (and a platform that is easy for them to access this). Don’t restrict them unnecessarily and share best practice to help them build their own community

  • Ensure rights negotiations maximise your ability to distribute broadcast highlights, live broadcast snippets, side-line & stadium antics to push out on your own social channels

  • Capture Casual Fans via social media and cross-pollinate with other sport codes and men’s teams 

  • Don’t forget to leverage all your partner communities like sponsors, athletes and official supporter clubs to increase reach and engagement

3. Unique audience & values

Women’s sport has a different audience and brand to men’s sport which should guide all your marketing decisions. Women’s sport uniqueness should be leveraged to attract sponsors, engage fans and players.

Actionable steps:

  • Understand your specific and unique women’s sport fans and put them at the centre of all your marketing decisions

  • Change your match-day experience, food options, ticketing, social content, marketing videos and artwork to reflect your women’s sport audience and brand i.e. swap the pie + beer combo for a picnic basket in a family zone and an earlier kick off-to reflect the difference in fan behaviours between men and women’s sport fans

  • Understand your specific and unique women’s sport brand and incorporate this story when communicating with sponsors, fans and stakeholders

  • Encourage your sponsors to become long-term partners and activate in a way that delivers results for them and the wider ecosystem 

  • Allow athletes to be authentic and embrace their social activism and align with brands who share the same position

4. trade in your measures of success

Women’s sport should be evaluated holistically and take in to consideration it’s unique value offering including factors like access to a specific audience, a less cluttered environment, relatable and accessible athlete personalities, flexibility, strong brand values, growth opportunities, lower entry points, stronger emotional connection and not be primarily evaluated on broadcast Reach.

Actionable steps:

  • Ditch metrics purely focused on broadcast Reach and look at value, price and KPI’s on wider factors

  • View women’s sport as a strong player in the ‘Consideration’ segment of the marketing funnel

  • Do not view women’s sport as a box-ticking exercise but rather as platform that can deliver both strong commercial and purpose-driven outcomes

  • If  looking to demonstrate ROI on women’s sport, instead of focusing on broadcast Reach (and corresponding Ratecard), the formula below can actually show women’s sport to have a stronger commercial return than men’s sport;
    Stronger sponsor outcomes + lower cost = greater ROI

  • Work collaboratively with sport bodies, media, brands and athletes to set KPIs that are specific to women’s sport

5. Budget somersault

Women’s sport generally has lower sponsorship entry points but may not have as big as Reach when compared with men’s sport. A sponsorship budget ratio of 60% sponsorship fee to 40% leverage budget can be be flipped to 40%/60% to account for lower upfront sponsorship rights fees and ensure people see a sponsor campaign by extending reach through ‘paid media’.

  • Allocate a higher proportion of your leverage budget to women’s sport than you would your male sport sponsorship

  • It all depends on your objectives and category but I’d recommend using a flipped 40% to 60% ratio as a base (right’s fee vs leverage budget)

Read my blog post HERE on the 5 Differences When Marketing Women’s Sport blog post for more information.

Please share this with any Marketers you think may benefit and subscribe to my monthly newsletter HERE for more women’s sport sponsorship & marketing insight and must and want-to-know action.

Rebecca Sowden