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As more brands wake up to the opportunities of women’s sport, the Football Association is hunting for brands that can boost the profile of the women’s game.
Women’s sport has long been seen as the poor cousin of its male counterpart. Match attendance is significantly lower, less people tune in from home and so sponsors have been slower to get on board.
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In 2016/17, the average attendance for the Women’s Super League 1 (WSL), the top league in women’s football, was just 1,128 (up from 1,076 the season before) compared to 35,822 for the men’s Premier League. On TV, the 500,000 people who regularly tune into the BBC’s Women’s Football Show is easily dwarfed by audiences for Match of the Day.However, there is growing interest in women’s sport. More than 4 million people (UK) watched England’s women’s football team take on the Netherlands in the UEFA Women’s Euros semi-final last year, and with success in women’s sport in cricket and rugby as well, it isn’t hard to argue that brands are missing a huge opportunity.
The Football Association (FA) believes that is the case, and is restructuring the women’s league to offer a better opportunity for brands. As part of the restructure, the top tier of women’s football will become the standalone FA Women’s Super League, while the second tier is being renamed the Women’s Championship League.
Currently known as the Premier League, the regionally split third tier will be renamed the Women’s National League North and South. And the fourth tier will also adopt the Women’s National League branding to be known as National League One.
The move marks the first time tiers one and two have been separated since the WSL was expanded to include WSL2 in 2014.
The opportunity for brands
The changes are aimed at transforming women’s sport into a “sustainable and successful high performance system”. The top league will now consist of 14 teams where all players are full-time and professional.
Described as a “landmark moment for women’s football”, the hope is it will lead to England producing more and better players, increase interest in the league, boost fan numbers and offer more commercial opportunities.
Those commercial opportunities include sponsorship. The FA’s head of commercial and marketing for women’s football, Marzena Bogdanowicz, believes that brands perceptions are changing, with women’s sport no longer seen as an “add on” but an opportunity in its own right. The FA wants to use that shift to increase revenues, but also to encourage young girls to be active and help inspire change in society’s perception of women’s football.
We want to look at the various ways girls and women consume football and ask ourselves, ‘what can we do that’s different?’.
Marzena Bogdanowicz, The FA
“It will allow us an opportunity to talk to a brand that can work with us on this journey. We want to showcase some of our freshest football stars and talk in terms of the opportunity football has on the community where those clubs are situated,” Bogdanowicz says.
Just last year the FA signed a three-year partnership with Disney, with the main aim of encouraging more girls to get involved and remove stereotypes in a predominately male-dominated sport.
And that’s exactly the path the FA intends to follow with new sponsors, according to Bogdanowicz, with brands anchored to a “key purpose” the most appealing to the organisation.
“What has amazed me is the power that football has. Football has genuinely, I believe, the power to make a generation of girls more active and [change] society’s view of women’s sport.”
What exactly is on offer to brands is unclear and will depend on the conversations the FA has with potential sponsors. Bogdanowicz says the FA is seeking a ‘lead’ partner but admits she doesn’t know “where that sits” or whether it might include naming rights.
However, the FA is open to a brand sponsoring the entire women’s football set-up across all 72 clubs, which would offer a “unique opportunity” to create a footprint across countless communities within the national league.
Tapping into women’s football fans
Currently the FA sees a mixed, but mostly family-based, audience watching women’s football. With that in mind, Bogdanowicz says the organisation will be seeking to take on sponsors that want to target this demographic, both at home and pitch-side.
“We want football to be the sport of choice for young girls,” she says.
“Brands that can work with us are the ones we are keen to work with. Our objective is not to tell a brand, ‘this is what you can do and this is what you can get from us’, but to help them achieve their objectives using women’s football.”
Digital partnerships between social media platforms and sport are becoming increasingly common, with Facebook Live now a popular network for fans to get up close and personal with their favourite sporting stars.
Bogdanowicz says the FA is open to exploring these opportunities, highlighting it as one of the organisations’ major areas of focus going forward.
“We want to look at the various ways girls and women consume football and ask ourselves, ‘what can we do that’s different?’,” she says.
“That’s in terms of different content structures and different ways of showcasing. It’s not just about 90 minutes.”
Social media can also help bring fans closer to their favourite players, and give more insight into the game. For example, Bogdanowicz explains how someone might see a clip on social media they like that then prompts them to watch a game.
“It just provides a different pathway to the game and what the Women’s Super League has to offer,” she says.
SSE was keen to embrace the opportunities of women’s football early with its sponsorship of the Women’s FA Cup.
For brands with the vision and confidence to explore the women’s sports sponsorship market there are lessons to be learnt from those who have gone before.
O2’s head of sponsorship Gareth Griffiths advises brands to do their research in order to understand what benefits their customers will get from any partnership, rather than worrying about broadcast figures.
“Make sure you have got rights you can use across your business,” he adds. “Our rights for [England women’s rugby team] the Red Roses are the same as for the men’s team and we leverage them right across the business from consumer to B2B.”
He also warns brands not to make any activity about the differences between men and women. “Avoid gender stereotypes, it’s about the fact these guys play for England. The female and male players will share the spotlight for us in 2018.”
Colin Banks, head of sponsorship and rewards at energy company SSE, sponsor of the Women’s FA Cup since 2015, says he recognises that getting involved in women’s sports can feel like a leap of faith, but the opportunities of being engaged with an emerging sport are highly valuable.
Avoid gender stereotypes, it’s about the fact these guys play for England.
Gareth Griffiths, O2
“If you’re just doing sponsorship for awareness, then women’s sports is probably not where you would be. But you’re not cluttered with 70 to 90 other brands trying to do the same thing and you have got an audience that’s engaged,” he explains.
“I might have a 10th or a 100th of the audience some men’s sports might have, but I’ve probably got as many engaged people because the ones that are finding out about what we’re doing are interested and that is what sponsorship is all about, engaging people’s emotions.”
Vivienne Brown, operations director at sponsorship agency Infrared, believes the industry has come a long way and while 10 years ago sponsorships were being chosen on the basis of brand awareness, now the focus has shifted to the synergies between the brand and the asset. She believes this progress will only increase as the next generation of brand managers emerge.
“When I started in this industry, a lot of senior brand managers were men and they chose assets because they enjoyed the sport. Those days are gone,” says Brown.
“We talk a lot about the millennial audience and what works for one generation might not work for another. They will point out things that maybe the person who has been working for 30 years and loves a round of golf won’t see.”
For Laura Weston, board member and trustee of the Women in Sport Trust, and managing director of Iris Culture, the real excitement relates to how brands will innovate in their approach to the creative work and push the boundaries of their partnerships in women’s sports.
“It will be great to see some better creative work around it. That’s what I’m really looking forward to seeing, because sometimes it can be a little bit formulaic,” she adds. “I think it’s going to happen, it’s just which brands and agencies will get there first and create some really high impact campaigns. Then it will snowball.”
Surging viewing figures and an array of high-profile success stories means women’s sport is riding high in 2018. So why are so many brands neglecting the sponsorship opportunities of this burgeoning sector?
The past 12 months have been outstanding for British female athletes (as well as female athletes worldwide). From the England women’s cricket team winning the World Cup, to the Lionesses getting to the semi-finals of the UEFA Women’s Euros, and the Red Roses facing New Zealand in the Women’s Rugby World Cup final, 2017 was the year British women took on the world.
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The recent performance of female sportspeople far outshines the efforts of their male counterparts, and there are more potential successes on the horizon, with the Winter Olympics kicking off in South Korea this month, where at least 50% of Team GB’s medals are expected to be won by female athletes. Contrast that to the slender hopes given to England’s men at this summer’s FIFA World Cup.
Yet brands remain reticent to embrace the opportunities of women’s sports. The most recent figures date back to a study of the market between 2011-2013, which found female sports account for a mere 0.4% of total sports sponsorship. To put that into perspective, global sports sponsorship was worth $106.8bn over those three years, but just $427.2m was spent on women’s sport, so there’s huge opportunity for growth.
The appetite for watching women’s sport is growing too, fuelled by broadcasters such as Channel 4 and ITV bringing international competitions to mainstream TV. Globally, 149.5 million people watched last year’s UEFA Women’s Euros (July-August) according to Nielsen figures, with 87.4 million tuning into the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup (June-July) and the Women’s Rugby World Cup (August) attracting 33.9 million viewers.
In the UK, more than 4 million people watched the Euros semi-final between England and the Netherlands, while 1.94 million people viewed the Women’s Rugby World Cup final on ITV, compared with just 200,000 who watched the last tournament in 2014.
Brands are not confident enough when it comes to assessing the opportunity of sponsoring women’s sports, argues Laura Weston, board member and trustee of the Women’s Sport Trust, and managing director of Iris Culture. “They’re looking for traditional metrics of sports sponsorship, but that’s completely changing,” she says.
“If you measure women’s sport by the same metrics as men’s sport, it’s going to be difficult for a client to sell in. Whereas if you actually look at the broad opportunity, it is much more accessible than men’s sport and produces much more interesting content. It’s about having a different vision and not just seeing it as a little CSR project.”
This opinion is shared by Colin Banks, head of sponsorship and rewards at energy company SSE, sponsor of the Women’s FA Cup since 2015. He argues that sponsorship is more about engagement than pure brand awareness, which is why women’s sport really delivers.
SSE has sponsored the Women’s FA Cup Final since 2015.
“There’s still a lot of brands right now that are thinking about how many minutes they are going to get on the telly and ‘what’s my brand awareness going to be?’ Actually, that’s advertising, not sponsorship,” says Banks.
“I would rather have 10 people be incredibly positive about my brand than 100 people just knowing about it, because that actually makes a difference. It’s about saying I know who you are and I know who you stand for. The general public actually care about this stuff, so if you want to change people’s opinions of your brand, get involved.”
Early adopters are seeing the benefits
A number of brands have got in early and carved out a space for themselves in the women’s sport sponsorship market, from Investec with England women’s hockey, to Kia with England women’s cricket and Vitality in England netball.
SSE analysed the sponsorship opportunities for nine women’s sports before opting for football. The Football Association’s decision to bring the Women’s FA Cup Final to Wembley was a major draw, as was the sport’s ability to help the brand make a real statement.
“There are some sports you can invest in and you get your sponsorship benefit, but it’s quite a saturated market, whereas we felt within women’s football it wasn’t that saturated. We could make a pretty big impact in terms of the investment and make a difference,” Banks explains.
We’re a mass consumer brand and we don’t care about gender. Whether we support a men’s team or a women’s team, it’s sport to us.
Gareth Griffiths, O2
SSE has experienced a wave of support from both consumers and staff since signing the four-year deal with the Women’s FA Cup in 2015. Audiences for the event have grown over the past two years, with the 2017 final attracting a record crowd of more than 35,000 and more than a million watching at home. SSE also helped negotiate the deal for kids to go free to the final, targeting families rather than specifically men or women.
“It’s still football and it is the most popular sport in the country, but the women’s game has a family feel and a different dynamic, which is very inclusive. Of course, families and women go to watch men’s football, but it feels a little more male-orientated and more tribal,” Banks adds.
Another prominent supporter of women’s sport is O2, which in 2016 negotiated a new four-year deal with the Rugby Football Union (RFU) spanning men’s and women’s rugby. For head of sponsorship Gareth Griffiths, getting involved with the England women’s team, the Red Roses, was a no-brainer.
“We’re a mass consumer brand and we don’t care about gender. Whether we support a men’s team or a women’s team, it is sport to us,” he explains. “For the Old Mutual Wealth Series [of international matches] we had the men and women appear together in one, standalone piece of creative to represent our England Rugby partnership. That was really innovative.”
O2 extended its #WearTheRose campaign to both the men’s and women’s England rugby teams.
O2 expanded its Wear the Rose campaign to the Red Roses in August, tapping into the power of the team’s fervent fan base known as the Rose Army. When the England team made it to the World Cup Final, O2 moved the Wear the Rose campaign from social to TV.
In total, the film reached five million people across video-on-demand and YouTube, as well as more than two million people during the final on ITV. Overall, the O2 campaign drove over two million acts of support for the Red Roses.
Although in the past female sport has not received the same broadcast exposure as men’s, Griffiths believes things are changing.
“I’ve seen a real shift over the past 18 months in women’s cricket, football and rugby. There’s a noticeable increase in the reporting and coverage across lots of different media, not just broadcast,” he says.
“The fact that ITV got behind the women and put the final on primetime ITV was fantastic. I’m delighted they did and I want to see them doing it more.”
Different metrics are needed to measure success
Pivoting to women’s sports sponsorship means brands taking a different view on the metrics by moving away from the traditional measures of success.
Social media has been instrumental in disrupting the metrics, says Weston, who sees the old-school rate card of rights and perimeter boards at matches as becoming obsolete.
Griffiths admits that it is more challenging to develop a business case for a women’s sport sponsorship deal, meaning brands must appreciate that a women’s deal will not offer the same broadcast reach. Instead, he advises brands to look at the return that can be made on the game’s social footprint.
Team GB CEO Bill Sweeney agrees the media profile of sport is changing thanks to social, meaning the days of slapping your logo on a shirt and getting TV exposure are dead.
“Most brands are now thinking that if they’re going to invest in something, it needs to resonate with their values and it needs to ideally be purpose driven in an authentic way,” says Sweeney.
“Now partnerships with commercial entities revolve a lot around grassroots opportunities, societal partnerships and getting engaged with local communities. Those campaigns tend to be much more meaningful in terms of the impact they have on corporate performance and employee engagement.”
Around the Winter Olympics, Team GB has worked with partners such as DFS, Adidas and Aldi on finding the athletes that best represent their values. Aldi, for example, has selected a range of athletes to work with for the Winter Games, most of whom are female.
Team GB’s Jenny Jones made history by winning a bronze medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi for the slopestyle snowboard.
When investment company Old Mutual Wealth negotiated its sponsorship of the England rugby internationals two years ago, the deal was specifically drawn up to include the men’s and women’s game. Head of sponsorship Mike Mainwaring believes brands are moving beyond purely commercially driven metrics in a bid to become more representative of their customers.
“In the past, it has been a commercially driven perspective of, ‘if we’re investing, where’s the best place to put the investment?’ Women’s sport hasn’t had the platform from a broadcast perspective, so it hasn’t necessarily had the eyeballs watching it,” says Mainwaring.
“If you look at a sport like football where the numbers have increased exponentially over the past 20 years, the number of eyeballs watching has driven sponsorship revenues. Women’s sport has not been represented in the same way, but now rights holders are under more pressure from sponsors. There has been a societal change and people have woken up, especially over the past five years.”
Although women’s sport is indeed claiming a greater share of the broadcast audience, a historic lack of exposure has forced female sports teams to be inventive, circumventing traditional media and in many cases leapfrogging the men’s game in terms of innovation.
Manchester City Women’s FC, for example, was the first football club in the UK to stream a competitive game on Facebook Live in the summer of 2016. The live streaming extended to the Women’s Champions League as, unlike in the men’s game, the women’s team owns the marketing rights for its matches up until the final.
Manchester City Women have taken an innovative approach to marketing that focuses on fan engagement and new technology.
“For the three games in the Champions League we played at home, we had a reach of around 12 million people [on Facebook Live], something that we did in partnership with Nissan,” explains Manchester City head of women’s football, Gavin Makel.
“We want to push the boundaries as a football club and we have an opportunity in the women’s game to do more. We put a mic on [team captain] Steph Houghton once in a pre-season friendly. Would we do that in a competitive fixture? Probably not, but it was an interesting piece of content.”
Understanding the audiences
One argument often preventing female sports from receiving TV coverage is that there is no demand from audiences. Others argue that men historically do not want to watch women’s sports as they find it slower and less enjoyable. Statistics show both these arguments could not be further from the truth.
According to Nielsen, 56% of the TV audience for the Women’s Rugby World Cup final were male versus 44% female, while the viewers of the Women’s Euros semi-final were split 58% male to 42% female.
Manchester City WFC, an integral part of the City Football Group spanning Manchester City, Melbourne City FC and New York City FC, has a dedicated fan base both home and abroad. This fan base contains a large proportion of male fans, as well as women and children.
“There’s always the perception that women’s sport is for women and yes that is the case in terms of young families and young girls that do go to the games and sporting events, but actually there’s a great percentage of men and young boys who attend our games as well,” says Makel.
“It’s probably around 60% male to 40% female, so that makes us change our way of thinking when we are marketing the women’s team and making sure what we provide on match day caters for different types of audiences, whether that be families, a young girl or a core football fan.”
The ECB’s ‘Go Boldly’ campaign for the 2017 Women’s World Cup told the stories of how the England players got into the game.
On the cricket side, 93% of sports fans questioned following the ICC Women’s World Cup 2017 said the tournament represented the best ever standards of cricket, while 67% said they will now follow women’s cricket more closely, according to data collected by Nielsen.
Furthermore, 91% of respondents said they found women’s matches exciting to watch on TV.
Forty-five per cent of people purchasing tickets for the ICC Women’s World Cup tournament were women, according to the England Cricket Board (ECB) statistics, while 24,000 tickets sold (32% of tickets sales) were for children. Of the 26,500 attendance at the World Cup final at Lord’s, 34% of tickets were sold to women, the highest female sales for an international cricket match in England and Wales.
ECB’s head of marketing Rob Calder is conscious that to secure the long-term future of cricket, all its marketing activities should connect with as wide an audience as possible.
“Sport has to compete with the broader leisure industry and it’s an absolute fact that our addressable audience has got to include men, women and children moving forward if we’re going to survive and flourish,” says Calder.
“We have got to be somewhere where families want to come and mums want to bring their kids, just as much as dads do. Everything we’ve got that’s future-facing is about how we ensure we appeal to significantly more women and the Women’s World Cup final was a fantastic beacon demonstrating that.”
Through segmentation the ECB found that more than 70% of men in its most fanatical segment expressed an interest in women’s cricket, a key demographic to pass their love of the game on to the next generation. ECB tapped into this idea with its ‘Go Boldly’ campaign around the Women’s World Cup, creating video content with the parents of the England players discussing how their girls got into the game.
Look out for further features discussing the opportunities of women’s sports sponsorship being published over the next week.
With numerous high profile events on the way over the next year, new data reveals a tangible – and gender balanced – interest in women’s sport across the UK (and the World). So why are brands still hesitating to get involved?
The England Women’s Hockey team on the field at the Women’s Hockey World Cup 2018.
2018 has been an exciting year for women’s sport. The SSE Women’s FA Cup Final in May between London rivals Chelsea and Arsenal attracted a record crowd of 45,423 to Wembley Stadium, 10,000 more fans than attended the final in 2017.
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With the Women’s Football World Cup in France on the horizon in June 2019, the allocation of 5,000 tickets for the qualification game between Wales and England on 31 August sold out in 24 hours. The Football Association says it is now on course to double the number of players and fans in the women’s game by 2020.
Furthermore, the RFU hopes to make English women’s rugby professional this season for both the 15-a-side squad and sevens, while in July Scottish Rugby more than doubled its number of contracted female players to eight.
With the Women’s Hockey World Cup (21 July- 5 August) currently taking place in London, the Netball World Cup coming to Liverpool in July 2019 and the Women’s Football World Cup next year, there are many opportunities on the horizon for brands to get involved with women’s sport, yet hesitation remains on the part of CMOs.
“There’s still a perception that the market’s relatively immature or it’s one that they don’t know terribly well so the sense of risk seems a little high,” explains Jo Bostock, co-founder and joint CEO of the Women’s Sport Trust (WST).
“The big thing we picked up on when we were sounding out CMOs is that there isn’t enough data to support the claims that women’s sport is making about itself.”
To help build the business case, the WST has partnered with Nielsen Sports and England Hockey to highlight the value of women’s sport based on data.
According to the analysis, 59% of the UK population are interested in at least one women’s sport. This breaks down to 87% interested in both men’s and women’s athletics, tennis (83%), cycling (72%), hockey (71%), golf (57%), football (38%) and rugby union (36%).
Looking at women’s sport alone, 21% of the UK are interested in women’s football, 16% in women’s rugby and 16% in women’s cricket. Awareness is also building, as 64% of the UK reported knowing about the Women’s Football World Cup, while 42% were aware of the Women’s Rugby World Cup.
Lynsey Douglas, global leader for women’s sport at Nielsen Sport, sees real commercial opportunities for the whole industry, from rights holders to brands to broadcasters. In ROI terms, she argues that now is a good time for brands to get involved with women’s sport, as the costs are likely to rise.
The opportunities in sponsoring less mainstream sports
The Nielsen data shows that around 10% of the UK population follow women’s hockey. Jonathan Cockcroft, commercial director of England Hockey, reports that interest – both from brands and supporters – has surged since the team’s gold at the Rio Olympics in 2016.
Ticket sales for the Women’s Hockey World Cup have exceeded expectations, with England Hockey receiving 120,000 applications for tickets and England matches oversubscribed by 40,000.
The likes of Vitality, Merchant Gourmet, Jaffa oranges and Toshiba have all become sponsors alongside long-term partner Investec. However, Cockcroft believes brands in general are still cautious about partnering with women’s sport.
“There aren’t enough marketing directors and CMOs out there that have the imagination, the bravery and the gut instincts to go for something that’s slightly less mainstream,” he states.
“Also there are not enough agencies that are prepared to put some of the more non-mainstream properties in front of the big brands.”
Attitudes over the viewership of women’s sport could be affecting the way brands approach potential sponsorship opportunities, with the misconception being that only women or girls take an interest.
The Nielsen statistics show that of the 59% who are interested in at least one women’s sport, 51% are female and 49% male. This is compared to the overall sports fan, which skews as 65% male versus 35% female. According to the data, people aged 16-24 are most likely to like women’s sports.
There aren’t enough marketing directors and CMOs out there that have the imagination, the bravery and the gut instincts to go for something that’s slightly less mainstream.
Jonathan Cockcroft, England Hockey
“It’s very gender balanced and it’s absolutely not just women and girls who are interested in women’s sport,” Douglas explains. “What comes through a lot in the data is that sport is sport and fans will consume it, it doesn’t matter necessarily who is playing.”
The research also shows that consumers see women’s sport as competitive (48%), skilled (41%), inspiring (36%), successful (33%), progressive (30%) and clean (21%), while only 8% would describe sportswomen as money driven compared to 39% for sportsmen.
Brands blazing a trail
The number of women’s sport sponsorship deals increased by 47% between 2013 and 2017, with the average deal size rising by 38% during this period, according to Nielsen.
Brands like SSE with the Women’s FA Cup, O2 through its sponsorship of England Rugby’s Red Roses and Tyrells with is support of the Premier 15s women’s rugby premiership, have all blazed a trail in women’s sport.
O2 blazed a trail with its gender balanced #WearTheRose campaign.
Another brand is financial services company Investec, which signed on as the sponsor of women’s hockey in 2011. Cockcroft explains that at the time England Hockey was relatively commercially immature and the partnership required a big leap of faith, although as hockey is a “challenger brand” it could be more open to innovative thinking than an established sport.
The Investec partnership had a “transformational” effect on women’s hockey, says Cockcroft, who credits the brand with having made the sport look “commercially serious.”
“Off the back of the work we’ve done with them I’ve no doubt it’s made us it easier for us to build our sponsorship programme with other brands,” he adds.
One such brand is Vitality, which came on board at the end of last year as headline sponsor of the Women’s Hockey World Cup, the official wellness partner of England Hockey and sponsor of the grassroots Back to Hockey programme.
Nick Read, Vitality commercial director, believes brands should be braver and bolder, and think about how they are going to make a difference with their investment in sport. He also recognises that the nature of sponsorship has changed and is no longer about “slapping a logo” on a sport and hoping for the best.
Vitality was interested in a long-term partnership that was synonymous with its brand purpose to make its members healthier. That means as well as driving brand awareness, the sponsorship aims to engage members grassroots initiatives like Back to Hockey.
Vitality sees the clear synergies between it’s brand and England Hockey.
With sports that traditionally lack investment, it is important for brands to work with the governing bodies to experiment with new formats and look at ROI in a completely different way, says Read.
“We don’t get into these partnerships lightly. There’s a lot of deliberation, but we want to make a difference over a longitudinal period of time,” he states.
“It’s not just about doing a one-year deal and then pulling out, it’s about making a difference and measuring the impact that our pound is having at a community and social level. We want to be seeing that we are truly making a difference.”
Broadcasters get behind women’s sport
The Nielsen data shows that 40% of the UK population would consider watching a women’s sport live, while 42% would watch more if it was accessible on free TV and 37% would watch if it were free online.
The broadcasters are starting to realise the opportunity. In November last year, the BBC committed to streaming 1,000 extra hours of live sport online every year, including live Women’s Super League (WSL) football for the first time.
Women’s sport is also gaining more prominence in broadcasters’ advertising. On 31 July, BT Sport released its #TakeThemAllOn advert featuring avid football fan Charlotte who, on her way to school, nutmegs Tottenham Hotspur’s Dele Alli and brings down Welsh rugby star Sam Warburton.
BT Sport has also signed a four-year deal with the International Hockey Federation (FIH) to broadcast all major World Cup and Pro League matches. Cockcroft describes BT Sport’s coverage of the current Women’s Hockey World Cup as “absolutely critical” in raising the profile of the sport.
“The reality is that terrestrial TV companies aren’t queuing up to spend the sorts of money that BT have done on the production,” he explains.
Meanwhile, Sky Sports has gone all in with its coverage of women’s netball, building the audience rather than waiting for one to emerge. In May, the broadcaster also teamed up with the WST on #ShowUp, a campaign encouraging Britain to support women’s sport by watching, attending or playing. The hashtag generated 92 million impressions across social in the first week alone.
However, it is important to find consistency between showpiece events, as the revved-up audience appetites tend to die away once the tournament ends.
This could mean exploring new formats. Next year England Hockey will be involved in the launch of a new season long hockey competition, known as the Pro League. Nine international men’s teams and nine women’s teams will play in two global leagues between January and June ending in a grand final.
This is equivalent to more than 150 international hockey matches being played around the world in a six-month window, offering brands a greater opportunity to engage with the sport.
Taking action
When approaching women’s sport brands need to think longer term and decide which sport is the best fit for them not just in year one, but years three to five, says Nielsen’s Lynsey Douglas. It is from this point that they should then define which metrics matter.
“Potentially brands could get into women’s sport for quite a low rights fee, but it’s all about how they activate it and use it within their own marketing,” says Douglas.
Bostock advises brands to define how they want to be perceived before engaging with women’s sport. She suggests that some brands might see the opportunity to incubate a smaller sport like short track speed skating and be the ones to get the next Elise Christie across the line.
The long-term view is important. Cockcroft argues that if a brand was launching a new product they would think about how the upfront investment would deliver over a longer period, which is the mentality they need to apply to women’s sport.
However, one of the biggest challenges is that agencies do not facilitate face-to-face discussions between brands and governing bodies or rights holders quickly enough and therefore a lot can get lost in translation, he adds.
“We can create things that really do deliver against a brand’s needs, we just need to have that clear brief and then have a really imaginative conversation about what we can do differently to bring that to life.”
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