For women’s sports, the media buys are becoming a big deal

Female athletes compete for greater fandom, higher viewership and more media coverage. A new Ally Financial buy ads with DisneyESPN’s focus on women’s sports could be the biggest deal yet – in importance as much as the dollars attached.

The one-year, multimillion-dollar deal calls for a 90% investment in women’s sports, through game highlights, content and branded features on ESPN.

“We really think we’re at the top of the funnel to make the most fundamental changes for women’s sports,” said Stephanie Marciano, head of sports and entertainment marketing at Ally. “It’s very rare that a brand buys a media deal, or buys a sponsorship deal, where they lean towards women’s sports like this,” he said.

Disney’s deal is tied to Ally’s new three-and-a-half-year sponsorship of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), whose conference tournament begins this week, broadcast on ESPN. The bank is the first title sponsor of the ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament and the ACC Women’s Soccer Championship, and will also be the exclusive sponsor of the 2023 ACC Women’s Lacrosse Championship.

It’s part of a larger shift in how Ally spends its advertising budget, with a five-year commitment to split paid advertising equally between women’s and men’s sports coverage.

“There’s so much in women’s sports and so much is unfinished business, and I think marketers are realizing it,” said Jon Patricof, CEO and co-founder of Athletes Unlimited, a network of professional women’s sports leagues.

Since making a five-year commitment, Ally collaborates with Paramount Global‘s CBS Sports and the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) to move the 2022 Ally Financial NWSL Championship to a primetime broadcast window for the first time.

Big money year for women’s sports in 2022

Ally’s deal with Disney follows a successful year for women’s sports in front of the media, with sponsorship deals increasing by 20% year-on-year, according to sports and entertainment intelligence platform SponsorUnited. In addition, the first network focused on female athletes, the Women’s Sports Network, launched last fall and female collegiate athletes have increased their ability to secure NIL offers.

AlphabetGoogle announced a multi-year partnership with sports website The Athletic in November that promises to double the amount of women’s sports coverage with a focus on soccer and the WNBA, as well as provide more employees and resources. Google has previously used its partnership with the WNBA to help the league broadcast more games, including working with ESPN to ensure every playoff game is broadcast.

From Gatorade and Nike to Ally and Hilton Hotels & Resorts, more brands in other sectors are increasing their advertising budgets directed at women’s sports. Athletes Unlimited, which operates basketball, softball, volleyball, and lacrosse leagues, saw sponsorship revenue grow 122% year over year. It announced this week the extension of the agreement with Nike since the organization was founded in 2020.

Social media engagement can be an added benefit for brands, according to Athletes Unlimited data. It says the average engagement on sports social media is less than 2%, compared to Athletes Unlimited’s engagement rate closer to 5%. “So it’s over-indexed in engagement, and then if you look at our individual athletes, it’s like 11%,” Patricof said. That, in his view, leading companies including Ally recognize that an important and growing part of the value in sports social media engagement remains unrealized and untapped.

According to “name, image, and likeness” technology and marketplace company Opendorse, NIL-compensated female athletes engage in 19.6% more social media activity than male athletes, excluding soccer.

The spread of content on the platform has led to a lot of action, said Patrick Rishe, director of the sports business program at Washington University in St. Louis. Brands understand not just other content but women’s sports as a key component of that content. Meanwhile, NIL’s bid in college athletics has created another avenue for female athletes to gain significant exposure.

“It’s all coming together and just building this momentum,” Rishe said. “We can talk about people like Chloe Kim, a snowboarder. We can talk about Livvy Dunne, a gymnast competitor at LSU. We can talk about Alex Morgan of the US Women. [National] The football team. These are just three names, three different women at three different stages of life … all at different levels using social media, digital media to raise their brand. Ten years ago, you wouldn’t have had this,” he said.

Six women’s sports made the top 10 list for NIL-compensated sports, according to Opendorse, although in total dollars, men’s soccer and basketball accounted for about 70% of the money, with NCAA football accounting for just under 50%.

Sponsorship of women’s sports also gives brands access to what experts call “change” narratives.

“Purpose-driven” consumers are now the largest segment of the buying public, at 44%, according to a recent IBM survey.

“Part of advertising and part of the reason you do this offer is that you build this cultural capital with the consumer,” Rishe said. “If you stand for equity, and you represent that by partnering with women’s sports, then you hope that will resonate with current customers. And perhaps it will attract new customers that align with that.”

This was a big part of Patricof’s pitch to the world of corporate media buyers.

“In women’s sports, there is now a great opportunity to not only get an immediate return on your investment, but also to get an intangible value in the minds of fans and athletes,” she said.

For Ally, bigger deals and longer-term deals are the next step. “We feel good about the trend, and I think that the 20% number will continue to increase,” Marciano said of the revenue growth in 2022 for women’s sports sponsors. “We have a big year ahead. So, we’re excited to kind of keep our foot on the gas for the rest of the year and look at the moment of major women’s sports and events,” she added.