If you asked me to draw a Venn diagram of what works in marketing in women’s sports and what works in marketing in the Olympics and Paralympics, it would nearly be a circle.
- Compelling storytelling ✅
- Athletes largely without significant financial support ✅
- Massive cultural relevance and brand lift ✅
Now, those are not exclusive to both of those spaces. But I do think they’re part of why both resonate so much.
I was reminded of that in reporting my “Buying the Games” story on sponsors looking to get in around LA28. (Not of the Venn variety, but we have a diagram that is 😍.)
The Games coming to the U.S. for the first time in more than 30 years is a massive brand opportunity. But come with me as I show you why it’s a massive women’s sports opportunity.
Numbers don’t lie
Yes, the Games are a co-ed event. Men will compete, sometimes even alongside women.
But all the numbers line up for women to shine. It’s the first time women will receive more than half the quota spots in the Games, making up 50.5% of Olympic participants in LA28. That’s due, in part, to expanding the soccer tournament to have more women’s teams than men’s — a lift both in opportunity and in a country where the women’s game is already more popular than the men’s.
That’s in part due to success, another place we should check receipts. If you’re a U.S. brand, betting on the U.S. women overall is a safe one.
The U.S. women have brought home more medals than the men in every Summer Olympics going back to London in 2012. You have to go back to Athens (in 2004!) for the last time the men brought home more medals.
“Sport is the vehicle. It’s not the output for me,” said Laura Correnti, founder and CEO of Deep Blue Sports + Entertainment. “If you’re a brand who’s invested in the women’s sports space on the biggest stage in our backyard, what a tremendous miss to not participate in that.”
Building on women’s sports strategies
Getting into the Games is complex but not impossible, and there are myriad options for brands already sponsoring in women’s sports to get in.
Critically, they can use some of the same skills and approaches. Already we know consumers trust women athletes more. And like athletes in other women’s sports, Olympians and Paralympians bring depth and connection to sponsorships that set them apart.
“My expectation, and we’re seeing this already, is that brands are now looking to align with athletes in their journey to the Games, which then in turn leads to that sort of being this women’s sports moment for them,” said Alana Casner, chief operating and athlete officer at Parity. “It’s not really a hard sell. I think more brands just have to realize it’s possible.”
Some of the opportunities are clear, especially in categories that haven’t traditionally sponsored around the Games. To take one example, rugby star Ilona Maher competed in the Tokyo Games and got asked what lipstick she wore that was not transferring as she tackled opponents.
She shared it online, told Maybelline that it should sponsor her, and the brand did. (FWIW, I bought it in two colors, and it really does stay.)
“We keep talking about women’s sports marketing, who are the brands who have never been in sports, have never used female athletes, how there’s a massive opportunity for the ones who do it right,” said Cosette Chaput, co-founder of Always Alpha.
“Is it beauty? Is it makeup? Is it fashion? Let’s take track and field - top eyeballs, top stories. We know that’s always the upper echelon of the Games. These women are competing in a full face of makeup.”
An audience in demand
The build-up has appeal to an Olympic audience that, at least domestically, has historically skewed more female. During the Paris Games, women accounted for 55% of NBC’s audience.
That’s valuable from brands sponsoring at the highest level in the movement to those doing much smaller national governing body or athlete deals.
Circe Wallace, EVP of action and adventure sports, women’s sports and Olympic sports at The Team, said she expects brands with deals in the Olympic movement to find where their “women-forward stories” are and invest accordingly. But sponsors don’t need to be in that ecosystem and still have opportunities to find their women’s sports moment through deals with the athletes themselves.
“For those brand marketers who are willing to get creative and play between the margins, I think there’ll be those little moments with breakout stories or really interesting highlights,” she said.
