Everyone’s watching women’s sports — and advertisers have noticed

Everyone’s watching women’s sports — and advertisers have noticed

What you probably already know: You’ve heard of the “official automotive partner of the NFL,” “the official beer of the NBA,” “the official snack of NASCAR.” But now, as interest in women’s sports draws in new audiences — female audiences — there’s about to be the “official tampon of the USL Super League” soccer league. Products that have never before advertised against sporting events are flocking to the women’s sports, hoping to tap into new and growing audiences that these sports are drawing.

Why? There’s long been an argument that women athletes make less than their male counterparts because they can’t draw the same audiences, and therefore are not able to bring in the advertising dollars and ticket sales that would support higher salaries. But as these audiences grow, it’s clear that there’s a market for them, and it looks very different than it does for the NFL.

What it means: The Kansas City Current just granted naming rights for its new stadium to Helzberg Diamonds, the team’s “official jeweler,” and the WNBA’s New York Liberty has signed skin care company Hero and women’s workwear designer M.M.LaFluer, as well as fertility center RMA of New York. Meanwhile, viewership continues to grow. The Olympics put many women sports stars in the spotlight, including Simone Biles, who has endorsement deals with women’s fitness company Athleta, hair product company K18, as well as more traditional sponsors like Visa and Nike.

What happens now? Women account for 85% of purchases in the U.S. in recent years, and Nielsen has projected that women will control 75% of discretionary spending by 2028, making a largely female audience all the more attractive to advertisers. Women also make 80% of the the health care decisions in the U.S., so have become an attractive audience for insurers, providers and pharmaceutical companies that increasingly have added drugs aimed to treating women’s health issues.

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