New games are being launched in the world of sports, and more advertising dollars are being poured into games featuring female athletes.
GroupM, a major media buying consortium backed by advertising giant WPP, on Wednesday pledged to double the amount its customers spend on women's sports in 2024, adding to the industry's focus on a marketplace dedicated to the programming genre starting next year. He stated that he aims to establish a new company. “Pre-negotiation” period. The company has already received interest from advertisers including Adidas, Ally, Coinbase, Discover, Google, Mars, Nationwide, Unilever and NBCUniversal's Universal Pictures.
Dennis Ocasio, GroupM's executive director of U.S. investments, said in an interview that “there is a business opportunity in women's sports, and we see it.'' One of its customers, Ally, urged the media buyer to consider the initiative last year. The initiative will create new broadcast sponsorships and other types of content packages, as well as agreements with leagues and athlete-owned entertainment companies.
Group M made this announcement amid increased attention to the WNBA and March Madness women's basketball tournament. Leading consulting firm Deloitte predicted in November that women's elite sports will generate $1.28 billion in global revenue in 2024, a total that will exceed $1 billion for the first time and represent a 30% increase compared to 2021 spending. increased.
“Over the last few years, we've seen a lot more attention, a lot more viewership, a lot more presence,” said Martin Brich, GroupM U.S. executive director of live sports investments.
The business of sports is already big, but it's about to get even bigger in the streaming TV era. Games from leagues like the NFL and NBA are one of the few types of content that can capture the large audiences advertisers covet. As such, the match is starting to attract the attention of advertisers who may have previously been looking for other opportunities to tap female consumers.
Kate Johnson, Google's global marketing director for sports and entertainment, said in an interview that women's sports are “a smart place to invest your money.” Fans, she says, are “a very different consumer and a much more brand-loyal consumer. Overall, they tend to be more tech-savvy and have more affinity with brands that participate in women's sports.” We have a great relationship.”
In recent years, Google has formed new partnerships with sports venues such as the WNBA and the Women's National Soccer League. The company signed a deal with The Athletic in 2022 that calls for it to devote more staff and resources to deeper coverage and analysis of women's sports, beyond regular game coverage. In 2021, Google launched an effort to broadcast more WNBA games on ABC and ESPN and pushed SportsCenter to include a women's sports section.
Johnson said one of the company's goals is to “increase the time and content” devoted to women's sports. “Not just linear, but also social.”
But to make their content more appealing to a wider range of marketers, backers are pushing their shows to key locations such as prime-time linear TV, which still commands the media's largest audience. must be placed.
The supply of advertising dollars appears to be ready. “Women's sports is a natural place for the Unilever brand and we have increased our investments in this space over the years,” said Aaron Sobol, Unilever's head of US media investments. . “We are excited to see media buying opportunities continue to mature as audience engagement and marketer investment increase.”
