New platform Sight Lines, launched this month by Murphy Media Partners, aims to boost investment and leadership in women’s sports through a series of global events.
New research by Wasserman’s women-focused practice, The Collective, found that the key barriers to investing in women’s sports were lingering resistance among brand leaders and lack of industry data, and the path to overcoming those barriers is demonstrating proven returns.
Sight Lines launched with an invitation-only forum in New York earlier this month, “Elevating Brand, Media, and Tech Conversations in Women’s Sports.”
The event featured Disney Advertising senior vice president of sports brand solutions Danielle Brown, National Women’s Soccer League chief commercial and marketing officer Julie Haddon, and IMG executive vp and head of Americas for media Hillary Mandel, in a discussion with The Wall Street Journal senior sports reporter Rachel Bachman around news, issues, media deals, what is lost by marketing “women’s sports” as such, and more.
In addition to the panel discussion, The Collective, television outcomes measurement platform EDO, and Wasserman presented data to attendees to demonstrate how important data and outcomes measurement are in driving brand investment in women’s sports. Highlights included:
- Advertisers invested $8.5 billion in ads during live sports telecasts so far in 2024, but women’s sports accounted for just $242 million, or roughly 3%, of that total.
- 87% of brand decision-makers expect to increase their spending on women’s over the next five years.
- Women’s sports sponsorship shows the strongest positive impact on brand image, at 57%.
- Automotive ads during the U.S. Open Women’s Final outperformed the primetime average by 218%.
- One ad during the FIFA Women’s World Cup was 10 times more impactful than the average primetime ad.
“The diverse group of leaders brought together for this Sight Lines event has already sparked new conversations, investment opportunities, and collaborations among businesses—exactly as intended,” Murphy Media Partners founder and CEO Kathleen Murphy said in a statement. “We plan to continue leveraging MMP’s global network and creating bespoke events with leaders around the world to spur new investment in women’s sports and generate new businesses around the sector.”
