We’ve all heard the numbers: “Less than 1% of worldwide funding incorporates sports activities sponsorships is directed to girls’ sports activities.”
“Just four of sports activities media coverage is about women’s sports activities.” Yet consistent with recent Nielsen studies, almost 85% of standard sports enthusiasts of their biggest sports markets say they’re interested in women’s sports activities. Approximately 65% of the populace is interested in, as a minimum, one’s ladies’ game. So, this is a possibility disguised as trouble for company sponsors, women’s sports leagues, and the media. Extra new sponsors have signed on to the LPGA over the last few years compared to another time in our 70-year records.
Why is that? The athlete’s and girls’ sports activities leagues are doing their component. The first-rate competition, coupled with engaging personalities, is creating compelling sports activities and entertainment. The FIFA Women’s World Cup showcases the amazing bodily skills and mental stamina of the arena’s pleasant female football gamers. These days, the WNBA has introduced a thrilling new media associate to convey extra lovers to the sport. There’s Serena Williams’ dominance in tennis, Simone Biles’ athletic artistry in gymnastics, Chloe Kim’s younger strength in snowboarding, and so forth. For the LPGA, a defining moment for our recreation happened when the satisfactory woman golfers teed it up at the 2016 Olympics – the first time golfing was played within the Olympics in 112 years.
Beyond sheer sporting excellence, there’s no other critical reason girls’ sports attract extra sponsors. Increasingly, we’re finding our sponsors reframing and expanding the enterprise case for women’s sports. They see it as a way to distinguish their brands and enhance their core values of variety, inclusion, and leadership.
While sports sponsorship choices have commonly been made in advertising and marketing or community relations, we are finding new allies in the C-suite: the executives in the price of human sources, sustainability, and diversity & inclusion. These leaders remember that when competing for talent, winning clients, attracting traders, and constructing their brand, the whole lot of their enterprise helps and invests in matters. Stakeholders – customers, employees, buyers, and suppliers – are paying attention to whether or not an enterprise’s phrases and movements are aligned. And that’s where sports sponsorship comes in.
More than Sponsorship . . . A Values Statement
Most groups have fixed corporate values that outline their culture and form their emblem. While each employer says, “We fee diversity and inclusion,” far fewer organizations have managed to translate their values into an aggressive advantage. Those capable of internalizing and replicating their values in the whole lot they do, consisting of their sponsorship dollars.
Today, extra main groups are looking at all their moves – and spending – for alignment with their values and commercial enterprise imperatives. For businesses devoted to variety and inclusion, sponsoring girls’ pro sports is a high-quality, visible extension of their dedication to possibilities for girls and women.
Sports as an Incubator for Leadership
Every organization desires to hire and increase employees with management capacity. Sports have always been incubators of character and leadership. Female athletes can be effective function fashions for girls and boys, women and men. Notre Dame Basketball Coach Muffet McGraw stated, “We don’t have enough woman role models. We do not see enough women leaders. We don’t have enough girls in electricity. Where higher than in sports activities… for ladies too. . . Watch for how ladies lead.”
Under the leadership of Commissioner Mike Whan, the LPGA has constructed its emblem around the accessibility of our international athletes and creatively supporting our sponsors’ goals. For example, before each LPGA event, our gamers acquire a “partner profile” with facts about the identity sponsor, pattern social media messages, and even the names of individuals to understand with written thank-you notes. Through these efforts, our sponsors understand that traditional metrics and media impressions are the gateway for more treasured final results: creating relationships and provoking brand loyalty.
