The role of women in the sports industry – on the field and in the boardroom – has been a decade-defining theme.
But as Wasserman: The Collective SVP of Growth and Strategy Alyson Walker noted at the ISC Fan Engagement Summit, the sector is only now waking up to how female fans and consumers are changing the game.
Walker was introducing findings from a recent Wasserman study – Her Fandom, Her Buying Power – and warned that sport cannot afford to ignore the influence of women any longer.
That much is confirmed by macroeconomic data underlining how fundamental female-led purchasing will be in the next 20 years.
Female consumers will control 75% of global discretionary spending by 2030 and will lead 85% of household buying decisions. By 2048, women will control more than $100 trillion in wealth worldwide.
That means it is past time for the sports industry to address female consumers with more specificity and intelligence. That, according to Walker, is not yet happening: 67% of women in the UK do not feel confident or empowered by the representation of women in marketing, and 72% do not think brands fully understand them. More broadly, women have 13% less free time than men, making efficient communication and impactful events more essential.
Those shortcomings vary among different consumer groups but Wasserman has identified a handful of consistent trends. The biggest reasons women feel misunderstood by brands include a sense that products do not fit their needs or lifestyle, marketing feels inauthentic, or brands fail to connect and communicate.
And brands do not just need to reach female consumers, they must effectively differentiate among them. 94% of sports fans in the UK say that family is important in their daily decision-making but 78% of those fans who are not mothers do not think brands fully understand them.
Some of these women will fit into more traditional fan templates. But those who do not, Walker argues, are indicative of a wider failing in sports marketing.
“For too long,” she added, “the sports industry has operated on a ‘come to us’ model.”
The opportunity for sport lies in “flipping the script” and meeting female fans where they are. That might mean investing in women’s sport, where women are more likely than men to be engaged, but it is true across the board.
More women connect to sport through storytelling and community, Walker said, and brands will prosper if they can move from broadcast and social media into the daily conversations and “text chains” of those fans.
Some sports properties are also being built with a non-traditional fan experience in mind. Walker points to Mercury/13’s stable of women’s football teams, with a focus on glamour and lifestyle, and the Savannah Bananas deeply unconventional approach to baseball, with its strong emphasis on showmanship over competition.
“The Savannah Bananas didn’t change the rules of baseball,” Walker said. “They changed the rules of fandom.”
There is still room for brands to take this approach into more established sports settings. Mattel’s creation of Barbie lines with global sports stars lets it to champion representation in a way that is intrinsic to the toymaker’s heritage of play and participative storytelling, and creates a different space for new types of fans to explore.
At the heart of this challenge, Walker said, is an imperative to think differently about what fandom can mean. That is a huge opportunity on its own terms.