“There is a lot of chatter in the marketplace about the disparity between men’s and women’s sports investment and how to achieve equity, but no one is really addressing the critical issue of fragmentation across women’s sports inventory,” said Talia Raviv, global CEO of Publicis Media, in a statement. “In order to shift greater investment toward women’s sports, we need a way to aggregate inventory and allow for scaled investment.”
Last year, women’s sports investment had a major surge with advertisers as basketball stars including Caitlin Clark and Sha’Carri Richardson helped drive higher ratings for women’s basketball, and caused advertisers to prioritize women’s sports in upfront deals. Last March, GroupM announced a commitment to double investment in women’s sports and launched a marketplace for clients to be able to secure exclusive opportunities in the space. Similarly, agencies specializing in women’s sports began to take off due to the boom.
Women have also become more prominent in sports marketing. During Sunday’s Super Bowl, brands including Nike, Dove and the NFL highlighted the inequity between men’s and women’s sports leagues.
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“Through our longtime relationship with Publicis, we are collaborating on a framework for brands to engage women sports fans authentically, at scale,” said Rita Ferro, president of global advertising at Disney, in a statement. “We’re ensuring that women’s sports not only get the visibility they deserve, but drive real business results for advertisers.”
Women’s Sports Connect seeks to differentiate itself from other agency offerings by creating programs and partnerships for clients to build long-term investment. The Publicis Sports group partnered with Roku to debut a weekly talk series “Women’s Sports Now,” which was announced last week, as well as NBCUniversal Local’s sports partnership development team and media brand The Gist to provide student athletes with education on professional development and building NIL deals.
These partnerships are representative of programs that Publicis is building for clients to join in addition to the plans Women’s Sports Connect will build alongside clients, according to an agency spokesperson. Miller Lite was announced as a presenting sponsor of “Women’s Sports Now,” and additional sponsorship opportunities exist across both Roku’s and NBCU’s partnerships.
“We’re hearing from many of our clients that it’s difficult to invest in women’s sports at scale in the current market, given the fragmentation of inventory,” said Jon Tuck, president of Publicis Sports via email. The new offering will allow clients to efficiently invest and directly engage with women’s sports’ growing fan base, which already sits at 65 million people, he added.
