Winning With Women’s Sports: Executing The KickGlass Marketing Playbook

The women’s sports revolution is here, and brands must lead the charge. Our KickGlass Marketing Playbook series has highlighted the billion-dollar potential of women’s sports, persistent challenges, and the CARES model for enhancing social well-being. Now, it’s time to turn insight into action.

The message is clear: in women’s sports marketing, being a force for good and driving brand growth are one and the same. As the market rapidly evolves and societal expectations shift, brands must lead with purpose, vision, and commitment. This final installment will equip you with practical strategies to transform the principles we’ve discussed into actionable steps, ensuring your brand not only supports women’s sports but also thrives in this dynamic environment.

Strategic Leadership in Women’s Sports Marketing

Brands are uniquely positioned to drive change and growth in women’s sports. This requires a delicate balance of business acumen and social consciousness. The challenges are numerous—from addressing pay disparities to combating limited media coverage—but so are the opportunities for brands willing to take a stand.

Effective leadership in women’s sports marketing demands a multifaceted approach, which we can think of as REAL Leadership: Resilience, Empathy, Authenticity, and Long-term Commitment. Each of these attributes is crucial for navigating the complex landscape of women’s sports.

Resilience: The women’s sports landscape can change rapidly, presenting both opportunities and challenges. Nike’s support of Megan Rapinoe during her advocacy for equal pay exemplifies resilience, strengthening its position in women’s soccer and driving broader equality conversations.

Empathy: Understanding the unique challenges faced by female athletes is essential. This includes issues like social media harassment and the pressures of balancing athletics with other life responsibilities. Secret deodorant’s “Just #WatchMe” campaign showcases WNBA players as multifaceted individuals, addressing recognition and agency.

Authenticity: With women’s sports projected to generate $1 billion in revenue by 2024, authentic leadership is more crucial than ever. Consumers can easily distinguish between genuine support and opportunistic bandwagoning. New Balance’s new partnership with the WNBA demonstrates authenticity through investment in player development and grassroots programs.

Long-term Commitment: Sustained social impact requires a long-term perspective.Adidas became a founding partner of “United for Girls,” collaborating with the U.S. Soccer Federation. Their goal is to increase opportunities for women and girls in underserved communities, emphasizing sustainable programs with lasting impact1.

By embodying these four attributes of REAL Leadership, brands can navigate the complex landscape of women’s sports marketing, turning challenges into opportunities for meaningful engagement and societal impact.

Practical Implementation Strategies

Implementing KickGlass Marketing principles requires a strategic and multifaceted approach. Here are some detailed steps to get you started:

1. Integrate the CARES model into campaigns: Enhance Community, Agency, Recognition, Empowerment, and Security for female athletes and fans for social well-being. Visa’s Team Visa program supports diverse Olympic and Paralympic athletes over multiple cycles, reinforcing all aspects of the CARES model. For the 2024 Olympics, Team Visa’s most diverse roster ever includes 147 athletes from 67 countries across 40 Olympic and Paralympic sports.
2. Capitalize on the “Caitlyn Clark Effect” through strategic amplification: Use surges of interest in individual athletes to elevate the entire sport. Gatorade partnered with UConn superstar Paige Bueckers and Iowa’s Caitlin Clark to headline the “You Can Too.” campaign titled The campaign aims to promote participation in sports for young girls enhances community and empowerment.
3. Develop partnerships that promote social well-being: Collaborate with organizations committed to advancing women’s sports. Powerade’s “Pause is Power” campaign, featuring Simone Biles, emphasizes the importance of mental health and well-being in sports by encouraging athletes to take necessary pauses to recover and reflect​
4. Create inclusive and authentic narratives: Develop storytelling campaigns that represent diverse athletes. Adidas’s “Impossible Is Nothing” campaign, featuring athletes such as Wendie Renard and Asma Elbadawi, highlights their personal journeys and societal impact. This campaign showcases inspirational women who have overcome significant challenges to succeed in their fields, emphasizing themes of resilience, empowerment, and breaking barriers.

Actionable Steps for CMOs

1. Conduct a KickGlass audit of your current marketing practices: Evaluate how well your strategies align with the principles we’ve discussed. Challenge: Resistance to change within your organization. Solution: Present a compelling case for the long-term benefits of this approach, highlighting successful case studies and potential ROI.
2. Build diverse and representative marketing teams: Ensure your team reflects the audience you’re trying to reach. Challenge: Limited talent pool. Solution: Invest in training and development programs to nurture diverse talent.
3. Establish meaningful collaborations with female athletes and sports organizations: Create partnerships that go beyond superficial endorsements. Challenge: Balancing athlete interests with brand objectives. Solution: Focus on shared values and long-term goals.
4. Implement data-driven strategies to measure social impact alongside business metrics: This dual focus is crucial for demonstrating the value of your KickGlass approach. Challenge: Difficulty in quantifying social impact. Solution: Develop custom KPIs that blend business growth and social impact metrics.

Measuring Success: Key Metrics for KickGlass Marketing

To truly gauge the effectiveness of your KickGlass Marketing efforts, it’s crucial to track both business growth and social impact metrics. Focus on these key areas:

• Brand Perception and Loyalty: Monitor your Net Promoter Score specifically for women’s sports initiatives, conduct social media sentiment analysis, and track increases in brand loyalty among female consumers and sports fans.
• Gender Disparity Progress: Measure the percentage increase in media coverage for women’s sports you sponsor, growth in viewership and attendance for supported events, and narrowing of pay gaps in sponsored leagues or teams.
• Athlete Well-being and Community Engagement: Track the number of athletes benefiting from your well-being programs, engagement rates for community initiatives, and athlete satisfaction scores for brand partnerships.

ROI on women’s sports investments is crucial and can be measured through revenue generated from related products or services, conversion rates for campaigns featuring female athletes, and cost per acquisition for new customers. Long-term impact should also be considered, including increases in girls’ sports participation, career advancement rates for female athletes post-retirement, and growth in female representation in sports leadership roles. Additionally, track diversity and inclusion metrics within your own organization and campaigns.

By monitoring these comprehensive metrics, CMOs can demonstrate the tangible impact of KickGlass Marketing strategies, justifying continued investment and driving long-term change in the women’s sports landscape.

Conclusion: Leading the KickGlass Revolution in Women’s Sports

The women’s sports revolution is accelerating, driven by diverse trends such as growing investor interest, the expansion of professional leagues, advancements in female-specific sports science, and rising popularity in emerging markets. As a CMO, you’re uniquely positioned to lead this transformation.

This KickGlass Marketing Playbook has equipped you with the tools to navigate this evolving landscape. From understanding the CARES model to implementing REAL Leadership, you now have a roadmap for authentic engagement in women’s sports.

The next play is yours. Will you leverage these insights to create campaigns that resonate on and off the field? Can you envision your brand not just sponsoring athletes, but championing a new era of sports marketing?

Remember, success in this arena isn’t just about ROI—it’s about redefining the game itself. By embracing KickGlass principles, you have the power to shape a more inclusive, dynamic future for sports and society.

The scoreboard is reset. The fans are in their seats. It’s time to show the world what KickGlass marketing can achieve. Are you ready to make your mark on the future of women’s sports?