5 Movements That Will Shape Women's Sport In 2020

What we can expect for women’s sport sponsorship and marketing in 2020

An enormous year of women’s sport may be behind us, but with the Tokyo Olympics in August there is no chance the women’s sport wave is going to fade this year. We saw five distinct trends emerge in 2019 and now we look ahead to see what we can expect for brands and rights holders around women’s sport sponsorship and marketing during this year.

Read 2021’s trends that are supercharging women’s sport success

Five women’s sport movements we will see in 2020

1. Athlete Activism, especially on Climate Change

US teammates Megan Rapinoe, Ali Krieger and Ashlyn Harris are all vocal on social issues. Photo Megan Rapinoe Twitter.

Last year was a big year for athlete activism, even more so in women’s sport than men’s - perhaps because female athletes have been on the receiving end more when it comes to discrimination and have more to fight for. US Footballer, Megan Rapinoe led the charge on gender pay equity and other political issues and even started a spat with US President Donald Trump. We saw runners fight for maternity rights and WNBA Star, Sue Bird and tennis legend Serena Williams were big champions around women’s rights.

Female athletes will continue to use their voice as a platform to speak out on social issues and we will see even more voices in 2020 as many others have had the barriers to do so broken down for them by other female athlete activists last year. We will also see these voices become stronger with many gaining confidence to speak out more boldly as their profiles build. While gender pay parity and immigration were key topics championed last year, climate change will be big on the list this year.

2. Championing Motherhood

2019 started a solid conversation around mothers and sport and we saw a revolt against Nike due to their outdated maternity clauses. We saw their competitor, Adidas dip it’s toe in this space with it’s diversity campaign that featured both a pregnant and breastfeeding mother.

2020 is going to be huge for motherhood and sport and I am picking this as the most untapped opportunity for brands and right’s holders this year with a massive opportunity to be at the forefront, championing and celebrating these inspiring Heroines by sharing their stories and challenges. I mean what is more inspiring than a female athlete who not only maintains their fitness while pregnant but competes at the highest level after giving birth and juggles the challenges (both physical and mental) of nursing and looking after a baby! Popular US Footballer, Alex Morgan who is 6-months pregnant will be a top pick for brands who do go down this path. We will also see sponsors ensuring that they have clauses that are seen to support athlete-mums and we will see a number of new initiatives from right’s holders to support carers and breastfeeding in competition, training and while on tour.

Sydney Leroux of Orlando Pride makes her return to the US NWSL 3-months after having her daughter. Photo by NWSL on Twitter.

3. dedicated media and streaming deals

While there are a handful of female specific sport media platforms including espnW and On Her Turf in the US, Give Me Sport Women in the UK, The Women’s Game in Aussie and LockerRoom and Sports Woman in New Zealand we will see more dedicated publishers emerge and mainstream networks like BBC and Sky Sport significantly ramp up their coverage of women’s sport with decent resource allocated to key events. As well as dedicated female sport publishers, we will see the development of female focused sport streaming services. Sweden’s Red Bee and Spring Media have emerged as early leaders establishing WUnited, a global OTT service dedicated to women’s football. Imagine a global streaming platform purely dedicated to women’s sport ! We will also see rights holders investing significantly in their own OTT players like that of the WTA TV and the FA’s WSL as part of a key strategy to grow fans locally and globally.

We will see increased interest from networks and as a result, increased prices for women’s sport rights and we will see more multi-year broadcast deals being done to capitalize on the expected growth.

4. More brands dabbling

While brands like Visa are already well ahead of the game with long term sponsor deals across multiple women’s sport properties, other brands will look to take advantage of the rise of women’s sport and dip their toes in to test the waters. We will see sponsorships around the $USD 100,000-$200,000 increase as brands look to gain entry and try out the women’s sport market.

The risk here is that those brands who are not genuinely interested or don’t have an authentic alignment and are just jumping on the band wagon in the short-term will become exposed. Given this, we will also see an increase in the number of brands getting it wrong. Brands will need to avoid these 5 mistakes in women’s sport to ensure a positive experience.

5. new Heroines & more Focus on personality

The big women’s sport campaign winners last year were heavy on cause or ‘purpose-led’ marketing, especially when it came to female empowerment (in conjunction with featuring the big name heroes like Serena Williams). However with the growth of women’s sport and as fans get to know more of each game’s stars, we’ll start to see more emphasis on the player personalities and their personal stories. We will also see a wider pool of athletes outside of the popular Serena Williams, Caroline Wozniacki, Simone Biles and Megan Rapinoe being used by brands. However Simone Biles will be the big pick by brands this year as she looks to add even more records to her name before retiring after the Olympics. We will see new faces emerge with the Olympics and T20 Cricket World Cup set to offer up some different Heroines.

Serena Williams in Bumble’s female empowerment campaign. Photo by Bumble

Summary

With 2020 being an Olympic year, the momentum women’s sport’s garnered in 2019 will continue. We saw some distinct trends emerge in 2019 and here is what we can expect in 2020.

1. Athlete Activism - more and stronger voices, especially on climate change
2. Championing of pregnant athletes and motherhood
3. Dedicated women’s sport media publishers and OTT streaming platforms
4. More brands getting in on the action and ‘testing the waters’ (with more also getting it wrong)
5. More focus on personalities and stories with less purpose-led marketing focused on causes like female empowerment

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