5 Women's Sports Winning Fans Through Covid
The best women’s sport campaigns used creativity and innovation during lockdown
We may be starting to see a return to sport fields and courts but the teams, leagues and athletes who never stopped connecting with fans and sponsors in creative and innovative ways throughout the void were the ones who came out on top during coronavirus.
While some may have thought that the halt in live action meant that marketing and sponsorship objectives would also be on hold, this did not have to be the case. Agile and proactive organisations used the lockdown to:
a) Deepen relationships with existing fans using interactive and engaging content
b) Attract new fans with more personal content and new channels
c) Deliver commercial value for brand partners to maintain strong sponsor relationships and return
d) Ensure a meaningful presence so when things did restart they could get back quicker
While the organistaions that already had digital and content-led initiatives and technology in place had an advantage to engage fans virtually, it was creative activation and entertaining formats that won out.
How sports engaged fans during lockdown
There were numerous ways sports took to connecting with fans in the absence of live sport.
The usual suspects included:
ESports and virtual competitions
Replays or highlights of iconic games - often with new real-time commentary to give it relevance or a fresh perspective
Fan Parties
Messages of support to health workers
Fitness classes and coaching sessions
Athlete Isolations - ‘how to’s’, ‘behind-the-scenes, ‘Cribs’
At home challenges and trick shots
Zoom meet-ups and Q&A’s
Athlete Tik Tok performances
While we saw a lot of the same type of activation and content after a while, the ones that stood out;
a) Centred on fans
b) Were considerate to the situation and looked to ‘do good’
c) Felt authentic and usually included raw footage
d) Were interactive
e) Leveraged strong or entertaining personalities
f) Ensured good channel-content fit
g) Most of all, were creative or at least had a creative twist
7 women’s sport campaigns that tackled lockdown best
We saw a number of savvy female athletes, teams and leagues spring into action with new ideas and platforms to ensure they turned the crisis into an opportunity to connect with, support and entertain fans. Here are seven of our favourites:
WNBA Star, Sue Bird and US Soccer Striker Rapinoe in their ‘A Touch More’ IGTV show
1. A Touch More IGTV with Sue Bird & Megan Rapinoe
Athlete-led content is on the rise thanks to social media and how easily it allows athletes to build their own audience and brand. There couldn’t have been a better duo to create a Saturday night Instagram TV chat show than outspoken women’s sport couple, US soccer star Megan Rapinoe and 3-time WNBA basketball champ Sue Bird. The couple conveniently live together but had special guests like fellow WNBA sensation Diana Taurasi join them virtually for the 10 episodes. The hour or so long episodes contained isolation antics, general entertaining banter, sport chat and also featured them taking turns to spill the dirt on each other - more often than not over some large alcoholic drinks. A winning episode had to be when Bird attempted to cut Rapinoe’s infamous pink hair live in show with help of guest stylist Riawna Capri who gave guidance virtually.
Props to these two big personalities adding some light relief to women’s sport fans during the pandemic, putting their personal lives out there and giving women’s sport another platform - there couldn’t have been a better duo to pull this off.
With a call-up to host the virtual ESPYS alongside NFL star, Russell Wilson and the series being distributed on podcast, we can be certain it won’t be long until we see these two back in season 2 of A Touch More. In the mean time check out the Instagram story highlights here.
2. WNBA Virtual Draft
The best women’s basketball rookies had their final college season cut short and then the opportunity to attend the WNBA Draft was snatched from them. However the WNBA went into action and pulled off the first ever live virtual Draft by a professional league.
WNBA Commissioner, Cathy Engelbert congratulates 1st Draft pick, Sabrina Iosca
Commissioner, Cathy Engelbert hosted fans from her living room in front of a bookshelf of basketball merchandise that she was able to scrape together. She had a technical team working behind the scenes to cross live to each Rookie’s home as they sat nervously waiting with family for their name to be read in real-time. These shots were mixed with basketball footage of each Rookie to showcase their talents and live interviews as they were selected. While naturally there were technical issues, the set-up gave fans a very personal experience where they got to glimpse into the future star’s homes and families - a very relatable and humble experience that trumped technical faults. They also included a touching tribute to Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and her teammates Alyssa Altobelli and Payton Chester with the three teenage basketball hopefuls who sadly died alongside Bryant named as honorary draftee selections.
What was most impressive though was the WNBA’s commitment to the athletes, making them the top priority and the key reason the virtual draft was pushed through in the first place. Engelbert created a state-of-the-art ‘welcome pack’ that was sent to each player and included a video message accessed via Snapchat QR code in a slick package with various swag.
Bonus points for being able to deliver on commercial commitments with State Farm as the presenting partner and producing the biggest Draft audience in 16 years with an average audience of 387,000 viewers. Nice play WNBA!!
3. Skoda V-Women’s Tour
Cycling sponsor, SKODA teamed up with organisers of the Women’s Tour to deliver a three stage tour of cycling from 17-19 June via a digital Cycling platform called RGT. The SKODA V-Womens Tour will host 18 teams which feature the best women’s cyclists, many which have made appearances in the real-life physical Women’s Tour event. There will be a winner of each stage as well as an overall winner and I love how they have integrated a virtual jersey for the winner of each stage to wear in the following races.
The RGT technology not only tracks key measurements like speed but also delivers realistic video courses that the riders will race on. Smartly the organisers have nicely linked the physical Women’s Tour with this virtual event by including two of the courses previously raced on in the Women’s Tour including Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk which covers 37 kilometres and sBurton Dassett in Warwickshire which is a 35 kilometre race. They injected even more energy into the event by including a fast paced criterium around the world famous business district of Canary Wharf in London where riders will face 35 laps of the 1 kilometre circuit.
Finally, they smashed it out of the park by allowing fans to ride the routes themselves for three days following the professional race and will include special group rides and fan races. It even has a charity component with a suggested donation of £5 that will go towards Breast Cancer Now and Mind. This was such a smart move to activate it through-the-line from professional riders to fans with charity and sponsors playing a key part.
4. Chicago Red Stars Virtual Tailgate & Shirt Launch
Covid completely shat on the start of the US Women’s Soccer League and with it, Chicago Red Stars fan’s plans to enjoy the opening game including a series of Tailgates for the Official Fan Club, Chicago Local 134.
Covid didn’t stop fans, the team, city and togetherness though with the Chicago Red Stars joining forces with sponsor of the official fan club, Revolution Brewing to host a virtual Tailgate on 24 April, which would have been their opening home match. They invited fans to connect with others, join a Q&A with new player Kealia Ohai Watt, participate in an at-home banner contest and share a Revolution/Local 134 Combo Pack of beer, which was made available for curbside pickup with coasters and a sticker and temporary tattoo pack from the Red Stars.
Firstly, what I love about this activation is it put fans and their desire to share their passion at the heart. Props to Revolution Breweries for truly adding value to the official supporters club, Chicago Local 134 by bringing them together (when they needed it most). Secondly, I love how they just adapted from the planned physical festivities to a virtual covid-friendly Tailgate (rather than cancelling or postponing it) which still had the same end result - to connect fans. Third, I love the collision of culture and sports and how they turned what was essentially just a ‘zoom’ meet-up into a themed ‘Tailgate’- not only integrating their product seamlessly with some simple but clever branding but tapping in to what American fans love to do socially around sport. Lastly, not only did they deliver for fans, the Chicago Red Stars team, but they also drove sales of their beer - a smart activation all around!
Add in an additional win - Chicago Red Stars unveiled it’s jersey for the 2020 season virtually to a record 1,000 ‘attendees’. Supporters came together with Red Stars players and staff for a unique digital experience designed to unite the group around the city and the team that they love. The coolest thing about this was the authenticity in the activation with the shirt design being community-centric and including the names of the 77 unique and diverse neighbourhoods that make up Chicago in an image that represented the city - what better way to bring that community together in such a time than connecting them with this activation.
Chicago Red Stars “Neighbourhood” virtual kit launch
5. New Zealand Netball and Netfit NZ
NZ Netball are one of the more agile sport organisations around and not only is this showing through through their success on the court but at unexpected times like covid!
NZ Netball wanted to keep their netball community engaged with the sport during lockdown but more importantly help keep them active and well. They teamed-up with their commercial partners ANZ, Special K, NZ Police, Netball Smart and netball technology platform Netfit Netball to create Netfit NZ. Netfit NZ gave netball players of all ages access to online netball workouts and training sessions with NZ’s leading players including Silver Fern player, Laura Langman.
It didn’t stop there either, they partnered with Sky Sport 3 to broadcast the workouts on air from 1pm-3pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays to reach even more people.
A great team effort!
Laura Langman was one of the elite players who led the Netfit NZ Netball virtual programme
6. England Lionesses Social Content Series
When it came to social media engagement, England’s Footballing Lionesses nailed it during lockdown. They leveraged their star players, interacted with fans, got the tone spot-on, seamlessly integrated sponsors and offered an array of content and digital interactions that supported fans at each stage of the pandemic; be it showing their gratitude to essential workers, providing some light relief for fans or helping people stay active.
There were more serious and heartfelt pieces including Calls to Key Workers where a number of players took part in phoning essential workers. Their most recent campaign (in conjunction with the England men’s team) is aptly named Lionhearts and looks to celebrate the heroes of the pandemic by asking the public to nominate those people who have gone over and above during the crisis and make up a squad of 23 Lionhearts with the support of sponsor BT.
Lioness teammates catch up for the weekly Coffee Club during lockdown
They also produced a number of series that aimed to keep fans healthy during the lockdown and included the Nike Living Room Challenge with fitness inspired drills that could be done at home. #ObviousJill starred midfielder, Jill Scott who took aspiring footballers through various skill sessions in conjunction with sponsor Boots with the first seven episodes racking up nearly 150,000 views. Wednesday Welbeing, again presented by Nike had team members sharing fitness exercises to inspire and motivate people to stay healthy.
There was entertainment to provide some light relief including Keeping Up With The Lionesses. It was a simple 2-minute weekly video catch-up with various players during lockdown and covered things like what puzzles they had been doing, what had been cooking in the kitchen and what they had been doing on Tik Tok. The six episodes were presented by brand partner, Continental Tyres. Coffee Club was seamlessly sponsored by Google Cloud and saw England and Man City teammates Karen Bardsley and Jill Scott check in weekly with a number of the players over Google Meet. It featured general football and life chat including topics like overgrown eyebrows. It really was a just a simple low-fi virtual meeting but some simple Lioness branding in Google Meet elevated the experience.
A top effort from the players, the Lionesses' marketing team and sponsors to help showcase the team’s personalities so fans form connections with them and the Lionesses brand which in turn is going to create more fans and players.
7. W Series E League MOTOR RACING
While the W Series E League followed many other sports in creating an Esport competition for themselves, I am happy to see the female racers didn’t get put to the side for their male counterparts. There are twenty drivers including a mix of drivers from the physical W Series along with sim racers who will battle it out over ten weeks on ten of the world’s best circuits, all virtually of course.
I loved their collaborative approach with partners to make this happen. W-Series bought on board Longitech (a global leader in PC and console gaming gear) and iRacing (the leading esports simulation platform) to bring it to life and feature digital versions of the Tatuus Formula Renault 2.0 race car that is similar in performance to the actual physical W Series Formula 3 race car. It’s even modeled to replicate its looks, performance and driver ‘feel’ that further blurs the lines between real and virtual.
Points will be awarded in each race with the winner of the inaugural season of the W Series E League being the one with the most points at the end of the ten rounds.
Special mention to BBC for broadcasting the W Series along with the SKODA V-Women’s Tour across their platforms (along with the likes of Twitch and You Tube).
Summary
Despite there being no live action, fan’s thirst for sport content and connection was as strong as ever. This provided new opportunities to extend relationships with existing fans as well as building new ones and showing sponsors the love. The lockdown showed just how agile and creative each sport’s organisation was prepared to be.
In the world of social media and always-on content, people are craving both on and off the pitch access so even when sport fully returns, let’s hope sport organisations and sponsors continue to maintain a creative and flexible approach to engage fans with live action from the arena PLUS alternative content experiences.
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