Ten Best Women’s Sport Campaigns of 2024
Top 10 Women’s Sport Campaigns of the Year
The Caitlin Clark Effect. The Ilona Maher Effect. The Simone Biles Effect. The Michelle Kang Effect.
2024 is best summed up by the impact sportswomen and women’s sport has had on culture as well as cash.
From Angel City FC hitting a $500m valuation and becoming the most valuable women’s sport’s team in the world to Michelle Kang adding a $30million US Soccer donation and a $6million USA Rugby donation to her already humming women’s sports portfolio. Add in a $20million deal between Nike and 3-point basketball sensation, Caitlin Clark and record bids for National Women’s Soccer League and WNBA expansion teams and the money started to flow into women’s sport in a way that we have always hoped for.
We heard how Simone Biles helped the mental health of girls everywhere and watched Rugby Sevens star, Ilona Maher show grace and athleticism on Dancing with the Stars and cause hysteria in the UK after moving to the Bristol Bears.
To top the year off Caitlin Clark was named Time’s Athlete of the Year a day before this was published so it’s fair to say women’s sport deeply thrust itself into culture and business’ bottom line in 2024.
With the increased infiltration into both culture and business, brands looked to get in on the action with ever evolving marketing campaigns around the women’s game.
For its sixth year we take a look and celebrate the top 10 women’s sport campaigns for 2024 in my highly popular annual list.
For previous winners and to see just how much women’s sport marketing has evolved, check out my 5 previous year’s winners here:
Top Ten Women’s Sport Campaigns of 2024
10. Athlos
What was not to love about the inaugural Athlos women’s only track event that featured the fastest women runners on the planet and rightfully celebrated them as the stars they are, at every touchpoint of the event.
Founded by male ally and women’s sport investor, Alexis O’Hanian, this sport entertainment event was an innovator’s delight, re-shaping everything we know about athletic meets.
Held in New York, it made a big statement by further lighting up the Big Apple with impactful billboards in advertising’s epicentre, Times Square. What could look more powerful than 13 of the world’s fastest women shot together in front of these epic screens?
It marvelously combined women’s sport with music and fashion, having Megan Thee Stallion headline the race day and brilliantly capturing the sassy outfits of the contestants in what was essentially a sport’s track “runway”.
My favourite element though was their sponsorship activation with Tiffany & Co who decked out the winners in glorious crowns from the brand.
This type of vision, investment, entertainment and investment is exactly what we need to advance the women’s game!
9. Bobbie x NWSL Sponsorship
Baby formula brand, Bobbie announced their sponsorship of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) with a video that cleverly played on the infamous ‘Soccer Mom’ label, showing what it really means to be a ‘Soccer Mom’.
Leveraging stars, and mums of the league they cleverly tapped into something that has long been an issue and barrier in women’s sport; balancing motherhood and a professional sport’s career but which has now become a common sight thanks to the development of maternity policies and parental support becoming more common across women’s sport.
While perhaps in the past there was a narrative that becoming pregnant was a weakness when it came to being a top athlete, this image has totally flipped with mums who return to the game being viewed as the ultimate athlete!
While the voiceover is bordering on being ‘worthy’, the script is clever with lines like; “There’s a hell of a lot more to us that minivans and orange slices” and there is a slick product tie-in with ‘tasting victory’.
They also activated their partnership with dedicated on-site feeding and lactation areas for mothers attending the 2024 NWSL Championship.
Bobbie take out 9th spot for their forsight and clever insight around celebrating and backing the true ‘Soccer Mom’ and mom-athletes everywhere!
8. Skims x WNBA
Some might think putting sportswomen in “underwear” for a marketing campaign is dangerous given sportswomen’s battles to be taken seriously as athletes as opposed to being sexualised but Skims x WNBA nailed the ‘brief’ and offered a stark contrast from Bluebella’s lingerie campaign which just months later clad three women’s rugby players in ‘lingerie in bizarre rugby scenes’ and showed the vast gap between brands getting it right and wrong when it comes to women’s sport marketing.
Kim Kardashian’s shapewear company, Skims proudly showcased just how ‘comfortable’ these basketball heroines are in their own skin in a classy and powerful campaign that pulled the product, brand, tagline and women’s basketball together ‘seamlessly’.
It took a look at the unsuspecting ways five of the league’s top players including Candace Parker, Cameron Brink, Kesley Plum, Dijonai Carrington, Skylar Diggins-Smith viewed themselves including powerful descriptors like ‘a menace on the court’ and mixed it with bad-ass basketball shots of them in action.
With the Skims brand being rooted in inclusivity with its ‘Every Body’ approach, it’s alignment with women’s sport and particularly the WNBA was a slam dunk.
7. Nike: Not Here to Inspire Dreams
While one-off billboard executions don’t usually feature prominently in my top campaigns, the insight on these out-of-home executions which appeared around the final of the National Women’s Soccer League final (NWSL) was what earned it a spot on my list.
The executions perfectly captured the common and unfair narrative that surrounds women’s sports in that sportswomen’s primary role is to ‘inspire little girls’ - while their male counterparts sole focus when it comes to sports is to win (and entertain).
It’s such a simple execution in the form of a basic outdoor billboard but this one cleverly said it all - Sportswomen are there first and foremost to pursue and live out their own dreams, and aren’t on the highest sport’s stage to just serve someone else’s purpose - sure inspiring girls (& boys) is a byproduct but not the central goal for professional women’s players!
6. Women’s Rugby Social Media Videos
I’ve somewhat cheated here and put three favourites under one heading. 2024 felt like a breakthrough year for women’s rugby on the pitch and on social media.
New Zealand Black Ferns:
This one is more about ‘creative content’ rather than an integrated campaign, but the Black Fern’s social media videos from their Tour of England were absolute gold and perfectly captured the magical power of what we love about women’s sport and in particular the New Zealand Black Ferns rugby team.
From a ‘meet & greet’ at an English coffee shop with players calling out the door to locals to come and say hi, to the showpiece video which featured the team visiting Buckingham Palace where they not just met Prince Charles but gave him a hug in their loveable, humble and authentic way, these videos showcased the team’s universal down-to-earth relatability.
England Red Roses:
Kiwi rivals, the Red Roses were also on fire with their social media videos releasing an emotional hitter of a promo that not just celebrated the team taking out the Six Nations Rugby title but which so beautifully captured the team’s impressive performance, the growth of women’s rugby and the Red Roses first ever stand-alone game at the home of (‘men’s’) rugby, Twickenham in front of a record 58,498 fans.
The MVP play of the video was the juxtaposition of the gentle, slow and emotive music track contrasted with the player’s athletic prowess to showcase the beauty of the game, alongside lyrics summing up what women's sports fans have always known about the women’s game; "Come with me & you'll see in a world of pure imagination".
The creative execution was pure brilliance, from the opening shot, timing, story development and featured shots to the single focus on England; the team, the fans and the venue - not a single shot of another team or player required.
Bristol Bears - Ilona Maher signing
To round out the trifecta of women’s rugby social media video excellence, we had a late entry with the signing of USA Seven’s and Cultural Phenomenon, Ilona Maher joining Bristol Bears to play in the English PWR competition just weeks ago.
Clearly the Bears knew what they were up to with not just signing a great player but signing a marketing powerhouse, whipping into action from the day she set foot in the UK with classic Ilona Maher entertainment putting her dry humour on show as she navigated the newfound culture and quirks of England and 15-aside rugby.
The most exhilarating thing though was watching the number of Bristol Bears social media followers rise each second alongside ticket sales and hype around her debut for the club!
5. Nike - Paris Olympics: Winning isn’t for everyone, am I a bad person?
OK you’ve got me in that this one isn’t technically a ‘women’s sport’ campaign but I’m claiming it given women’s domination of the Olympics...cue the first time in history women held 50% athlete representation plus owning the best medal winning moments, coverage and stories. I also feel the messaging of this campaign highlights an undercurrent that is too often associated with women and female athletes, in terms of specific traits being negatively perceived in sportswomen, even more so than their male counterparts.
Nike’s ‘Winning isn’t for everyone, am I a bad person?’ campaign during the Paris Olympics offered a surprising twist to the usual Olympics feel-good, uniting and positively-focused ads by showcasing ‘negatively perceived’ personal traits into the attributes required to be the best in the sport’s arena. It inadvertently showed the traits as the key components of what makes magical sporting moments and what we as fans crave from sport despite the societal view of these being undesirable personal traits.
Obviously this execution had the usual Nike high production values with beautiful cinematography but again it was the insight that caught my eye and the simple yet powerful copy; “I’m single minded…I’m never satisfied, I have an obsession with power..”
It’s perhaps the feeling of leaving me slightly uneasy at the end which makes this ad so compelling!
4. togethxr: Everyone watches women’s sports
Togethxr’s, “Everyone Watches Women’s Sports” branded t-shirt was another untraditional campaign yet totally aufait with the women’s sport community and the unique and creative ways we have had to create our own path.
The slogan is obviously a play on the favourite phrase of misogynists with no profile pic who troll about on social media; ‘No one watches women’s sports’. While the tees actually had their first appearance at the end of last year, 2024 was when they blew-up, totally infiltrated culture and became the uniform of women’s sport fans.
Women’s sport icons like NCAA college basketball winning coach, Dawn Stanley appeared on court wearing one and they were worn by the likes of Serena Williams, Steph Curry, Chelsea Handler, Jason Sudeikis (Ted Lasso) and even on the Tonight Show.
I love how this campaign took on one of the more challenging problems to solve in women’s sport, the ‘second-tier’ narrative that women’s sport unwillingly inherited and that it completely leveraged women’s sports most powerful asset…it’s community. It used a channel (merchandise) that enabled fans to explicitly showcase their fandom and support and had been successful in the past (hello WNBA Orange Hoodies). The tees perfectly leveraged a wider cultural movement around evolving attitudes towards women’s sport with the line now becoming synonymous with Togethxr and women’s sport growth.
The smartest thing about this campaign though was its triple function of not just elevating the women’s game but driving revenue through sales and also acting as a brilliant awareness campaign for women’s sport company, Togethxr.
My favourite edition was the translation to French “Tout Le Monde Regarde Le Sport Femin” which could be seen at the hottest events in France including the Paris Olympics and the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity (where women’s sport was thriving btw!).
Get yours here and “Watch Women’s Sports!”.
3. GATORADE X CAITLIN CLARK IS JUST GETTING STARTED
It’s hard to see past 2024’s women’s sport success without singling out, WNBA Rookie and 3-point sensation Caitlin Clark (as much as I love so many other women’s basketball players!) who has taken women’s basketball further into the mainstream…including making the favourite basketball player list of boys everywhere.
Gatorade’s spot was a stand-out for me amongst the brands getting in on the cultural moment as it celebrated Clark’s entry into the WNBA with a mind-blowingly simple creative idea that was perfectly executed with the sound of sinking three’s being the hero of the ad.
The basic setting of a dim gym beautifully highlights the thousands (more likely hundreds of thousands) of practice shots that earned her a record-breaking college career and her a number 1 draft pick in the WNBA. The end-frame superbly summed up her journey thus far as people waited in anticipation for her entry into the WNBA; “And that was just the warm-up.”
A simple yet winning shot from Gatorade.
Runner up: Ellie the Elephant - New York Liberty Mascot
While not what most would call a traditional marketing campaign, Ellie the Elephant epitomizes everything that’s special about women’s sport and how campaigns to grow the game often can and need to take original and unassuming forms.
While it’s nothing new for a sport’s team to have a mascot, the WNBA Championship winning team, New York Liberty got everything right about how a Mascot can build a connection between fans and the team.
As only one of four female sport’s mascots, ‘Big Ellie’s’ courtside energy, New York sass, epic dance moves, fashion taste, unapologetic nature perfectly embodies the city and made her one of the key stars of the team and a staple on social media, the social scene and even claimed a title as the first mascot to ever have their own float in the infamous Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
What I loved most, is how she became such a valuable asset, not just in terms of leading culture and driving fan engagement but also in terms of brand partnerships, with deals including the likes of Bumble and Nike alongside fashion houses such as Rare Breed, Telfar UGG - she even has a Ratecard like any Influencer!
Despite becoming part of the team in 2021, she brought her MVP performance this season and it was a slam dunk to the New York Liberty for their on-court and off-court action in what their home games have been labelled ‘Brooklyn’s Best Summer Party’.
WINNER: Knix - Sport your period
This “bloody” brilliant campaign fronted by iconic footballer, social activist, and woman who gets her period, Megan Rapinoe, wins its “spot” not only for its creative thinking but it’s ability to tackle period stigma by leveraging women’s sports best assets to do so…the athletes themselves.
They went about normalising periods to keep girls in the game by putting their money where their (& athletes) mouths are….literally, offering up $1000 for athletes to mention competing on their period in a press conference, TV interview, podcast or social media right before the biggest global event on the planet in which they had no official partnerships - the Paris Olympics.
The copy of the hero video is class; "Too much information?.....NOT enough.”
Everything about this was creative brilliance, from offering up payment to athletes to deliver the message, the tagline ‘Sport your Period’, a captivating & entertaining execution, clever use of 'athlete channels' and tackling a meaningful problem that links to one of Knix' key products (leak proof underwear) in an interesting, different & purposeful way!
Congratulations to all this year’s winners!
With the growth and popularity of women’s sport showing no signs of slowing down alongside major events in 2025 such as the Women’s Rugby World Cup and Women’s Euros and all the usual big commercial hitters like the WNBA, National Women’s Soccer League, WTA, Women’s Super League and more innovative forms of the game like Athlos, Unrivaled 3v3, Athletes Unlimited plus more, 2025 is set to dwarf 2024 so bring on next year and more women’s sport marketing campaigns that wow us!
I can’t wait to see who hits the mark next year and claims a spot on my coveted ‘Best Women’s Sports Campaigns List’.
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