The groundswell of brands investing in women’s soccer in recent years has been evident.
In the NWSL, blue-chip brands have been signing with the league and its clubs, which are increasingly being backed by big-pocket investors. Individual players are also moving the needle as standard bearers on a global scale.
Courtney Ksiazek, senior director of partnership marketing at Angel City FC, tells Pro Soccer Wire that the loyalty of women’s sports fans is a tantalizing factor for companies interested in getting involved.
“The main shift in recent years is it’s not just about a brand giving for charity’s sake. They’re making a genuine investment,” Ksiazek said. “Through women’s soccer, they are connecting with a different type of fan. Not just a general soccer fan.
“The loyalty of not just soccer but women’s sports fans goes so far beyond other sports. The brands that support women’s soccer will receive more in-depth engagement and loyalty as women’s soccer has been lacking consistent business support in years past. If brands invest in the sports and showcase that loyalty to the growth of the game, the fans will give that loyalty right back to the brands.”
The magnitude of the 2023 Women’s World Cup isn’t just a flashpoint that arrived out of nowhere. FIFA’s most recent benchmarking report “Setting the Pace 2022” details the growth of women’s soccer from 2021 to 2022 in all facets including fan engagement, player representation, and financial growth.
Commercial investment was the main driver on both the club and league levels, with brand dollars accounting for 56% of an average club’s total revenue (matchday, broadcast, commercial, and other) and 54% of an average league’s total revenue.
Additionally:
- Of the clubs providing information, there was year-on-year commercial revenue growth of 33% – indicating the continued and growing interest from commercial sponsors wishing to be associated with women’s soccer. In turn, leagues have experienced year-on-year growth of 24% in commercial revenues.
- The number of leagues with a title sponsor has grown over the past year, with 77% of leagues having a title sponsor in 2022, up 11% from 2021.
What accounts for this steady growth in commercial investment?
“Many U.S.-based brands have continued to jump onboard to support and sponsor on a global perspective,” Sara Toussaint tells Pro Soccer Wire.
Tousant is a partner and managing director of underdog venture team, as well as an investor in both The Marketing Jersey, a global women’s soccer athlete management agency, and the NWSL’s North Carolina Courage.
“These are blue-chip, world-recognized brands that are investing in this sport. They are looking at women’s sports as a new way to market.”
Companies are able to leverage women’s soccer fans by investing genuine dollars right back into the leagues and teams these fans are consuming.
Data from the Sports Innovation Lab shows how fans of women’s soccer immediately developed a greater affinity for Visa and Budweiser after the two companies made major investments in the USWNT and the NWSL, respectively.
“I think brands are becoming more creative in how they’re investing,” Toussaint said. “It’s not just, ‘Hey we want marketing dollars in exchange for signage.’ Rather, it’s evolving to, ‘Hey we want that signage and those activations but we also want to embed ourselves within the culture of these clubs, leagues, federations.'”
Looking further into how the data backs women’s soccer as a viable commercial investment, Sports Innovation Lab and Jung von Matt SPORTS’ “Fanarchy26” report details the soccer landscape in the United States and corresponding fan interest.
“The underlying thesis of the report is that the U.S. market is primed for the growth of soccer and women’s soccer over the next upcoming years,” Sports Innovation Lab head of innovation Abe Stein told Pro Soccer Wire. “It’s a great opportunity for onboarding new fans and engaging new fans”
No fan becomes a part of the sport in the same way. Some have a direct pathway if they’ve played the sport or if they’re the parent of a player, or it could be through cultural moments or video games.
Yet, one of the most important pathways for becoming a soccer fan has a direct connection with FIFA’s crown jewel kicking off this summer.
Defined as “The National Team Fan,” this archetype becomes a soccer fan through supporting their national team around key competitions. Skewing evenly amongst genders with a 51% male/49% female breakdown, this fan scored high in areas of avidity (average level of passion for soccer based on survey responses) and engagement (average active participation in soccer based on survey responses specific to attendance, viewership, and purchases).
“When we think of soccer at large, about 27% of soccer fans became fans because of their national team,” Sports Innovation Lab’s COO Kerry Bradley told Pro Soccer Wire. “Both sides of the equation highlight the importance of this year’s Women’s World Cup. It’s at an all-time high in terms of engagement, time, and energy.”
Growth from the Women’s World Cup is not isolated just to the tournament itself. Rather, it allows for post-World Cup momentum to be carried into domestic leagues. The Fanarchy26 report further illustrates that “60% of fans who follow the NWSL say they became fans of the sport because of a national team.”
“If we can identify that the origin of fandom is coming from international soccer, it’s even more imperative that brands need to focus not just on the international competition before and during the tournament, they also need to focus attention on domestic leagues like the NWSL as the trickle-down effect carries over from after a national tournament,” says Bradley.
“The opportunity to see soccer at the highest scale will spurn collaboration amongst local, domestic teams,” says Ksiazek. “Business goals will align well as superstars, breakout players will return to their clubs and continue to carry that momentum back to their clubs. The carryover impact has been there on the men’s side, especially with more established leagues and clubs. While there’s work to be done within the media side, the opportunity is now for brands to continue that momentum from the World Cup and invest within domestic leagues and clubs.”
The growth within women’s soccer hasn’t come out of nowhere, nor will it peak with the World Cup this summer. Brands that have been investing in recent years know the women’s soccer community is only going to become more appealing as more fans continue to hop onboard. The rest will find out soon enough.
“For the last 6-7 years, people have been asking, ‘When’s the tipping point for women’s soccer?'” says Ksiazek. “It’s not just one thing, the work has been put in each and every day over that time frame. This isn’t just a flash in the pan. The ecosystem is primed for it now. If there was ever a point for the landscape and perspectives to change, while it’s beyond time, now is as good of a time as ever.”
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