Is women’s sport at a creative tipping point?
As the cultural momentum around women’s sport reaches fever pitch, we explore how brands are embracing diverse new audiences and challenging the conventions of sports marketing
It’s been a decade since Sport England’s seminal campaign This Girl Can first graced our screens. Created in response to startling research on the fitness gender gap – which revealed that two million fewer women than men were playing sport regularly in the UK – it offered a refreshingly honest portrayal of exercise, depicting women of varying ages and body types looking sweaty, red-faced, and happy. Ten years on, and This Girl Can has inspired millions of women and girls across the country to get active, but beyond its individual impact it’s clear that the tectonic plates of the wider sports world are shifting dramatically.
Spurred on by the success of England’s Lionesses, women’s football has seen a 56% increase in participation among women and girls over the last five years. The same goes for the growing level of fandom around women’s sports, which boasted their highest ever viewership levels in the UK last year as access to watching games is democratised by the internet. They’re also an increasingly attractive financial proposition, with four in five brand decision makers suggesting they are likely to invest in women’s sport sponsorship in the next three years.
“It feels like the flip has switched and the conversation has changed from, ‘is this viable?’ to ‘how do we avoid getting left behind?’” says Holly Gilbertson, founder and managing partner at sports-specialist agency Pacer, who’s already worked with brands including adidas since launching last year. “I think investment is definitely one thing, but that ideological shift for me is what’s most exciting. There’s this cultural infectiousness around women’s sport at the minute, I think everybody wants to be part of it.”
Gilbertson has spent much of her career as a brand and cultural strategist trying to bridge the gap between the more traditional elements of the sport industry and non-traditional audiences. “I’m quite involved in the sport community and just seeing that grassroots energy was really at odds with some of the conversations that were happening in the upper echelons of the sports world,” she notes. Spun out of sister agency The Digital Fairy, Pacer’s purpose is to service the new cultural momentum around sport with a fresh approach to storytelling.
“The cultural difference of everything around women’s sport – female athletes, female audiences – needs a different lens and a different perspective. There’s tons of brilliant agencies that are set up to service the old world and do so very well, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into what’s happening now. So Pacer was basically an opportunity to combine the disruptive, social-first, female-first thinking and heritage that Digi Fairy has, and combine that with an understanding of the sports landscape and where it is at the moment,” she says.
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Earlier this year, Good Culture co-founders Liz MacCuish and Jordan Mitchell also announced the launch of Good Sport – a new venture inspired by their belief that women’s sport represents the largest untapped opportunity in today’s cultural and commercial landscape. Leveraging collaborations with the likes of Speedo, Alo and Dina Asher-Smith, the cultural marketing agency brings the founder’s backgrounds in cultural strategy, talent casting, partnerships and programming to the fore.
“The mission is to elevate women’s sport into culture not just as a category, but as a movement,” say the co-founders. “We saw a gap in the market for an agency that not only understood commercial partnerships and brand building but also knew how to create culturally meaningful moments. Good Sport was built to shift the narrative from tokenism to true storytelling, and from ‘visibility’ to value. Our aim is to position athletes not just as sports stars, but as cultural leaders, tastemakers, and brands in their own right.”
The nichification of the internet has played a role in normalising beginnerism, making it cute to try running for the first time or dabble in an aesthetic like tenniscore
While it’s still early days for both agencies, they’ve already seen traction from brands across the sporting spectrum and broader lifestyle sectors. Good Sport has worked with Michael Rubin’s company Fanatics to launch its flagship store focusing on fandom and collectibles, as well as recently signing Formula One analyst Naomi Schiff. Pacer has also been helping Chivas, who sponsors the Ferrari team, to navigate the changing F1 audience, and has an ongoing relationship with Mercury 13, the club ownership group helping to transform women’s football through acquisitions such as FC Como.
“They’ve given FC Como this incredible, luxury rebrand, and essentially we’re helping them with a partnership strategy that completely rewrites the rules of how clubs like that can do creative partnerships and sponsorships, in a way that radically rethinks the football experience from a female-first perspective. What does the fan experience look like? What does the away day experience look like? What does the football screening experience look like?” says Gilbertson.
Both of the agencies’ work is indicative of the wider changes going on in women’s sport marketing, as brands increasingly move away from the traditional narrative of smashing taboos and overcoming barriers. On, for instance, has been developing a distinctive, esoteric tone of voice through its marketing, looking beyond the world of athletes with high-profile talent signings including FKA twigs. Directed by Nadia Lee Cohen, its latest campaign with Zendaya took the form of a fictional trailer for a sci-fi film called Zone Dreamers, with touches such as goofy prosthetics and a 90s-style trailer voiceover elevating it above your typical sportswear ad.
Nike’s decision to return to the Super Bowl earlier this year for the first time since 1998 with a powerful serenade to women’s sport marked a particularly symbolic moment, while its recent campaign promoting WNBA player A’ja Wilson’s first signature shoe was hailed as an instant classic. Directed by Jenn Nkiru, the ad paid homage to Black girlhood with a play on the old Miss Mary Mack nursery rhyme hand-clap game.
@naomischiff Race day GRWM in Miami — Things to remember when getting ready for race day: wear something weather appropriate, try to bring a bit of the local flair and comfort is key! So I tried on three low-profile kicks with that sleek, racing-inspire vibe. The Tokyos took the win for the fit, but the Japans and Taekwondos held their own. Shoutout to @adidas for keeping my sneaker game podium ready! Which pair would you be rocking? It was a great day at the race. I hope you enjoyed it from wherever you watched. ???????? #Createdwithadidas
The role of talent in helping shape the visual direction of women’s sport cannot be understated either. Having helped the US to a rugby sevens bronze medal at the Paris Olympics, Ilona Maher has since fronted a viral Sports Illustrated’s issue with the cover line ‘Beast. Beauty. Brains’, appeared in several L’Oréal ads, and become the first female contestant to lift her male partner on Dancing with the Stars. “That personality piece is everything,” says Gilbertson. “That’s what a lot of particularly young girls are connecting with now, because they’re suddenly seeing themselves in sportspeople, and outside of the extreme, untouchable few, that hasn’t really been a part of many women’s lives.”
Adding to the proliferation of sporting stars blowing up on social – as seen with the likes of Maher fronting the first true TikTok Olympics in Paris and the wealth of relatable content populating #runtok thanks to creators/athletes like Philly Bowden – sport is having a ‘chronically online’ moment more generally. “If you go on TikTok and look up ‘UEFA Women’s Euros’ at the moment, you’ll find women being like, ‘does anyone want to go together?’ That plus one effect of social is really important,” says Gilbertson. “The nichification of the internet that TikTok’s really participated in has also played a role in normalising beginnerism, making it cute to try running for the first time, dabble in an aesthetic like tenniscore, or whatever it might be.”
While the relationship between sport and femininity was traditionally fraught, Pacer’s recent Sportpop report examined the reclamation of many of the stereotypes that have previously shut out women and other groups through trends such as the blokette aesthetic. “That idea of being interested in sport because of a team aesthetic, or a particular player’s off court/pitch/track life making you any less of a fan than somebody who’s totally obsessed with all the stats. Or equally on the participation side, the idea that you can only participate if you’re good, otherwise you’re all the gear, no idea – this untouchable idea of sport. I think the aspiration in the women’s world is being created in a different way,” she adds.
As our idea of what constitutes ‘sporty’ continues to broaden, the opportunity for marketers over the next few years is clear. “Brands have a chance to embed themselves early in the ecosystem, to support not just the top athletes but the broader community around them: fans, coaches, content creators, grassroots initiatives,” say MacCuish and Mitchell. “The key is to co-create and invest in platforms that champion women, show up consistently (not just during tournaments), and let the athletes lead the narrative. The brands that win will be the ones who help grow the game, not just profit from it.”
For Gilbertson, the combination of a highly engaged but still largely underserved audience has created a perfect storm for brands who want to engage with them. “What is most resonant about sport at the minute is its intersection with fashion, with beauty, with travel, with identity. I think that’s where it gets quite exciting, particularly for brands who haven’t participated in the space before, because it means they can do so in a way that’s much more authentic to them. It’s moving beyond copying and pasting what’s happened before in the men’s world of sport, and actually trying something that feels new and fresh, because the audience are ready for it.”
