A new approach to understanding, reaching, and resonating with sports fans is overdue. Across the world, a new consumer segment of sports fans is surging: women’s sports fans. It should come as no surprise that people are catching on to the entertaining and exciting world that is women’s sports – take the US Women’s Soccer team’s huge 13-0 win over Thailand in the first round of the 2019 World Cup. Even though fans are now tuning into more and more women’s sports, simply put, many brands and advertisers have yet to adjust to the unprecedented pace of change that our culture has placed on sports.
With nearly two-thirds of the population saying they have interest in at least one women’s sport, what do marketers need to know about this growing audience? This infographic dives into women’s sports fans, profiling the attributes they share, and key recommendations for marketers looking to reach them.
The lifestyle of Women’s Sports Fans
People that enjoy watching female athletes compete at the highest level have similar attributes when it comes to the manner in which they live their life. Overall they are interested in the following:
- Green or Eco-friendly living
- Actively helping and donating to Charitable organizations
- Health & Wellness
The work life of Women’s Sports Fans
Overall, women’s sports fans are established in their careers, working administrative or management jobs in a variety of industries. The most common jobs for fans of female sports to have are:
- Administration
- General Management
- Product Development
- Human Resources
- Information Technology
The interests of Women’s Sports Fans
Obviously these sports fans aren’t going to spend their entire day watching sports, so what do they also enjoy doing? These sports fans have diverse interests including:
- Handicraft/DIY
- Photography
- Food & Wine
- Home Reco
Recommendations for Marketers
With major sporting events like the 2019 Women’s World Cup, the French Open and growing interest in professional sports leagues like the WNBA, advertisers and marketers have a great opportunity to hone in on these audiences, understand who they are and their interests. These sports fans are complex individuals with unique interests, but advertisers can use this to their advantage. Using multi-device programmatic advertising, advertisers can reach fans first-and-foremost while they’re watching the game, but also through an omni-channel experience. After analyzing these audiences, our team has come up with a few ways to target and interact with these passionate women’s sports fans:
- Utilize Cross-Device Display: Nearly 93% of women’s sports watchers say they reach for another device while they tune in to watch TV, most popularly their phone. If these fans aren’t using their phone to message their friends, they are using social media (54%), checking emails (48%) or searching for products to buy (36%). All of these actions offer great opportunities for marketers – if it isn’t in the budget to pay for a TV spot, if you’re aware of a game or tournament going on, you can target these fans via mobile of desktop.
- Incorporate App Ownership: As previously stated, because people watching these games are also invested in their phone, there is a great opportunity to target based on app ownership data. Knowing the interests of these audiences, you can target them based on downloaded apps beyond sports – but photography, DIY, food & wine and their other many interests to further drive interactions.
Interested in learning more about targeting this growing women’s sports fan audience – or other specific audiences that your brand is looking to reach? Learn how you can leverage programmatic in your brand’s marketing plan with Digilant. Reach out to us for more information here.
Methodology
This infographic is based on the findings of a study conducted by Digilant. To conduct this study, Digilant combined Consumer Persona, a proprietary insight, and predictive modeling technology, with third-party consumer data to uncover the unique attributes shared by women’s sports fans. Data was collected in June 2019.