The demand for women’s sports is growing, but women’s sports fans and consumers already knew that.
The NWSL and WNBA were the only professional sports leagues in North America to experience increased TV ratings during 2020 amid the pandemic. Star athletes like Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams, celebrities and even NFL owners are investing in women’s sports teams. The Tokyo Olympics featured a record number of women participating, while consumers across the United States and Canada tuned in to watch women compete in prime time at higher rates than ever before.
Anglea Ruggerio is a Hockey Hall of Famer, Olympic gold medalist, and co-founder/CEO of Sports Innovation Lab, which does market research with clients like the NFL, NHL and FIFA, and focuses on how technology influences fan behavior. As a former athlete, Ruggerio knew there was a large investment gap between men’s and women’s professional sports, but there was little research devoted to the women’s sports industry that actually provided a reason why.
Her company’s latest initiative, The Fan Project, teamed up with 27 partners, including the WNBA, NWSL, LPGA and Women’s Sports Foundation, and asked for consumers' social media archives to analyze social and viewership data.
While brands have been using outdated metrics—like TV ratings—to judge whether it's worth investing in women’s sports, fans have been left to find their own ways to engage in digital communities and e-commerce over the last five years or so. In other words, by not investing in women’s sports, brands have been missing out on as much as five years of revenue by not engaging with these consumers.
Ruggerio knew that consumers of women’s sports were hungry for more content and digitally savvy, but she didn’t realize how advanced women’s sports fans are in the way they consume sports and engage with their teams, brands, and other fans.
The results showed that most women’s sports fans already exhibited behaviors of a fluid fan—a fan who is continuously evolving, open to change, and significantly impacted by technology. Sports Innovation Lab described the fluid fan as a new way to think about fan engagement and the path to growth for the entire industry.
“If I understand [women’s sports] fans, it’s the path to growth for all fans. Full stop. That’s super powerful,” Ruggerio said. “Even if you’re never going to invest in women’s sports, you have to pay attention to what we’re doing. Because they’re out there and they’re building these communities and monetizing sports in a new and different way.”
Angela Ruggerio spoke with GoodSport about the Fan Project, what brands and marketers can take away from the data, and the growth potential of women’s sports.
