The 2024 Summer time Olympics open in Paris on Friday. Gender parity was a acknowledged purpose, giving girls athletes an even bigger stage than ever earlier than. Within the U.S., sports activities followers will probably be watching all of the competitors, and far of this consideration will probably be on the celebs of ladies’s sports activities. What does this imply for entrepreneurs?
“The visibility is growing,” stated Tania Salarvand, EVP of hospitality and leisure for digital innovation firm Globant. “Some would argue slowly, but it surely’s positively occurring. Lots of it’s about media protection, and extra followers watching by streaming. Manufacturers have the power to leverage social media and these model activations in a digital manner, and this has modified the dynamic.”
Join sports activities to tradition
With extra visibility, girls athletes are showcasing their star energy in main model campaigns, following within the footsteps of trailblazers like tennis legend, and four-time gold medalist, Serena Williams. Manufacturers capitalizing on the success of remarkable athletes ought to acknowledge the broader cultural affect of ladies athletes on all of us. Doing this takes the sponsorship or marketing campaign past a sports activities viewers and connects with informal Olympics viewers’ passions.
A current instance is Bose’s new marketing campaign starring American tennis star Coco Gauff. Earlier than profitable her first grand slam finally yr’s U.S. Open, Gauff was already on the radar as a sports activities and trend ambassador for GenZ. (In 2022, American Eagle drafted her to hitch them within the metaverse.)
Not solely does Gauff present how the Bose Extremely Open Earbuds can conveniently play music throughout intense tennis rallies, however the spot additionally offers a cross-culture reference to a cameo by British rapper Little Simz. Gauff will compete in singles and doubles tennis in Paris and can function a USA flag-bearer within the opening ceremonies.
Equally, the WNBA has seen a big enhance in client consideration and fan attendance drawn by younger stars like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. A elevate within the magnitude of consciousness results in higher alternatives for tie-ins to music, trend and different cultural pursuits. This doesn’t imply the potential wasn’t there to start with.
“I used to be studying an article just lately about trend within the WNBA, which I believe is ironic as a result of it’s all the time been there,” stated Salarvand. “However as a result of the WNBA is beginning to get extra of a voice now, there’s a convergence with these gamers and types.”
The model sponsorship panorama is drastically completely different from the 2020 Tokyo Video games (which befell in 2021 due to COVID-19). For that Olympics, 86% of the sponsors had been Japanese manufacturers. Native manufacturers for this yr’s Paris video games are solely 37% of sponsorships, in line with sports activities and leisure intelligence firm SponsorUnited.
U.S.-based firms signify 41% of non-local sponsors in Paris. Procter & Gamble will activate over 30 manufacturers by an unique partnership within the Private Care and Family Merchandise class. The partnership consists of offering services and products within the Olympic Village, together with merchandise from All the time and Tampax for the wants of ladies athletes. P&G manufacturers will probably be leveraging social media to generate natural content material by athletes and their followers all through the Olympics, in line with SponsorUnited.
The model advantages of collaborating within the Olympics and different occasions that includes girls athletes are overwhelming. Coca-Cola just lately celebrated its involvement for practically your complete historical past of the trendy Olympics, and these efforts have led to the model being the most-recognized sponsor within the U.S., in line with model monitoring firm Tracksuit.
Nevertheless, affiliation with the Olympics could be achieved with out changing into an precise sponsor. Tracksuit discovered that Nike ranks second when respondents had been requested to call an Olympic sponsor. The one drawback is Nike isn’t a sponsor. Nonetheless, sponsoring girls’s sports activities offers a measurable enhance in model choice.
“Forward of and through final yr’s 2023 Girls’s World Cup in Australia & New Zealand, which drew file attendance for a girls’s sporting occasion, Tracksuit…collected knowledge from 4,000 Australian shoppers to gauge their sentiment on the occasion,” stated Connor Archbold, Tracksuit’s founder and co-CEO. “The info revealed that 42% of Australian shoppers want manufacturers supporting girls’s sports activities over manufacturers that don’t, indicating substantial potential on this market. It additionally was a agency message to manufacturers that it’s not simply viewership that’s rising; audiences are displaying a transparent choice for manufacturers that sponsor girls’s sports activities.”
Projected Olympics viewership is break up practically evenly between women and men, in line with Tracksuit — 48% males; 52% girls.
Leverage digital channels to create distinctive fan experiences
Participating sports activities followers in 2024 goes far past the location of the competitors. For U.S. skilled groups, most of their followers dwell exterior of the house market, stated Salarvand.
“Earlier, it was type of concerning the on-site model activations,” she stated. “To have interaction these followers now, manufacturers want to have the ability to leverage social media and these activations in a digital manner.”
“Manufacturers searching for to maximise affect throughout girls’s sporting occasions just like the Paris 2024 Olympics ought to lean on social media and social media partnerships as pivotal avenues,” stated Archbold. “Girls athletes sometimes have a 14% bigger social media following than male athletes (in line with the United Nations group UN Girls), providing manufacturers a strong platform to attach with followers by co-branded content material, campaigns and promotions. Strategic use of social media permits manufacturers to spice up engagement and drive consciousness inside a brand new phase of followers.”
Archbold added: “Combining conventional TV with digital content material might help guarantee a bigger viewers attain and better engagement, maximizing the affect of promoting campaigns. Digital platforms provide interactive experiences and extra customized content material supply, catering to fashionable preferences for simpler, on-demand and interactive engagement. Half of shoppers watch occasion highlights and replays throughout digital platforms resembling information channels, YouTube and TikTok, creating further alternatives for manufacturers to make a splash, particularly given the time variations between the US and Paris.”
Convey Paris to U.S. followers
For the Paris Olympics, U.S. entrepreneurs needs to be interested by methods to carry the sports activities expertise stateside by pop-up experiences and watch events, Salarvand stated.
“Not all of us are going to be lucky sufficient to go to all of the occasions in Paris,” she stated. “I like girls’s gymnastics — it’s my absolute favourite — however I’ve by no means been to a girls’s gymnastics occasion. How will we carry that right here? Whether or not it’s by a neighborhood gymnasium, the place you may create a type of native occasion, or launching a pop-up activation…how will we create that have right here, dwell, for people who find themselves mega-fans however don’t have the privilege to go to the occasion and nonetheless really feel part of the chance?”
Salarvand added: “Create one thing that’s tremendous distinctive to your model with a message, your model voice, a connection, however then makes it very accessible to the lots.”
Along with offering manufacturers with expertise to execute significant digital-first experiences, Globant additionally executes its sports-themed activations. As an example, it partnered with FIFA for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and FIFA Girls’s Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023.
“From a model perspective, it’s actually been about, how will we create and activate our model inside that house and in addition carry to life a few of our passions,” stated Salarvand. “So, leveraging expertise knowledge and AI, we did a whole lot of dwell activations as effectively round ‘the right shot’ — methods to mimic your self towards your favourite participant and your capacity to shoot a purpose, for instance.”
When making a custom-made expertise for sports activities followers, ensure to tie it again to your model.
Take heed to the followers and increase the dialog
Entrepreneurs must also take into account how sports activities activations invite followers to share extra about themselves. Manufacturers ought to use these alternatives not solely to develop engagement but in addition loyalty.
“There’s a whole lot of user-generated content material that’s pulling in folks’s experiences and love for sure groups and sure athletes, in order that’s one thing that’s taking on,” stated Salarvand.
Along with Globant’s FIFA sponsorships, the corporate partnered with the brand new dwelling of the Los Angeles Clippers — Intuit Dome — opening this summer season. Globant is rethinking the same old manner followers are engaged by contemplating methods that present deep curiosity in followers’ preferences.
“Lots of the working we’re doing is round ‘fan 360’ — how we totally perceive followers, what they’re fascinated about, what they’re engaged in, and the way we work together with them in new and other ways,” stated Salarvand. “We’re doing numerous cell growth to customise experiences relying on who the fan is, how usually they arrive again to [a team’s home market] and really have interaction bodily, versus digital engagement. They could be shopping for gear, there’s an enormous ecommerce element to this. They may be interacting with Q&As with sure gamers. They may be partaking with groups on social media. And never simply by likes, however there are a whole lot of followers creating their very own content material.”
Entrepreneurs ought to take into consideration how deeply they have interaction sports activities followers to generate these buyer insights. Leagues and sports activities groups are doing it. And types may have the chance to have interaction followers in the identical manner as they root for athletes, in Paris and afar, throughout the Olympics.
