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Girls’s sports activities loved a marquee yr throughout the board in 2024, however particularly in tv promoting, in response to TV advertising agency EDO.
In a report launched Tuesday, EDO discovered that TV advertisers spent $244 million on girls’s sports activities in 2024, a year-over-year improve of 139%, with basketball receiving essentially the most funding of any sport. That corresponded with a 131% year-over-year improve in girls’s sports activities TV viewership, in response to EDO’s estimates.
Adverts throughout girls’s sports activities applications had been 40% extra impactful than the common primetime commercial, in response to EDO, as measured by searches for manufacturers after an advert aired.
Girls’s sports activities is on monitor to change into probably the most beneficial areas for advertisers, mentioned Laura Grover, senior vice chairman and head of shopper options at EDO.
“What actually jumped out to me is that numerous the manufacturers which are actually seeing good points are ones which have had a really minimal presence on TV up to now,” Grover mentioned. “They’re leaning into these new alternatives in girls’s sports activities, they usually’re actually paying off.”
The highest-spending industries on girls’s sports activities in 2024 had been autos, prescription drugs, web and telecommunications, monetary companies, and insurance coverage, in response to the report. The very best-spending manufacturers had been State Farm, AT&T, Allstate, Nike and AbbVie’s Skyrizi, whereas the simplest manufacturers for engagement had been Skims, Poppi, Oura, Fabletics and Bombas.
General, essentially the most partaking girls’s sports activities occasions for advertisers had been faculty lacrosse (25% simpler than the common 2024 girls’s sports activities program), the U.S. Open semifinals and finals (20% simpler), the NCAA Event for basketball (19% simpler), faculty gymnastics and the WNBA Finals (each 18% simpler than the general class).
Basketball leads
Though advert spending and viewership progress expanded throughout all girls’s sports activities, basketball made notable strides with each programming and star energy. The decisive Recreation 5 of the WNBA Finals was the most-watched Finals sport in 25 years, and the league set a regular-season file for distinctive viewers in 2024.
In line with EDO, advertisements that aired in the course of the WNBA playoffs created 24% extra engagement per individual than the common primetime spot, and engagement charges for advertisements in the course of the WNBA’s common season, playoffs and finals all grew yr over yr.
As model ambassadors, particular person WNBA athletes additionally boosted advertisers. Essentially the most influential WNBA gamers when it comes to advertisements had been Cameron Brink of the Los Angeles Sparks, A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces and Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever. Adverts that featured Brink, equivalent to commercials for Skims and New Steadiness, had been considerably simpler than the common WNBA advert, in response to EDO.
Ads that had been contextually related and featured feminine athletes carried out particularly nicely throughout the board. Commercials starring WNBA gamers throughout WNBA video games had been 103% simpler than ones that did not, the report mentioned. In soccer, advertisements with Nationwide Girls’s Soccer League gamers that aired throughout NWSL video games had been 39% simpler than advertisements with out them.
“If you’re bringing within the expertise and also you’re current in an surroundings in an genuine means, which numerous instances is thru contextual promoting, we are likely to see that that’s actually impactful with audiences,” Grover mentioned.
On the collegiate basketball degree, EDO discovered that advertisements in the course of the 2024 girls’s NCAA Event had been 18% simpler than the common primetime advert. The event championship was the most-watched NCAA girls’s faculty basketball sport ever.
Restaurant chains lead the pack in engagement for the present faculty basketball season, with Marco’s Pizza, Restaurant Manufacturers Worldwide’s Popeyes, Papa John’s and McDonald’s claiming 4 of the highest 5 spots.
Present faculty basketball stars are additionally driving engagement with advertisements. Grover mentioned State Farm’s advert that includes JuJu Watkins of USC has been 20% extra impactful than the common State Farm industrial.
NCAA girls’s gymnastics, lacrosse and volleyball additionally rose in reputation. Gymnastics and lacrosse each noticed double-digit good points in advert engagement in comparison with 2023, whereas commercials in the course of the 2024 volleyball championship had been 250% extra impactful than the common primetime advert.
