The Global Sports Innovation Center powered by Microsoft celebrated the fifth Webinar of the series “Embracing the Multisport through Technology and Innovation” on Tuesday 23rd March, with assistance of SPSG Consulting.
During this special session commemorating International Women’s Day, diverse female representatives from leading sport organizations discussed their visions of digital transformation in the sport industry, as well as the different initiatives their organizations are undertaking to promote female representation at sport and management level.
These were the main takeaways of the webinar:
Main challenges for women working in the sports industry
The last few years have seen a major shift in mindsets and perspectives regarding women's involvement in the sports industry.
However, the main challenge in relation to gender equality in the industry is still to normalize women in sport in order to drive up fans, audiences, players, and investors.
Strategies to attract more female fans
One of the key points lies in the creation of women's sports competitions with a global impact, as it becomes a virtuous cycle. Indeed, it gives women’s sport mass reach, which then enables the investment in elite pathways, to then create iconic characters and heroes that inspire female fans. Ultimately, this results in higher audiences and monetization in these competitions.
Brands getting involved in women’s sport from a sponsorship perspective:
There are many brands that are adapting to the important changes in the values of most societies in terms of gender equality and are therefore repositioning their brands according to these trends in order to be closer to their target audiences.
In that sense, properties are moving away from commercializing the sponsorship assets of their men's and women's teams and competitions together, as more and more brands are willing to position themselves exclusively in the women's sport environment.
Investment in women’s sport:
Some investment moves are being seen in the women's sport environment by large conglomerates and investors.
At the moment they are still in the minority and the main objective for women's sports must be to create a model that works and enter the virtuous cycle that was mentioned previously, in order to progressively awaken the interest of this type of investors.
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