On June 25th, we hosted the second online Meetup on the topic of women’s football. Two insightful guests, Arianna Criscione, a professional football player and a Sponsorship & Business Development Manager at Paris Saint-Germain, and Gavin Makel, Head of Women’s Football at Manchester City, joined us to share their perspectives on the current state and growth of women’s football.
Broadcast and Content
Women’s football is growing steadily, but there are still key markets to develop including broadcast. Following the success of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France, women’s football has seen a rise in broadcast figures with increased numbers in and values of partnerships subsequently following. The impact of COVID-19, according to FIFAPro following their 2020 report on women’s football titled “Raising Our Game”, poses an “existential threat” to women’s football as athlete’s livelihoods come under threat through loss of revenues. Thankfully, our panel did not share this grave concern and was rather optimistic that women’s football would be able to maintain the growth in attention the sport garnered in the last 18 months. One such way to do that would be by bolstering their content strategies through various forms of digital storytelling, activations and live event promotion.
Through digital platforms, one can reach a broader and bigger audience and also engage with its fans on a regular basis.
¨COVID-19 is a roadblock, but at the same time I believe it’s going to create new opportunities for us to engage with fans in a more creative way, to attract some new fans, and attract more broadcasting deals.”
Attracting a new audience
A couple of years ago, Manchester City launched a campaign called ‘Same City, Same Passion’; a statement to reflect the internal working culture of the club. At Manchester City, the men’s football and women’s football teams have integrated platforms, access to the same facilities, and are provided the same support resources. Gavin shared that content can be a key asset in supporting the growth of women’s football given the different characteristics and atmosphere attract a different audience than the men’s game. The opportunity is still untapped in terms of it, so the opportunity here is much bigger than what many people think.
¨We are a vehicle for bringing fans into the Manchester City world, we attract a different audience than the men’s team.¨ – Gavin Makel
The sponsorship landscape
As discussed at the last women’s football innovation meetup, brands are beginning to realize the value of the women’s product and capitalize on the market while the game is still in its early stages of global development. While many major men’s club sponsors are now simultaneously sponsoring women’s teams, Arianna Criscione warns creating meaningful direct connections with women’s football is the key to a successful partnership.
From a commercial perspective, sponsorship dollars are no longer enough as women’s football begins to turn to other aspects of the men’s business to increase revenue. Hospitality and VIP offerings are a major opportunity to explore in the women’s game to elevate interaction opportunities with big brands and businesses.
¨It’s not about just putting money into a team anymore, it’s about associating the brand values with the women’s game and doing activations showing why the team should be broadcasted, why people should go to the games, and showing the values that the women’s game brings.¨
New opportunities for innovation and technology
In our first Women’s Football online Meetup, both speakers, Mariana Gutierrez and Pedro Malabia talked about how women’s football is a great landscape to test out new technologies. For this session, both speakers, Arianna and Gavin, also shared their thoughts on how the women’s game can create new opportunities for innovation and technology.
There are a lot of new technology opportunities out there but one has to choose which one will work best for them and with what purpose.
¨Players and coaches have to understand how all these new technologies work and how they will help them, so there has to be an educational process in there to get the most out of it.¨ – Arianna Criscione
Unique data in women’s football
The acceleration and proliferation of technology has led to more data generation than ever before. Data is the foundational component in supporting fact-based judgments, including around valuation, commonly known as data-driven decision making. With the use of data and technology, one can analyze the game and train more deeply, analyze the rivals but also analyze each player from game strategy to their physical conditions.
Manchester City has a data Hub where they can use it for scouting purposes, to analyze players’ performance, and for football insights as well.
“I think the problem that we have in the women’s game is the lack of historical data that exists …. to enable us to really utilize tools to their maximum.” – Gavin Makel
Thanks to the use of new technology, the usage of data in football is becoming more and more prevalent and is key to move forward. As the women’s game continues to grow, the use of data in the women’s game will grow as well.
“There’s not [a lot of] data on women’s bodies and how women’s bodies actually react to trauma or to endurance training, so there is an untapped market here that could take the women’s game to a complete new level.” – Arianna Criscione
In order to gather data and analyze it, one has to have a data architecture in place. We can help your organization by reviewing and redefining or actually creating the digital and data foundation in order for you to take the women’s game to the next level. Get in touch with our teammate Javier at javier@n3xtsports.com to find out more about some of our turnkey digital and data strategy projects.
If you were not able to make it to our online session, you can watch it here, also we would like to invite you to subscribe to our newsletter, and follow us on Linkedin, Twitter, and Facebook to stay up to date with any N3XT Sports news.