How Brands Can Rock The Women’s Sports Revolution

The appetite for women’s sports is soaring in every respect – watching live events, devouring related content, shopping merch & style spin-offs, mobilising around meets, and the new frontiers forged by freshly-minted fandoms. But how should brands best grasp a white space that’s as symbiotically rich in commercial opportunities as it is history-making social impact?

On the cusp of the UEFA Women’s Euro soccer tournament this July, across directions including multi-strand fandom & the recalibration of rivalry; legacy crafting; ‘unapologetic’ experiential activations; spirit-centred storytelling; and helping Gen X+ reclaim their stolen sporting years – via experts from sports marketing and media agencies including Matta, See You at Jeanie’s and Footballco – here’s how brands from a diverse range of sectors can claim a foothold in a mountain of possibility.

Busting Myths, Mapping Brand Motivation

For years, rallying around women’s sports was considered a risky business, charitable at best, dogged by (inaccurately surmised) low interest levels, but the myth that women’s sports don’t have an audience is now well and truly busted. A smattering of stereotype-cracking metrics to consider:

A 2024 seven country survey reveals 73% of people now watch women’s sports (just a smidgeon behind the 83% that watch men’s at the same frequency) and men now watch women’s sports weekly, more frequently than women (23% vs 15% respectively).

Deloitte predicts that global revenues in women’s elite sports will reach at least US$2.35 billion (£1.88 billion) in 2025, following revenues in 2024 surpassing original predictions to hit US$1.88 billion. Its Beyond the Billion Dollar Barrier 2025 report shows that despite only 43% of competition news coverage during the Paris 2024 Olympics focusing on women athletes, they generated 53% of total engagement across social content, showcasing their fan-connecting prowess.

What else? The market for women’s sport-related merch is now worth an estimated $4 billion dollars per year with demand often far-outpacing inventory (tournament-connected brands take note) while women athletes are exerting more influence than other influencer types; 88% regard women pro athletes as impactful role models, typified by American rugby union player Ilona Maher. She powered to social media prominence during the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Olympics to become the most-followed rugby star of any gender on social media globally (a whopping 4.9m and 2.3m on Instagram and TikTok respectively) armed with the personal hashtag-mantra #beastbeautybrains and a superbly subversive Sports Illustrated cover in 2024, among many other things.

According to Flo Williams, director of Women’s Sports at creative marketing agency Matta (also a Saracens player and a Welsh rugby international) Maher is a lodestar for brands and fans alike because she embodies an existing sporting culture – a mentality and milieu deeply ingrained in the women’s game – that spells universal progress: “You can spot women who have been in the rugby community for a long time because they don’t carry shame with them – they know to celebrate their bodies and diverse identities and [American rugby union player]

Ilona Maher has epitomised that. There’s a huge opportunity now for brands to find ambassadors in that space who want to be part of building this new progressive society, via beliefs these areas of sports have been incubating for decades.”

The ideological momentum is married to major commercial dividends. Williams adds: “You get a better ROI working with women. Generally, sponsors of women’s sport drive double the purchase intent of men’s sport.”

As Rob Bullough, global brand director of soundtracking company Epidemic Sound said at AdWeek Europe 2025 earlier this month while discussing the intersection of music and new sports culture: “the cost of media is still so cheap but the brand recall is insane.

Here’s how to get a slice of the action:

Invest Now, Make History Forever

Aside immediate boosting purchase intent there’s the bigger picture legacy lure of literally changing social history. According to Williams: “You can come in and say ‘we filled that stadium, we funded that research to develop a menstruation health problem scientists have been trying to solve for hundreds of years, or we single-handedly professionalised an entire generation of female athletes’. If you want to make similar claims in men’s sport, you best have three more zeroes in your pocket. Think of the narrative you can build; the story you can tell. This isn’t just about football or rugby or volleyball or basketball. It’s about changing the world. Sounds dramatic but it’s very real.”

Williams believes it’s the big brands, and their monster budgets, needed here: “we need well established brands that can reframe the narrative to tell the story. Women’s sport doesn’t need brands who just want to just steal eyeballs it needs brands who are willing to go on the journey and put the partner in partnership, including with smaller teams and clubs”.

Pockets of Pop Cultural Ignition & Gender Neutrality

However, Jules Hilson, a former Executive Creative Director for Puma and co-founder of See You at Jeanie’s (a new consultancy blending brand marketing expertise, pop cultural cachet and hardcore knowledge of the sports funding network, which is working with Liverpool FC and Warwickshire Cricket Club’s Bears Women’s team) says smaller labels with cultural kudos also have a role to play.

She cites Arsenal’s limited-edition 2024 collection with independent streetwear label and fellow north London brand Aries (unisex, it was modelled by Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice but also Leah Williamson, Beth Mead and Alessia Russo) as a point of pop cultural ignition, new terrace culture and Gen Z-centring credibility: “it’s sometimes those smaller collaborations, if hit right, that kick-start something bigger.”

Notably, Aries has previous in this kind of hook-up, partnering with both Umbro and AS Roma (via New Balance) but this was its first close-to-home collab and with women sporting deities upfront – exalting the importance of unboxed genders in wider communications (“the more we can break down any spaces that have been so gendered, the better” says Williams).

Content is another powerful wheelhouse in this respect. See You at Jeanie’s Laura Weston, who led the agency marketing team that launched the FA Women’s Super League in 2011 (making women’s football semi-professional in the UK) and worked with the England Lionesses for three years, cites Netflix’ 2024 docudrama Sprint, which equally charts the narratives of the world’s speediest humans, both genders, without hierarchy.

It’s potentially also key in battling rising misogyny in young men; Gen Z might be perceived as increasingly non-binary, thus inherently amenable to dissipating boundaries, but regressive attitudes to women’s roles (at home, in the workplace, for life) are an equally potent reality where brands can lead the pushback: “It’s also really important for the boys at that age to see girls playing sport because of the broader impact it has on society, to establish or recalibrate their attitude to women in society,” says Williams.

Fluid Fandoms, Emerging Communities & Tapping out of Toxic Rivalry

While cultivating parity must underscore a new era of commercial equity there is also considerable power in acknowledging differences in football culture, with new frontiers in female fandom unlocking fresh ways to connect and build community. The sentiment is supported by football media giant Footballco (2bn content views annually) which reveals that 62% of sports fans globally say women’s football should be celebrated for its culture and differences to the men’s game, alongside the 64% who want to see lifestyle/culture content alongside traditional football-focused content.

Morgan Brennan, Head of INDIVISA, a Footballco sub-brand launched 2022 to add more lifestyle and community content to its women’s football coverage says: “There’s a tendency to avoid separating women’s football from men’s and a need to just call it all ‘football’, as if calling it women’s football makes it lesser. But in our research 67% of fans said they expect brands to understand the women’s game, respect its differences from the men’s and celebrate it in its own right. While it has its similarities, it also has its own culture, and that needs to be understood.”

“It’s about thinking about a new way to express fandom, to paint a different picture” says Williams. “In women’s sport it’s about hanging out with the opposition fans or maybe buying a Chelsea shirt because you like Sam Kerr and also buying an Arsenal shirt because you like Leah Williamson. You don’t have to have this toxic attachment to victory or hatred for another team, which has traditionally been part of the story with men’s football where a lost match ruins your day. In women’s sport we have an opportunity to create a secure attachment to your sport, which will be universally beneficial. There’s a different opportunity for girls fandoms and no, it doesn’t have to be all friendship bracelets, but that is part of what it could be.”

Hilson describes this as “the multiplicity of fandom” – a desire for women-inclusive community that comes in part from a historic lack of venues or clubhouses for the women’s game, born from decades of outlawed practice and a largely quieted history (reminder: it was only in the early 1970s that the FA rescinded an almost 50-year ban). The appetite was always there (in 1921 there were approximately 150 women’s football clubs, with some games drawing up to 45,000 fans) but the seeds of infrastructure had been decimated, even aborted. “It’s why we’re seeing watch parties for matches where fans dress up or tailor jerseys for the occasion, and events like Get Your Kits Out Festival” – an off-pitch celebration of grassroots football culture including talks and workshops created by fashion lecturer and sports fandom expert Jacqui McAssey (also see McAssey’s GIRLFANS photo zine and Femorabilia projects).

Fabiola Wilcox, VP of marketing and communications for Footballco says of the rationale behind INDIVISA: “It includes tapping into the culture of the game, not just the results. Our community isn’t just here to stay informed — they want to feel seen, to see their identity and passion for the game reflected.”

“It’s all about being a fan on your own terms, the message being that we can’t measure what female fandom looks like just in ticket sales and if you can understand what those terms are and how fans are engaging, then brands can work out how to support them,” continues Hilson. Weston agrees: It’s about trying to understand the sorts of underground communities that are emerging then think how you can be value additive to them.”

The pair also cite Baller FC – the Baller Friends Collective created by a group “tired of scouring the streets of London trying to find a pub showing women’s football matches.” The spaces they set-up for watching tournaments – “for everyone from die-hard fanatics to the last kid to get picked for PE” – are designed to void intimidating vibes, or weak substitutes for men’s match day atmospherics.

The Progress Reflex: Tell Stories About How Sports Make Women Feel

When it comes to serving communities Weston & Hilson concur on the value of problem-solving brand behemoths but also suggest that a serious sticking point with women’s sports marketing narratives is a deference to adversity over celebration.

Nike’s Super Bowl 2025 comeback advert titled So Win (its first since 1998, notably centring women) which defiantly urges a host of top women athletes to do/be everything they’re told they can’t, is a key case in point. “The issues, which are still ongoing, really matter, of course, but very few people are listening to the [teen] girls [in football],” says Weston, a top tier witness to the struggles to get a seat at the table/place on the pitch.

“With a lot of the storytelling the focus is on the problems of women’s sport because of the long-time obsession with purpose-led marketing but then it becomes all about how we can fix the problems of women’s sport. The girls tell us ‘All we ever see is negative stories like about how hard it is to be a girl in sport’ and if you keep telling those negative stories it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. So, the best role for a brand is to reflect how they feel about sport, because that’s hardly ever reflected.” Brennan concurs: “While community and empowerment came up often in our research, the dominant word was fun […] don’t be afraid to reflect the enjoyment it brings – it doesn’t need to always be about the struggle.”

Notably, ads that deliver positive portrayal of women or girls are 24% more effective at driving business results.

Unapologetic Experiential Extravaganzas

Hilson & Weston cite Athlos – the professional, female-only track and field meeting series that first held in NYC in 2024 – as a prime example of rewriting adversity-only narratives and showcasing a new spirit for women’s sports where grit and guts bond with bravado, gloss and glamour. Founded by Alexis Ohanian, Reddit cofounder (and Serena William’s husband) it included a set by rap superstar Megan Thee Stallion, bespoke Tiffany crowns for the winners and a universal lapping up of the limelight.

“There is a need for more experiential initiatives in women’s sport,” says Weston. “The opportunity for women to get together and celebrate and be seen and heard and be loud and proud about their fandom because we’ve been so repressed for so long. The more that brands can help that with better.” Hilson flags it’s countering of clichés and zeitgeist-y, location-specific buzz, echoing Olympics-esque marketing fervour: “It’s very New York, which matters for memory-making, and it very much says ‘this is what we deserve’.”

Grass Roots Support & Availability vs. Capability

Grassroots backing is also invaluable says Williams, citing Matta’s ongoing partnership with beauty giant Clinique where advertising/social media campaigns involved ambassadors including both elite England rugby players and grassroots clubs, and supplying small clubs with new equipment and skincare education (lack of confidence, including that caused by skin concerns, is key barrier to girls and women playing sport). “The best way to impact the community is by taking someone and turning them into a star to give them a role model. And when a brand works in a sport for the first time, if you get it right you get a really loyal and engaged fan base. ”During year one 39% of people that signed up to be part of to be one of the Game Face programme (anyone could sign-up a girls’ or women’s rugby team to win a support package) went on to purchase from the brand.

She adds that accessibility is a surprisingly big lure: “Athletes like Ronaldo and Messi are so huge that it’s an almost unattainable high whereas what’s great about women’s sport is that it’s still in an accessible place that is attractive to fans because they feel close to the sport and they feel that they’re part of the movement.”

Weston also references the power of catering to amateur enthusiasts, including Goal Diggers FC in East London “which has a very clear point of view regarding availability not ability. If people turn up, they play. It’s become a big community with their own merchandise. They’re launching over 40s teams. It’s very inclusive, it’s all about women and non-binary people. It’s a safe and welcoming space in every way.”

Which Brands for Women’s Sports? From Kit Suppliers to Headline Sponsors

Which brands are most legitimately poised to get involved? Lots, states Williams: “Supermarkets, because women hold 70% of the household purchasing power” and beauty & skincare, as aforementioned, as one of the ‘major drop-off’ triggers, is a no-brainer. Maybelline just became the official beauty partner of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WMBA) in Canada while Arsenal has been partnered with NY cosmetics brand Il Makiage since 2022 (check out the ‘F*CK I’M FLAWLESS concealer for some unapologetic messaging). The eponymous brand of Charlotte Tilbury, one of the UK’s biggest, glossiest and most fabulously Jilly Cooper-esque make-up exports, entered the sporting realm in 2024 with as the official partner of the (female-only) F1 Academy. As the sector matures, expect more of a focus on collaborative product development, echoing apparel partnerships.

Also, an obvious contender but a less saturated market than might be expected, is sportswear “that fits girls who are different shapes and sizes or [brands] that provide education on getting the right sports bra or specialist period pants… everyone from Adidas to M&S should be doing these.”

While period pants brands (or FMCG players – see Persil’s Every Stain Should be Part of the Game campaign) should be lauded for helping dismantle a colossal taboo, their suitability for top sponsorship slots risks hitching women’s sports to a problem rather than a thrill, rendering good intentions somewhat reductive: “It’s great in some ways – there was a brilliant post-race interview where [Team GB sprinter] Dina Asher-Smith talked about getting a poor race time due to having her period – so I think they should definitely be part of the matrix of brands,” continues Williams, “but perhaps as kit providers. I think there are better brands out there as headliners in terms of bringing more awareness and excitement about the game.”

For financial services, she suggests considering girls-only sports clubs for the summer holidays – plugging civic gaps, and the spaces where formative bonds (peer to peer and fans to brands) are made, “but make it Girls only, so they feel truly confident.”

Combatting Teen Drop-Off: How Early to Engage?

Marketing to young people is inherently contentious but there’s a difference with girls and sports due to the well-publicised drop off at age 14 where anxieties around skin condition, periods and concerns about peer perception trigger an opting-out with seriously negative ramifications for later life (see Nike Teens Real Talk online zine as a riposte to the situation).

According to Williams: “Under 10, you’re largely marketing to parents but you do have a period before the external pressures causes the drop off at 14 and if you engage kids at that age, it can shape an experience and a relationship with sport that can be lifelong.”