Women's sports and the importance of digital media when TV tunes out

It's no secret that here at Blinkfire Analytics that we like to be ahead of the curve.  When EA put Alex Morgan on the cover of FIFA 16 after the Women's World Cup we were already tracking Alex and her teammates as part of the competition.

To us this was a no-brainer, as women soccer players have some of the largest audiences in social media.  Their social channels are how their fans primarily engage with these athletes and are an attractive opportunity for digital sponsorships.  In turn, digital sponsorships have become a very important revenue source for the top female athletes.

Continuing our clients' interest in tracking brand exposure during the last FIFA Women's World Cup, we are doing the same with the Spanish Primera División Femenina, the top women's soccer league in Spain. Sixteen teams take part in this league, including the women's divisions of top clubs such as FC Barcelona, Atlético de Madrid, and Athletic Bilbao.

Some of the La Liga Feminina players have hundreds of thousands of social followers and most clubs have created new social channels for their female teams. The growing fame and recognition of these players are attracting sponsors and we have already seen how these female athletes get exposure for important brands.

Check out this tweet by Alexia Putellas of FC Barcelona and the Spanish national team as a Nike athlete:
Here's another example with Olga García, also of FC Barcelona promoting Herbalife on her Instagram account:
And here we have another post by Olga García, this time on Twitter, with her teammates, giving exposure to FC Barcelona's main sponsors, Qatar Airways and Nike:


Coming soon, we'll be adding other major women's leagues in the world, including the NWSL in the United States and the FA Womens Super League in the U.K.

Like eSports, the sponsorship economy of these leagues will be build largely on digital revenue, and not television revenue, as was the case for the previous generation's sports leagues. This is largely because the audiences that are growing up following these newer leagues are the mobile based Millennial generation, which study after study shows not to follow television as their primary medium of consumption

It's imperative that rights holders, players, agents and sponsors have the tools to better understand, measure and value this audience and assets.  Um, in case you didn't guess, we think we have the answer!

Interested in tracking the material sponsorship dollars flowing through women's soccer? Contact us!