Women’s sports are a market, not a check box

If you were to ask a sports marketer the difference between ESPN and Barstool Sports, they’d have no problem rattling off what makes each brand unique.

They wouldn’t say: “There is no difference. They’re both men’s sports.”

And yet that remains the dominant attitude in women’s sports media today. Everything gets thrown into a single “women’s sports” bucket.

In the past, if a brand wanted to make an investment in women’s sports, they didn’t have a lot of options. That’s no longer the case.

Today, there are distinct audiences, ecosystems and opportunities that all require marketers to be sophisticated in how they invest. It’s no longer enough to ask, “Should we invest in women’s sports?” Instead, it’s “How do we invest in women’s sports?”

ESPN, Barstool, Fox Sports and The Ringer are not interchangeable just because they all cover men’s sports. Pretending every “women’s sports” company is the same is a good way to spend bad money.

Just Women’s Sports is not the same platform — and we don’t offer the same solutions — as every other publisher in this space. We have a unique strategy, voice, roster of talent, and set of channels. There are capabilities we have that other platforms do not. There are types of content other platforms create that would not be a fit for us.

Partnering with us does not mean checking the “women’s sports” box. It means building credibility with our unique audience of women’s sports fans.

Every publisher in this space has a unique platform, and the marketers that figure this out will have an advantage. Knowing which fan you’re trying to reach — and how you want to reach them — will produce a real return, rather than a general association.

Zooming out: those of us in this space have to get more comfortable explaining what makes us different. It’s not enough to pretend every opportunity is equal just because they’re in “women’s sports.”

It’s in the spirit of wanting to have more honest conversations like this that I’ve relaunched The Playbook podcast in partnership with Justworks, a platform helping small and growing businesses simplify payroll, benefits, HR, and compliance.

The goal of this podcast is to have real conversations with actual operators in this space. We’re not here to sell people on women’s sports. We’re here to get in the weeds of what it takes to build sustained success.

Just Women’s Sports has been a Justworks customer for years, and I’m thrilled to be partnering with them in sharing what I believe are complex and necessary conversations.

You can find The Playbook presented by Justworks on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. Check out the first episode with Angel City Co-founder Julie Uhrman and the second with Olympian Allyson Felix and her business partner Cosette Chaput.

Until next time,

— Haley