Why women's rugby is the biggest opportunity for brands in rugby in 2021
Wales and Wasps fly-half, Flo Williams, maps out women’s rugby’s commercial potential for brands looking to engage authentically on social media – for a price that doesn’t cost the earth. Flo is Sporting Eric’s women’s rugby lead and initiated the #enough movement
The postponement of the 2021 Women's Rugby World Cup to 2022 was a blow for everyone who plays and supports women’s rugby. But here’s a twist. I think the delay makes women’s rugby an even better commercial proposition for brands.
Why? Because it provides another year of inflation in women’s rugby both on and off the field. Another year for teams to sharpen their axes and another year for commercial activations to innovate & shape this market, all leading to what will be a more polished & exciting spectacle come 2022. Brands have just been given another twelve months to realise this and jump in, before the wider world cottons on.
Although this is my opinion, you only have the watch a women’s game in 2021 to realise how open and exciting it is. While the men’s game is dominated by a war of attrition, the kick-chase, and a reluctance to play positive running rugby; the women’s game is over-laden with line breaks, attack-minded game plans, and length of the field team tries. Yes, the skill levels are not identical - namely due to a fraction of the training time together compared to the men – and fewer big territory kicks in women’s rugby, but that breeds turnovers, running rugby and tries.
This will, I think, become self-evident when the postponed Women’s Rugby World Cup eventually takes place in New Zealand next year. And I bet the media will again be clamouring to commend women’s rugby as an exhilarating spectacle that the men’s game can learn from.
Buy now, save later
So, the question I am putting to brands now is ‘do you want to pay double, triple, or five times the price in eighteen months’ time, or do you want to buy-in when the price of entry is low, and be ready with a unique story to tell about your involvement in the game when the next boom comes along?
Of course, simply being in the game in sponsorship, doesn’t count for much. You have to mean your involvement. And in this regard, women’s rugby players are ideally placed for authentic commercial activation.
Female players offer brands an opportunity to become part of something bigger than elite sport. They can be part of a story that generations of women have already contributed to, of a story about equality and about society’s acceptance that ‘the fairer sex’ has just as much of a right to dump someone on their arse as men do.
The marketing landscape has evolved rapidly in the last decade and in 2021 influencer marketing is the fastest growing form of marketing in the world. The Digital Marketing Institute highlights that 86 per cent of women have said that they make consumer-based decisions according to something they have seen on social media. On top of that, women drive approximately 75 per cent of all consumer purchasing. Combining these three widely recognised consumer trends creates a persuasive argument for why brands should be marketing themselves to women through social media. And if they already do, then they should be doing it more frequently, or better, or both.
Authentic influencers
Female rugby players make authentic social media influencers because on the one hand, they are elite athletes, and on the other, they’re achingly normal. They know what it’s like to juggle multiple jobs because the money in the women’s game – even for England’s contracted players – places them economically in a similar situation to anyone else their age.
Their sporting pedigree also exemplifies qualities which brands want to be associated with: hard work, responsibility, sacrifice, and team-work.
And yet, incredibly, women’s sport attracts just one per cent of the global sports sponsorship market! The reason for this is media coverage. Women’s sport just hasn’t historically enjoyed anywhere like the media interest that men’s sport has. But that is changing, fast.
Women’s sport receives much more coverage that it did five years ago. Just take the Allianz Premier 15s. Five years ago, we would have been lucky to have our match results published on Twitter. This season, we’re unlucky if our match isn’t broadcast live online by the RFU, or by the clubs themselves. Granted this has been, in part, a response to matches being played behind closed doors. But will it stop when fans come back? Now that we have this momentum and expectation of visibility, I don’t think it will.
This all represents a massive opportunity for businesses of any size to get involved in a sport that is growing faster than has even been acknowledged, and that is packed with authentic influencers who can start conversations with audiences that brands want to speak to.
Beyond the big names
And I’m not just talking about the likes of Emily Scarratt, Sarah Hunter or Vicky Fleetwood, even though all three are brilliant ambassadors.
I’m also talking about the likes of Lotte Clapp, the captain of English champions Saracens who is also a primary school teacher, or England international No8 Rownita Marston who works for the supermarket Lidl, or her Bristol club team-mate Simi Pam, who is a doctor.
These women are incredible role models, as well as devastatingly good rugby players, who have inspiring stories to tell about juggling a normal life with being an elite athlete. These types of stories are manna from heaven for a marketing department.
And because influencer marketing hasn’t properly arrived yet in women’s rugby, the cost of engaging with women’s rugby players is relatively low. But it won’t stay that way for ever.
Brands who enter women’s rugby in 2021 have the chance, therefore, to shape the market themselves, to position themselves perfectly for the next boom in the sport – which the 2022 Women’s Rugby World Cup will drive.
Significantly, the future beyond next year’s World Cup looks rosy as well as 2023 will see the inauguration of a newly announced global structure for the women’s game called WXV. This concept will create a more cohesive commercial product for the women’s game at an international level and bring more money into the elite game, which will improve the quality of the domestic game in every major women’s rugby country. Then, in 2025, the Women’s Rugby World Cup will expand to sixteen teams to reflect the growing standard of women’s rugby around the world.
The next five years will be a huge period of growth for the women’s game – and we’ve all been given an additional 12 months to prepare for it.
If you’re a brand who is looking for a sporting property that can deliver real value over the short-to-medium term, women’s rugby should be high on your short list. My advice is don’t wait to be told this a second time.