The Women in Sport Summit brought together some of the biggest brands in global sport last Thursday on the Gold Coast to explore and celebrate the continued evolution of the critical role women are playing in all arenas within the global sporting landscape.
With presentations from organisations including Ultimate Fighting Championship, Angel City FC, Stats Perform, Golf Australia, Tik Tok, FIFA and many others, this world class event delivered by Ministry of Sport outlined the growth of women’s sport and the opportunities for further growth into the future.
Playbk Sports co-founder Jon Shepherd took his place alongside Jane McGough from the Gold Coast SUNS as they explained how technology was being used to build a deeper connection to their fan base and to showcase their AFLW players through the Play to Your Strengths program.
“If we do a quick analysis of the data, we know that the Gold Coast SUNS brand has been present in schools for around 300 hours through the Play to Your Strengths program. When we consider there is roughly 20 hours of content through broadcast (not including finals) in AFLW each season, the SUNS are seeing a 15x uplift on brand awareness (relative to broadcast) for their AFLW players by leveraging technology and content into schools.”
Jon Shepherd, Co-founder at Playbk Sports
Other highlights included Angel City FC Head of Public Relations Stephanie Rudnick who explained how their organisation is harnessing player brands and ensuring they are part of a revenue share model as they promote various forms of content with the Angel City FC fan base.
Rudnick explained the different models Angel City FC utilise to grow their community engagement and how they incentivize players to share the club’s story through their personal handles.
“We think content is an absolutely key pillar in every single facet of marketing. We have two different models; one is our 10% model where we take 10% of each of our sponsorships and reallocate that to community programming. The other is our fan field player fund, where our players, who are already living and breathing Angel City FC, are incentivized to continue to do this but also share in the revenue this creates off the back of their personal brand.”
Stats Perform is a global leader in sports technology, working with some of the world’s biggest brands in sport to help them unlock the power of data and use these insights to drive better performance and tell more stories. Sarah Butler is Global Director of Communications at Stats Perform and shared an interesting concept that places data as the central pillar in telling better stories.
“Data really is the DNA of storytelling. Teams can use this data to engage with their fans globally and the data helps tell a more rich and compelling narrative. Whether the story is one we share over a drink with our friends or a conversation between a coach and player to improve performance, data is at the heart of these narratives, and this is what we (Stats Perform) help clubs and leagues unlock as part of their growth strategies.”
Sarah Butler, Director of Communications at Stats Perform
Women’s sport will continue to be a growth market and Ministry of Sport Founder Ben Parsons highlighted this predicted growth as he forecasted what the Women in Sport Summit will look like in five years’ time and how technology will be a key driver of this.
“I think it’ll be multiple site locations around the globe, it’ll be in at least five locations running simultaneously and there will be an Australian into England and England into LA and vice versa. Next year we are aiming to make it more of a festival over three or four days and we think the event will continue to grow and transform from there.” Parsons said.
The success of the event points towards significant and important initiatives to bolster the profile and growth of women’s sport into the future. As this emerging sector of sport continues to realise significant commercial value the next decade looks bright as we see more investment in, and outcomes driven through, the participation of women in sport at all levels.
Playbk Sports will be holding a free Fan Avidity and Monetisation strategy session on October 4 on the Gold Coast for interested organisations. Please contact [email protected] to reserve your spot now.
For media enquiries, images, videos, or interviews contact Jon Shepherd, Co-founder of Playbk Sports via our contact us page.
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