Expertise from Charlie Dundas, Managing Director UK&I, REPUCOM
As we draw to the end of what has been a marvellous sporting summer in the UK, it is a great opportunity to reflect on some of the most impressive performances – which, in the most part, have come at the expense of our great rivals Australia. Chris Froome, Andy Murray and Justin Rose secured victories in their respective sports, The Lions delivered their first series victory in 16 years down under and England’s Cricket team under Alastair Cook retained the Ashes for a third straight series.
Arguably it was a different ‘Cook’ who celebrated the most impressive victory over the Australians this summer – Pamela Cookey captained the England Netball team to a 3-0 victory over the Australians, a team who they had only previously beaten twice in sixty attempts. What is even more staggering is that while the Australian players compete in a professional full-time league back home, the England team are part-time with second jobs or are in full-time education. Cookey herself balances life as England captain with her job as a services manager at Airbus in Bristol. The crux of the matter is that a lack of funding in the sport means the players have no option but to find other jobs to support themselves financially.
If you look at finances in sport as a whole, women fare much worse than their male counterparts especially when it comes to sponsorship deals and personal endorsements. If you review 2013’s advertising campaigns, the only two British female sportspeople who could be argued to feature prominently are Jessica Ennis (Santander and PruHealth) and Heather Watson (BT Sport). In fact, in the UK, according to The Celebrity DBI which quantifies consumer awareness and perceptions of celebrities, there are only 5 women in amongst the top 50 UK sportspeople (Jessica Ennis; Heather Watson, Ellie Simmonds; Beth Tweddle and Laura Trott).
So why do brands continue to ignore female sportspeople and teams when they certainly more than match their male counterparts in terms of success on-field and on-court? One obvious explanation is the media coverage – for example did you know that England’s Women Cricket team also won the Ashes this summer or that British Women’s team dominated the medal table at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships? With the stars of these sides getting limited exposure, media values of sponsorship deals are low and opportunities for the individuals to build public awareness is limited.
However, there are signs that this could be about to change. This weekend (21st Sept) over 850,000 people tuned in to watch England Ladies Football team beat Belarus 6-0 live on BBC1 in a World Cup Qualifier. The audience figure was almost identical to the amount who watched Chelsea vs. Fulham and Arsenal vs. Stoke the same weekend on Sky. In fact, the number was three times that who tuned in to BT Sport to see Norwich vs. Aston Villa in the same time slot on Saturday.
Sky Sports have just announced they are expanded their backing of women’s sports through a 3 year deal with Cookey’s England Netball side to show home international matches live as well as 12 rounds of the domestic competition. In addition, the TV company are backing The Sunday Times and Sky Sports Sportswomen of the Year Awards and are launching a new ‘Sportswomen’ programme on Sky Sports News. This significantly increases the amount of coverage of women’s sport on Sky Sports which already includes the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup, the conclusion of the triumphant 2013 Women’s Ashes series and the victorious Solheim Cup win.
If brands are looking to recruit successful, positive role models to promote their organisations, there may not be a better time to invest with either the teams or the leading individuals within women’s sport. With media coverage on the rise and more platforms than ever to leverage sponsorship against, I hope to see much more of the likes of England Netball and Pamela Cookey working with brands and organisations to break into what has been a male-sport dominated sector.