Women’s Sports Marketing Represents ‘A Massive Undervalued Opportunity.’

The growing popularity of women’s sports — reflected by increased fan interest, cultural influence and broadcast hours spent — suggests that brands should be following the money. In a recent interview with “NYSE Live,” iHeartMedia Executive Advisor and Bubbler Media founder Gayle Troberman doubles down on how important women’s sports programming, across all platforms, should be for marketers.

“There is a massive undervalued opportunity in women’s sports,” Troberman, who helped launch iHeartMedia’s Women’s Sports Audio Network in 2024, says. “Women are the decision makers for more products and services than anyone else. They’re passionate fans and they’re looking for brands that are showing up and growing fandom, growing these franchises, giving more exposure to the whole team, not just the stars. You are missing out if you are not in women’s sports and on the ride.”

How can advertising successfully reach this audience? Noting her participation as a panelist at the recent Global Game Summit, Troberman says, “The big topic we hit on in the new marketing playbook is [that] consumer attention is scarcer than ever. People are trying to avoid our ads and our marketing, and what’s going to break through is storytelling, humanity [and] vulnerability.”

The variety of women’s sports media — going beyond WNBA and National Women’s Soccer League games, and including weekly audio/video podcasts such as “Everyone Watches Women’s Sports,” which iHeartMedia and women’s sports media platform Togethxr launched in July — continues to expand for advertisers. “No one’s talking about the Women’s World Cup next year, which is not that far away,” Troberman says. “The road to Brazil is what we should be talking about, coming off the heels of FIFA and the men’s game and all this energy and excitement. Let’s start the storytelling and build the fandom for the Women’s World Cup.”

What do brands need to know about how to reach the women’s sports audience? “It’s a hard playing field for marketers because you have to show up for different audiences in niche ways, and you have to be part of the story,” Troberman says. “You have to follow the game. You have to be a fan to win the fans.”

For marketers, Troberman says, this means not taking the often-used easy way out. “[Instead of] looking for the shortcut, pay[ing] the big expensive spokesperson we think everyone’s heard of, and that’s going to be the campaign, [we need to] do the hard work to show up every day in the socials and be part of your feed and your fandom.”

During her panel session, Troberman, like many marketers today, noted the importance of authenticity, which “starts with defining who you are and who you’re not, and being consistent. Think of your brand as a human. You can’t be everything to everyone. It’s really hard creative work, [and] when done right, those brands survive, and we know them because they mean something, and they mean it consistently, day on day, game on game, year on year.

For all involved — tech, marketing and sports communities — the first step is conversation.

“[At] Bubbler Media, our job is to provoke marketers, because if I can start a conversation with you about this topic, you’re going to go talk to your team, your boss, your friends who work in other areas, and we’re all going to be like, there’s a big opportunity here [in] women’s sports,” Troberman says. “If we start a conversation and we’re passionate about these topics, we’re going to encourage growth, and we’re going to get more people excited and interested in the things we do.”