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YouGov – Women in Sport Report 2021

YouGov recently published their Women in Sport 2021 Report focussing on the growth in women’s sport – and what it means for marketers, with some interesting findings:

  1. Lack of media coverage – ‘Less media coverage (e.g. reporting, highlights)’ is selected as the primary reason why consumers do not engage with women’s sport (40%). ‘Lack of knowledge about teams and/or athletes’ is the second most selected (35%), ahead of product reasons such as ‘skill level is not high enough’ (19%) and ‘games are slower’ (14%).
  2. Lack of knowledge – YouGov’s take on the above stats – ‘Storytelling and drama must be at the heart of women’s sport, just as it is to men’s. If they are to keep returning to it, viewers need to be able to keep track of the narratives that keep a sport or league interesting. Related to this, another limiting factor in building the appeal for women’s sport is a lack of knowledge about teams and athletes. In this respect, men’s sport is no different to women’s. Taken in isolation, games and teams may lack appeal. But woven together, with rivalries, human dramas and the heat of competition, the narrative becomes much more compelling.’
  3. Highlights sparking interest – 30% of consumers perceive ‘seeing highlights that spark interest’ as a reason they have or would become interested in women’s sport. This is lower than ‘watch international events’ (42%) and in line with ‘have/had children who play women’s sport’ (30%).
  4. The popularity of soccer – Soccer is the most followed women’s sport (22% of consumers). The next six most-followed women’s sports are Badminton (19%), Basketball (18%), Tennis (17%), Volleyball, Cricket and Table Tennis (15% each).
  5. Availability of news – 58% of consumers think the ‘availability of news about women’s sport’ has improved in recent years. 42% do not.

Although these findings show signs of improvement it also highlights where work still needs to be done in women’s sport and reiterates the importance of purpose-led messaging to help drive consumers’ interests and the growth of women’s sport.

Already having worked with brands such as W Series and Visa to increase awareness and exposure of women's sport-focused campaigns, Story10 offers an established platform to improve the coverage and understanding of women’s sports and its athletes.

Find out how Story10 can provide a platform to amplify your purpose-led messaging with women’s sport.

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read the full YouGov report