How Female-Focused Brands are Winning in Male-Dominated Sports

The future of sports marketing? She’s already here. At the National Sports Forum Spring Summit, Susie Sapp, Lexi Corn and Margaret Shaul from Czarnowski Collective led a powerhouse session unpacking how female-focused brands are rewriting the sponsorship playbook.

Spoiler alert: this isn’t a moment—it’s a market.

With 44% of male sports viewership now coming from women, and nearly half the NFL’s fanbase identifying as female, the data speaks for itself. Women are showing up—and brands are finally starting to catch on.

Our team broke down how cultural visibility (hello, Jeanie Buss and Uzma Rawn), pop culture (yes, the Swift effect is real), and accessible storytelling (have you seen that docu-series on Netflix where...?) are pulling women deeper into the fandom fold.

And when it comes to spending power? Female consumers are running the game—making 85% of household buying decisions and poised to control $34 trillion in U.S. wealth by 2030.

So how can brands make the most of this wide-open opportunity in sports? Watch the full session and find out:

Video courtesy of Sports Business Journal 

TL ; DW? Here's your playbook:

Go all in, not all over. 

Don’t dilute your message or activation to appeal to women AND everyone else. This market is worth hyper-focusing on. The most effective activations will be clearly and precisely focused on the female audience.

Don’t just sponsor—show up. 

You can’t slap your logo on something and call it a strategy. Think in experiences, content extensions and brand moments that live far beyond the game clock.

Skip the stereotypes. 

Tropes lose audiences. Insight wins them. Not sure what the difference is? Put more female voices in your brainstorm and encourage them to speak up.

Be real, or be forgotten. 

Don’t compromise your brand to make room for women. Show women how they already belong there.