In addition, the exec said streaming and programmatic have been an important part of getting advertisers involved in ESPN’s women’s sports offerings. According to Brown, Disney has around 500 advertisers across women’s sports and has been adding about 100 advertisers per year over the past two years.
“A lot of it also has to do with the access points, in terms of advertisers of all sizes being able to access women’s college basketball through ESPN, and they can transact in any way they want, whether that’s a direct deal through automation—because we do have a lot of games across the season on streaming—in addition to our linear networks,” Brown said.
Driving growth
The ad sales news comes shortly after WPP Media released its new Women’s Sports Playbook report, which included several statistics about the impact of women’s sports advertising, including a 79% year-over-year increase in ad impressions for women’s sports and 20% higher engagement with ads than on non-sports broadcast and cable.
According to the report, investment in women’s sports is estimated to be up nearly 70% year-over-year, with the total spend reaching about $127 million.
“The audience is really big in terms of our conversations in the marketplace, and then we’re seeing that effectiveness on the backend,” Brown said. “We’re seeing these games drive search results and drive impact and conversion.”
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