Publicis Media has a different game to play when it comes to women’s sports.
The Publicis Groupe media-investment unit on Tuesday unveiled the launch of Women’s Sports Connect, a new offering made via its Publicis Sports agency that uses agreements to buy certain types of ad inventory as well as the funding of original content to help advertisers get positions in sports and programming centered around female athletes. The offering is revealed as interest grows in leagues such as WNBA and Unrivaled as well as women’s college basketball.
“There is a lot of chatter in the marketplace about the disparity between men’s and women’s sports investment and how to achieve equity, but no one is really addressing the critical issue of fragmentation across women’s sports inventory,” said Talia Raviv, Global CEO, Publicis Media, in a statement. “In order to shift greater investment toward women’s sports, we need a way to aggregate inventory and allow for scaled investment, and Women’s Sports Connect does this for our clients.”
Other prominent media buyers, including WPP’s GroupM, have tried to make the process of buying ad inventory in women’s sports easier. The games tend to spread out among a wide variety of outlets and do not get the hours that men’s leagues get on most outlets devoted to sports. That can make it difficult for advertisers to get the scale they need to make their investment worthwhile.
Women’s sports are projected to reach $1.28 billion in global revenue, according to a study from Deloitte.
In addition to snaring commercial inventory, Publicis intends to offer counsel tied to strategy and measurement of ad effectiveness and make available exclusive media opportunities to clients.
Some of the projects in which Publicis Media has invested include Roku’s “Women’s Sports Now”, a weekly talk series and a new student-athlete empowerment program being developed by NBCUniversal Local’s Sports Partnership Development team. Publicis has also struck a partnership with The GIST, a women-led sports-media outlet, to provide college athletes with experiences and curriculum tied to name, image and likeness opportunities and professional development.
Women’s Sports Connect also offers access to premier streaming and linear inventory through a partnership with Disney Advertising. “The future of sports is being rewritten, and those that don’t invest in women’s sports will find themselves left on the sidelines,” said Rita Ferro, global president of Disney Advertising, in a statement. “Through our longtime relationship with Publicis, we are collaborating on a framework for brands to engage women sports fans authentically, at scale. With Disney’s best-in-class content, powerful audience insights and scale of distribution, we’re ensuring that women’s sports not only get the visibility they deserve, but drive real business results for advertisers.”
Women’s Sports Connect is available to all clients of Publicis Groupe and includes assets across both professional and collegiate sports. “We’re incredibly excited to provide our clients with rich opportunities that encompass the very best of women’s sports and help them reach this valuable and largely untapped audience,” said Jon Tuck. president of Publicis Sports, in a statement.
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