The value of you can be what you can see

On this page

• Research purpose
• Research methodology
• Key findings
• Why is this important?
• Key recommendations
• Access the full report

Research purpose

This study was to measure the value of investing into the visibility of women's elite sport.

Investment into women’s elite sport – whether through participation and pathways, infrastructure and facilities, exhibition matches and world championships, programs, product development or visibility – delivers a range of benefits. While these investment areas are all important, the focus of this analysis is investment by corporate sponsors into the visibility of women’s elite sport.

It was delivered by Gemba as part of the Change Our Game Research and Insights Initiative. It was released in July 2023.

Research methodology

It explored elite professional competitions, national teams and individual athletes through consultations, public financial disclosures, consumer survey results and market insights.

The following sports were included in the study.

• Football
• Tennis
• Swimming
• Netball
• Basketball
• Cricket
• Rugby league
• Australian rules football

Key findings: the benefits of investing into the visibility of women's elite sport

• Sponsorships of women’s elite sporting properties outperform men’s elite sporting properties in brand awareness, brand consideration and customer conversion.
• Early corporate supporters of women’s elite sport in Australia are benefitting from more than $650 million in customer value each year.
• Every $1 invested by a corporate sponsor into the visibility of women’s elite sport is supporting the realisation of, on average, $7.29 in customer value for that organisation.

Why is this important?

• Demand for partners will remain. Sporting organisations need to increase their investment into the visibility of women’s elite sport to 3-4 times current levels to equalise participation and fan bases between men’s and women’s sports. This means plenty of opportunities for interested corporate sponsors to support sporting organisations.
• Women’s elite sport remains underappreciated: Domestic and international industry benchmarks indicate that the value of women’s elite sport properties is currently only 12% the level of men’s elite sport properties.
• Towards gender parity: Achieving sponsorship parity in Australia would require an uplift of more than $125 million p.a. This significant uplift in investment will deliver major commercial and brand value for prospective sponsors based on the findings of this study.
• The sooner this journey can be accelerated to reach parity, the greater the prize is on offer for corporate sponsors: High-level forecasting based on the results of this study indicate $49 billion in customer value to corporate sponsors is on the table over the next 15 years if sponsorship parity is reached by 2038 (15 years). This increases to more than $72 billion over 15 years if this milestone is reached by 2028 (5 years)

Key recommendations

• Get in early

  • Women’s elite sporting properties are on a significant growth journey, with greater upside potential than established men’s properties and significant room for audience growth
  • Sponsors that got in early have already realised significant gains in key brand attributes

• Commit to long-term partnerships

  • The most successful and effective partnerships are typically longstanding partnerships that have grown over time
  • Brands that are yet to enter the women’s sport sponsorship landscape have a unique opportunity to commit to long-term partnerships and grow together to fully unlock sponsorship potential

• Invest in your sponsorship

  • Partners are set to benefit from greater ‘bang for buck’ from any additional spend to create greater brand exposure

Access the full report