Taking Their Marks: Women Leading the Way in Sports

At the end of June, AdWeek published a list of prominent female executives and influencers in sports. These powerful women represent major sports leagues, sponsor organizations, television networks and sports entertainment companies. 

Here are just a few of the opportunities we think might be available in the companies these ladies call home – for intelligence on opportunities like these, grab a free trial of Winmo – exisiting subscribers can click the company to go to the Winmo company page, but everyone can click the WinmoEdge stories to see the opportunities.

Erin Andrews    

Broadcaster, Fox Sports and Fox Sports 1

Campaign Imminent: Fox Sports hires new creative AOR to boost awareness

Known to many, if not most, sports fans as ESPN’s big game sideline reporter (and host of Dancing with the Stars), Erin Andrews will be focusing all her energies on the NFL after renewing her multi-year deal with Fox

Fox Sports is ready to invest more in creative than it has in the past to rise above the clutter, meaning there will be much more advertising revenue in play here.

So, male-focused sellers should start going after this larger traditional and digital media budget. Also, start setting the groundwork for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, which will be Wieden+Kennedy’s first major focus, Ad Age reports. Vizeum, now part of Dentsu Aegis’s 360i, handles media.

Virginia Halas McCaskey

Owner, Chicago Bears

Hispanic Media Opps: Chicago Bears taps Paco Collective to drive Hispanic fan engagement

Owner of a more than 80 percent stake in the Chicago Bears, which she inherited from her father Gorge Halas, who lived one of the more interesting lives in sports.

Last year the Bears have named Paco Collective as its first Hispanic-specific strategic marketing firm. The agency will help the football team refine the way it connects with Chicago Hispanics. A big strategy will be language used in ads and marketing, as older Hispanic audiences seem to connect more with fully Spanish ads, while millennials favor a blend of Spanish and English.

Hispanic-focused sellers should be reaching out now to secure ad dollars ahead of football season, as planning is likely underway. Look for revenue tied to radio and sponsorship opportunities. An advantage will go to sellers with high Chicago-based, Hispanic-focused engagement rates. Additionally, those sellers that have high Hispanic millennial sports focused reach may have an advantage as well.

Elizabeth O’Brien

Program director, worldwide sports and entertainment sponsorship marketing, IBM

Rumor Confirmed, H2 Media Opps: #9 IBM moves media account after appointing new CMO 

If moneyball transformed baseball, imagine what the computing power of IBM’s Watson could do to all sports. Looking to major tennis and golf tournaments, O’Brien says IMB “powers the technology that powers these events.”

WinmoEdge recently reported that the entire $~100M+ IBM account is moving to GroupM’s Mindshare, which already had TV, from WPP sibling Neo@Ogilvy. The transition began April 1, with Bluemix, security and systems moving first. So, start chasing RFPs for those segments, but look for the other business lines to follow shortly.

Besides a new CMO taking over last year, shifting agencies within a holding group is another big harbinger of a media review, especially if it’s a case of the same staff moving over to handle the account. With blood in the water, media shops with the ability to handle this large account should be all over it. Creative reviews often follow media changes, so advertising shops should stay on Big Blue, as well.

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