When Minnesota Aurora FC head to TCO Stadium in Eagan later this month for their second season opener, fans may notice a small stain on the right sleeve of the kit.
There’s another one on the right shoulder, as well as large banners on the chest and below the players’ names and numbers on the back.
These are just a few visible examples of brands – in this case TruStone Financial, Hummel Sportswear, Explore Minnesota and Twin Cities Orthopedics – both investing in and benefiting from women’s sports.
“We were open to potential partners,” said Marty Kelly, TruStone’s chief marketing officer, of the decision to work with the pre-professional football team. “When the Aurora opportunity presented itself, there was a lot to like about the program, and one of those elements was the fact that while women’s athletics is growing in popularity, it’s still somewhat underappreciated by advertisers.”
TruStone Financial — a Plymouth-based and community-owned credit union with 19 branches — has struggled to gain a foothold in a crowded Twin Cities banking market. Although it’s been around since 1939, it’s still only the second-largest credit union in the state, behind Wings Financial Credit Union. But both pale in comparison to big banks, including Minneapolis-based US Bancorp, which is No. 1 in the state.
Like many companies, TruStone sees women’s sport as a growing and untapped resource.
An emerging market
In 2021, the credit union became a sponsor of Aurora FC, ahead of their USL W League debut in 2022. In addition to the kit patch, TruStone Financial has been promoting Aurora FC to its 200,000 members through team-branded debit and credit cards.
This led to personal engagement with thousands of fans at Aurora games in the 2022 season, as well as millions of impressions through social media posts and online streams of the team’s home games on WCCO’s digital platform, Kelly said.
That same year, TruStone invested in the University of Minnesota’s 50th anniversary of Title IX, the civil rights law that protects people from gender discrimination in government-supported educational institutions and activities such as sports.
The financial institution had previously sponsored the university’s men’s and women’s athletics but saw a unique opportunity to associate its brand with a positive message celebrating the rise of women’s sport. The Title IX sponsorship with the university resulted in hundreds of thousands of social media and online impressions for TruStone Financial and thousands of visits to its website, Kelly said.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women were the top earners in 39% of US households in both 2020 and 2021. Marketing studies show that women influence 85% to 90% of consumer purchases, and 80% to 90% of women want advertising and marketing that speaks directly to them.
And according to a global study by Nielsen, 84% of sports fans are interested in women’s sports, of which 51% are men.
But in a $70 billion global deal, only a fraction of corporate sponsorship dollars goes to women’s sports, said David King, vice president of corporate partnerships for the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx and NBA counterpart Timberwolves.
However, according to experts, brands are reluctant to take a step forward for a number of reasons. Some women’s sports tend to have fewer events, which means fewer televised games and fewer fans over the course of a season. Front offices are also smaller and teams do not always have dedicated staff to handle or secure corporate partnerships.
For many brands it is a decision whether to invest in advertising funding in an established sports unit with a well-known fan base – e.g. For example, you might have a men’s team — or an up-and-coming team with a rapidly growing audience — like a women’s team — says Andrea Yoch, Aurora FC president and co-founder.
But from the moment Yoch announced the franchise, Aurora’s front office has received requests from companies “said they wanted to be a part of it,” she said.
Explore Minnesota, the state tourism agency, is Aurora’s celebratory sponsor, and Twin Cities Orthopedics is also sponsoring a shirt patch. The team also has partnerships with Mall of America, Volkswagen of Inver Grove, Cub Foods and Delta Dental.
So far, Aurora is the most-sponsored team in the USL W League, Yoch said, as all of its ad inventory for the upcoming season has been sold.
“It’s only been a few years that people have realized what a really great product women’s sport is,” said Yoch. “Now that crowds are there and reviews are there, companies are finding this is a great place to spend their money.”
fans at all levels
At the college level, 42% of 180 million college sports fans are women, and women make up 48% of followers who are interested in college sports on social media, according to Learfield, a college sports marketing company in North Carolina the Gophers’ marketing runs offers.
In addition to TruStone Financial, brands such as UnitedHealth Group, Cub Foods and Dove have sponsored partnerships with Gophers women’s sports.
“It’s a low entry point to get in and try something,” said Greg Gerlach, vice president and general manager of Learfield’s Gopher Sports Properties. “A lot of brands are surprised when they get it. The following of these teams are young teens and older [fans]so there’s an opportunity to reach a new audience of customers of all ages.”
Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth Group puts its money behind several women’s teams and women’s sporting events in Minnesota to recognize “the importance of supporting strong female role models,” the company said, and as a way to connect with people in their home state.
UnitedHealth is the presenting sponsor of a Lynx program focused on youth wellness and mentoring. It also provided funding for several initiatives focused on developing young leaders taking place at the Target Center around the 2022 NCAA Women’s Final Four.
The company is one of around 40 Lynx corporate partners, which is fewer than the league average. It’s a deliberate strategy not to overwhelm fans with ads and to provide top value for partners, King said.
When King joined the organization a decade ago, most of Lynx’s sponsorship deals were much smaller, often with local mom and pop businesses.
However, since 2011, the Lynx have won four WNBA championships. And brands want to be associated with winners, regardless of athlete gender.
“It raises the level of what it means financially to be a Lynx partner,” King said. “We did that and created a floor that is 10 times higher than it was 10 years ago because there is absolute value in the connection alone.”
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