\n
This story is the first in a series on women leaders working to increase brand investment in women\u2019s sports. Keep reading Marketing Brew for more profiles to come.<\/em><\/p>\nWhen Sara Gotfredson first started selling sports ad inventory in 2001, brands hardly had any opportunity to run ads during women\u2019s games, and that content wasn\u2019t a priority at media companies that were airing sports, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cVery rarely did we talk about women\u2019s sports in the early 2000s,\u201d Gotfredson told Marketing Brew. \u201cIt just didn\u2019t seem like a lot of the legacy sports media companies cared.\u201d<\/p>\n
At that time, the landscape for women\u2019s sports looked very different: The WNBA, now the most popular women\u2019s league in the US, was just five years old, and women\u2019s soccer, a current favorite among brands, was hardly established in the country, with the Women\u2019s United Soccer Association just getting off the ground and its successor, the National Women\u2019s Soccer League, more than a decade away from forming.<\/p>\n
But women like Gotfredson, who grew up playing sports, were starting to make their mark on corporate America, specifically at legacy sports media companies. After a few years as a digital media sales account executive at CBS Sportsline.com (that later became CBSSports.com), Gotfredson went on to work in ad sales for Disney and ESPN before starting her own sports media agency, Trailblazing Sports Group, about a year ago. Its mission? To grow brand investment in women\u2019s sports.<\/p>\n
More than 20 years from her start in the business, that still isn\u2019t easy, Gotfredson said, but with growing audiences and attention, the space has approached a \u201ctipping point\u201d that has her optimistic about the future.<\/p>\n
Retro<\/h2>\n
Gotfredson grew up in a sports-loving household, and while she doesn\u2019t remember there being many women\u2019s sporting events to watch, there were some to play, including softball, soccer, and golf. Gotfredson is particularly grateful for her experience golfing, which has proven helpful in her career.<\/p>\n
\u201cGolf is so great to learn as a kid, and especially as a young girl, because it\u2019s allowed me to hang with the guys in my professional life,\u201d she said. \u201cI remember going up to Bandon Dunes when I was at ESPN, and I took my Nike client. We were the only two women out of like 24 guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
She went to college for marketing at the University of San Francisco and, during her senior year, took a sports media and business class that led her to pursue a master of arts in sports and fitness management.<\/p>\n
Gotfredson got her digital media sales job at CBS Sportsline while she was still getting her master\u2019s, and then landed the ESPN gig through the \u201cpower of networking, which I always encourage young women and women in general to lean into more,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In her early days at the Disney-owned sports network, Gotfredson remembers selling ad units to brands like Cisco, Nike, and Visa for Mobile ESPN, an ESPN-branded mobile phone and cellular service with exclusive sports content that went belly-up in 2006. Vice later called it the company\u2019s potential \u201cbiggest failure,\u201d but said it \u201cset the foundation\u201d for ESPN\u2019s future dominance in the world of mobile apps.<\/p>\n
Take the W<\/h2>\n
Gotfredson\u2019s first major foray into women\u2019s sports came when she began working with a small team within ESPN to sell the first sponsorships for espnW, the channel founded in 2010 that\u2019s dedicated exclusively to women\u2019s sports. At espnW, Gotfredson said she locked in commitments from partners including Nike, Adidas, Toyota, and Wells Fargo\u2014some of which are still big sponsors today.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
Get marketing news you’ll actually want to read<\/h5>\n
Marketing Brew informs marketing pros of the latest on brand strategy, social media, and ad tech via our weekday newsletter, virtual events, marketing conferences, and digital guides.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cEspnW was a big turning point,\u201d she said, but even with that platform, \u201cwomen\u2019s sports was always really in the background of ESPN. We had the women\u2019s tournament, and brands bought into it, but there wasn\u2019t a clamoring for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some ubiquitous sports brands like Nike and Adidas were eager to invest, but it was (and still is) harder work selling women\u2019s sports to brands outside of the sports world, she said. Earlier this year, Gotfredson told us her peers could land football deals three times larger than her WNBA ones with a fraction of the work that she was doing.<\/p>\n
When she was first selling espnW, Gotfredson recalled going through 40-page research decks in meetings to \u201cprove to brands that we had done our homework,\u201d she said. But it was fun work, she stressed, and it paved the way for the annual espnW Summit, which now draws sponsors from sports brands like New Balance and Gatorade to tech giants like Meta and Google.<\/p>\n
Come together<\/h2>\n
Gotfredson later became VP of global client sales and market partnerships at Disney, where she worked with tech and telco brands across all media brands and platforms, but said she left in 2022 to start her firm Trailblazing Sports Group because she saw a chance to help brands do more with women\u2019s sports. She wanted to be a part of that shift, but didn\u2019t want to do it at another major media company.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith every big company\u2026[men\u2019s sports] is the moneymaker,\u201d she said. \u201cThese sports pay for everybody\u2019s salaries, so it\u2019s easy to just focus your time there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s sports has another advantage: proven scale and reach. Women\u2019s sports can move the needle for brands, too, she said, but there still needs to be more stats, research, and case studies to prove that to marketers who might not be convinced.<\/p>\n
To that end, Gotfredson has become a \u201cbehind-the-scenes\u201d force in the Women\u2019s Sports Club, an invite-only group of executives at brands, media companies, and creators dedicated to boosting women\u2019s sports, said Angela Ruggiero, the club\u2019s executive director and the co-founder of market research company Sports Innovation Lab.<\/p>\n
Ruggiero, who also happens to be a four-time Olympic medalist in ice hockey, said she originally hoped Gotfredson might help set up an upfront just for women\u2019s sports content, but that research showed that it might be premature. For now, Gotfredson is helping the club\u2019s members buy women\u2019s sports inventory amongst themselves, Ruggiero said.<\/p>\n
Gotfredson told us she\u2019s also working on building a programmatic marketplace that will allow brands to buy women\u2019s sports media in one place, across platforms, leagues, teams, and individual athletes. She said she hopes to debut it next year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality is, the scale in women\u2019s sports is not at the level of men\u2019s sports yet,\u201d Gotfredson said. \u201c\u2018Yet\u2019 is the big thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story is the first in a series on women leaders working to increase brand investment in women\u2019s sports. Keep reading Marketing Brew for more profiles to come. When Sara Gotfredson first started selling sports ad inventory in 2001, brands hardly had any opportunity to run ads during women\u2019s games, and that content wasn\u2019t a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20014,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-20013","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-marketing"},"yoast_head":"\n
How Sara Gotfredson built her career proving the value of women\u2019s sports | Brandiary<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This story is the first in a series on women leaders working to increase brand investment in women\u2019s sports. Keep reading Marketing Brew for more profiles\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=20013\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Sara Gotfredson built her career proving the value of women\u2019s sports | Brandiary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This story is the first in a series on women leaders working to increase brand investment in women\u2019s sports. Keep reading Marketing Brew for more profiles\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=20013\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Brandiary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-11-06T15:58:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-11-06T15:58:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/1699286320_d89295e6028d0a3c9d3dc683c6b7192dac2c709e-1500x1000.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=20013#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=20013\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"News Room\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5062dafb0f932b59aa228f1a047332f4\"},\"headline\":\"How Sara Gotfredson built her career proving the value of women\u2019s sports\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-06T15:58:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-06T15:58:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=20013\"},\"wordCount\":1155,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Marketing\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=20013#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=20013\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=20013\",\"name\":\"How Sara Gotfredson built her career proving the value of women\u2019s sports | Brandiary\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-06T15:58:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-06T15:58:41+00:00\",\"description\":\"This story is the first in a series on women leaders working to increase brand investment in women\u2019s sports. Keep reading Marketing Brew for more profiles\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=20013#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=20013\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=20013#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How Sara Gotfredson built her career proving the value of women\u2019s sports\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/\",\"name\":\"Brandiary\",\"description\":\"Latest Business and Startup News and Updates\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Brandiary\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/b-logo-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/b-logo-1.png\",\"width\":381,\"height\":100,\"caption\":\"Brandiary\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5062dafb0f932b59aa228f1a047332f4\",\"name\":\"News Room\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/avatar_user_1_1688031660-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/avatar_user_1_1688031660-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"News Room\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How Sara Gotfredson built her career proving the value of women\u2019s sports | Brandiary","description":"This story is the first in a series on women leaders working to increase brand investment in women\u2019s sports. Keep reading Marketing Brew for more profiles","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=20013","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How Sara Gotfredson built her career proving the value of women\u2019s sports | Brandiary","og_description":"This story is the first in a series on women leaders working to increase brand investment in women\u2019s sports. Keep reading Marketing Brew for more profiles","og_url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=20013","og_site_name":"Brandiary","article_published_time":"2023-11-06T15:58:39+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-11-06T15:58:41+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/1699286320_d89295e6028d0a3c9d3dc683c6b7192dac2c709e-1500x1000.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"News Room","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"News Room","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=20013#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=20013"},"author":{"name":"News Room","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5062dafb0f932b59aa228f1a047332f4"},"headline":"How Sara Gotfredson built her career proving the value of women\u2019s sports","datePublished":"2023-11-06T15:58:39+00:00","dateModified":"2023-11-06T15:58:41+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=20013"},"wordCount":1155,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Marketing"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=20013#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=20013","url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=20013","name":"How Sara Gotfredson built her career proving the value of women\u2019s sports | Brandiary","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-11-06T15:58:39+00:00","dateModified":"2023-11-06T15:58:41+00:00","description":"This story is the first in a series on women leaders working to increase brand investment in women\u2019s sports. Keep reading Marketing Brew for more profiles","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=20013#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=20013"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=20013#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How Sara Gotfredson built her career proving the value of women\u2019s sports"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/","name":"Brandiary","description":"Latest Business and Startup News and Updates","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#organization","name":"Brandiary","url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/b-logo-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/b-logo-1.png","width":381,"height":100,"caption":"Brandiary"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5062dafb0f932b59aa228f1a047332f4","name":"News Room","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/avatar_user_1_1688031660-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/avatar_user_1_1688031660-96x96.png","caption":"News Room"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com"],"url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20013"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20015,"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20013\/revisions\/20015"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}