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When the 29th season of the WNBA tips off on Friday, it\u2019ll come with a warning.<\/p>\n
The league\u2019s latest brand campaign, slated to run throughout the 2025 season, is a riff on the classic \u201cviewer discretion advised\u201d message used on content like movies and shows rated for mature audiences.<\/p>\n
The first spot in the campaign warns that \u201cthe following footage contains dominance\u201d before showing Las Vegas Aces center and reigning MVP A\u2019ja Wilson scoring and blocking opponents\u2019 shots. Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark, Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese, Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier, and New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu are also featured in the first iteration of the campaign.<\/p>\n
The campaign, called \u201cViewer Discretion,\u201d is meant to highlight the deep bench of talent playing in the league this season and help establish the W\u2019s brand positioning in the crowded sports market while driving viewership coming off of a record-breaking 2024 season, WNBA CMO Phil Cook said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach one of those athletes brings a very distinctive and very unique and very amazing set of skills to the WNBA, and we\u2019re taking this opportunity to highlight those skills\u2026with a bit of cheekiness to it,\u201d he told Marketing Brew.<\/p>\n
The league started rolling out the campaign during the draft in April, with a short teaser of upcoming player vignettes. The spots build on last season\u2019s \u201cWelcome to the W\u201d campaign, which welcomed the 2024 rookie class and all of the new viewers that came with them.<\/p>\n
Cook said the response to the 2024 campaign was positive, so the league wanted to continue building on what made it effective.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the athletes loved it\u2014we put them front and center in the storytelling\u2014and our fans loved it because it started to identify and position the WNBA as the best of the best,\u201d Cook said. \u201cThese athletes deserve the recognition that is coming with all this attention, and so fans are very appreciative of the fact that we are starting to build a brand around the WNBA and carve out an identity within the sports ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wieden+Kennedy Portland, which was responsible for \u201cWelcome to the W,\u201d also worked on \u201cViewer Discretion.\u201d The first wave of the campaign is set to run for the next couple of months leading up to the All-Star break in July, with another round featuring different athletes planned for later in the summer, according to Cook. The first spots are running on social and digital platforms, including during WNBA games and the NBA playoffs, he said.<\/p>\n