The Trailblazing Marketplace helps match brands with opportunities with digital outlets and in sports such as women’s surfing.getty images
Sports Innovation Lab started its Fan Project in 2021 with research proving the business case of women’s sports, and this year took its vast amount of data to market in its first NewFronts presentation.
The idea was to bundle ad inventory around women’s sports, creating the Trailblazing Marketplace in conjunction with Trailblazing Sports Group, a partnership sales firm founded in 2022 that connects brands, partners and more with opportunities to buy in sports.
The effort aims to facilitate the connection between agencies, buyers and media companies. It initially looked to join the highly coveted Upfront week, before settling on the NewFronts earlier in May with a more digital-focused approach.
“This was a risk. We had to commit to the IAB [Interactive Advertising Bureau] last fall,” said Gina Waldhorn, CMO at SIL. “There was no Caitlin Clark phenomena; we wrote checks and started planning this thing. We knew. We were putting our chips on the table, we didn’t know if it’s gonna be this NCAA March Madness or two more years. Luckily, like we were in the right boat when that tide rose.”
The event took place May 2 in New York City.
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The marketplace offers more than 30 packages across women’s sports in the digital landscape throughout podcasting, digital media, streaming and more. Sources said the packages range from the $200,000s and go into the millions, with some packages still available for purchase.
“We’re a data company,” said SIL co-founder Angela Ruggiero. “You might have a smaller audience, but your audience is deeper, more loyal. They’re going to spend more money. That again, time and time again, has been in all of our research.”
Packages include culture-driven initiatives across brands such as Just Women’s Sports, Re-Inc, Scripps and Togethxr; athlete-driven with brands such as Impakt Partners, Parity and OneTeam Partners; and community-driven through companies including Playfly Sports, PowHER Sports and the Stronger Together marketplace.
Trailblazing Sports founder Sara Gotfredson came from a media buying and planning background at ESPN/Disney, and wondered how she could use her skill set to further the women’s sports marketplace.
“I’ve been used to selling billions of dollars of men’s sports; we need something where we can bring all of the partners together,” Gotfredson said. “They’re not in the media game, they’ve never done what I’ve done.”
“Our ethos has always been, ‘Let’s help solve women’s sports,’” added Ruggiero. “For these companies to really get going, they need the brands to really show up with money. That will start this flywheel effect, and what better way to do that than bundle all this stuff together and make it easy to buy?”
The effort aims to support digital content such as the podcast from Christen Press (left) and Tobin Heath.getty images
Waldhorn also comes from a media buying and planning background. Unlike other media buying platforms, the Trailblazing Marketplace offers cross-sport inventory across marketplaces and also includes the likes of the X Games, The Gist, World Surf League and more.
“The media agencies were like, ‘Yeah, but it doesn’t meet our impression level threshold and GRPs and TRPs,’” said Waldhorn. “All this ad tech is coming out constantly, improving the performance, but women’s sports is just trying to catch up. But with the marketplace, we have over 25 partners, a couple of partners have more than one package. There’s money to be made there, so we solved the cross-sport problem.”
“This new fluid fan is cross-channel,” added Waldhorn. “We have to hit on podcast, digital streaming, and we have to hit on Scripps Friday night appointment viewing. We need to hit on everywhere, because fans consume sports media, and women’s sports is going to do it better.”
Gotfredson said the NewFronts set the stage on how brands and agencies can think about investing in women’s sports differently. “I want brands to continue to buy women’s March Madness on ESPN, and I want them to support the women’s basketball podcast on The Athletic. I want them to support not just the World Cup on Fox, but the Tobin [Heath] and Christen [Press] podcast.”
The marketplace builds on the efforts of the Women’s Sports Club, which SIL launched with Ally Financial in 2023. The club, which now boasts more than 300 members, provides networking opportunities for brands, media companies, agencies and others to increase spending on advertising and sponsorship in women’s sports.
The Women’s Sports Club took its mission on the road following the NewFronts presentation. More than 10 road shows have been sold out across a plethora of brands, many of which Ruggiero described as new to the women’s sports marketplace.
“When people think about buying women’s sports, they think about league sponsorships,” said Waldhorn. “But there is action sports and X Games and surf and co-ed, and there’s women who have amazing content and stories and coverage in those different areas.”
The NewFronts presentation brought out many of the traditional sponsors in women’s sports like Ally, but also interest from brands in attendance like Kroger and Netflix, and Allstate joined as a partner.
“We love Ally, we couldn’t say enough nice things about Ally,” Waldhorn said. “But a lot of the time it’s Ally and Google and the same brands. We saw Verizon showing up and leaning in, it was just a lot more first-time brands. I’ve been emailing them inviting them to Women’s Sports Club events, and they have not been answering. Finally we were just speaking their language. We’re like, ‘Oh, you already show up to the NewFronts with a wallet?’ Why are we trying to get them to come out over here to this other event, let’s go fish where the fish are.”
With the club heading to the road, the opportunity is only just getting started.
