In a recently released study by Edison Research, supported by SiriusXM and Group M, Edison devotes nine slides to documenting the many ways and extents to which women are sports fans. A few key points:
- They like NFL football best; Formula 1 car racing least.
- Part of the devotion to sports is about fostering family unity.
- Women use social media (38%) to share their enthusiasm for sports; 58% of them chat with other sports fans while consuming sports content.
- Most women follow their favorite athletes when they (the athletes, not the women) are traded.
- Women are less likely to cry over sports than men. (A rebuke to stereotypes everywhere.)
All in all, 52 million American women are casual fans; 20 million are enthusiastic, and 10 million are “die-hard.”
Having established female cred in the sports audience, Edison gets down to the business of audio. Fifty-seven percent of American women listened to sports audio, to some extent, in the last year.
How is that listening divided among key audio platforms? The chart below indicates that nearly half of the listening happens through AM/FM radio, either over-the-air or via online streams.
Podcasting comes into play (so to speak) with this key metric: Women use podcasts for “new perspectives” in sports audio) — 67% percent of those surveyed said yes to this behavior.
But it’s about advertising
Ultimately, this research is directed to advertisers. A second section provides eight slides documenting linkages connecting fandom with purchasing power and tendency. The slide below illustrates some ways in which sports advertising activates female listeners:
The spending power and proclivity of female fans is illustrated in a key slide:
The deck from which these slides are taken accompanied a video presentation. You can view that HERE. The deck is HERE.
