The NFL Is Looking for a Few Good Women

At a Reuters Media Summit earlier this week, officials from the National Football League said they want to woo more women viewers to the sport, but are still working out the best strategy to do so. Women sports fans, the NFL found, wanted marketing that appealed to their interests but did not make them feel that they were being treated differently than men.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says that this is a very big initiative for the league. “(Women) fans want to be treated as real fans because they love the game and they understand the game, and they want to have the opportunity to experience the game just as anyone else does.”

According to the NFL’s market research, women make up approximately 40 percent of the viewing audience for the Super Bowl, but the broadcasts failed to speak to the female viewers. That’s because most of the TV ads broadcast during the event are for autos, beer and electronics and often filled with humor directed at young men.

The NFL is playing it smart. With more women holding down full-time careers and managing the family’s finances, it makes sense for the league to appeal to their advertising dollars. The danger I see is in “feminizing” telecasts or advertising too much. It’s important to keep the car and beer ads — women buy these items too — but advertisers need to create ads that will appeal to both sexes. As for the football telecasts, don’t change a thing. Women will tune in simply because they love the game or they have loyalty to a certain team.

The NFL can learn from NASCAR, which has built its marketing strategy of attracting women fans by promoting its stock car races as events for the entire family. In fact, I think the key to creating a more balanced fan base for any sport is to promote it as family entertainment. That way you have a pipeline of fans, for the present and for the future. Families tend to share their sporting interests through the generations. If a parent is a Cub fan, chances are their kids will grow up to be Cub fans too.

Now if we can only figure out how to draw more male fans to sports that women traditionally enjoy, such as figure skating and gymnastics.