More than 12 million people watched Iowa beat LSU in the Elite Eight on Monday night. Millions more will likely return for women’s basketball’s Final Four this weekend. Then what?
WNBA CMO Phil Cook has been thinking about that question, not just during the last few days but over the last year, since the Hawkeyes and Tigers’ 2023 title bout set audience records and changed the narrative around women’s hoops.
Soon, Iowa star Caitlin Clark and LSU hero Angel Reese will be playing with the pros. Like, very soon. Unlike other sports, women’s basketball’s pro draft comes a week after its college championship game and a month before the start of the season. And while the hot hand on-court remains a topic of fervent debate, the growing audience in each round of the NCAA Tournament points to the power of off-court momentum.
Cook hopes to keep that ball rolling.
This year, the WNBA pushed up its preseason marketing campaign to overlap with the NCAA Tournament. Last week, it unveiled a series of ads created with agency Wieden+Kennedy, which itself is famous for a longtime partnership with Nike.
“We wanted to launch our brand campaign when the energy and the excitement was at its highest,” Cook said.
The spots center around a “Welcome to the W” message that is meant to highlight the league’s incoming class, without ignoring the existing stars such as Breanna Stewart, Arike Ogunbowale and A’ja Wilson. Cook also hopes that the new tagline relates to incoming fans—and brands.
“This is a huge moment for us to really talk to the fans of basketball, the fans of big sport moments,” Cook said. “March Madness is this massive moment, not only for women’s basketball, but just for a sports generalist.”
ESPN has been seeding its message about the league even longer. All season, the company, which has aired 25 WNBA games annually in recent years, has been dropping W hints into its college broadcasts, referencing players’ expected draft position or how they compare to WNBA greats.
In 2023, ESPN VP, production Sara Gaiero took over responsibility for NCAA women’s basketball in addition to WNBA content, in part to allow for increased collaboration between the units.
“We keep calling it ‘bridge the gap,’” Gaiero said. “I have hope that the viewership trends and how people are even talking about women’s basketball—I really believe that that will continue.”
ESPN also uses many of the same faces and voices across its college and pro women’s basketball coverage. After the breakout success of studio trio Elle Duncan, Andraya Carter and Chiney Ogwumike during the NCAA Tournament this year, fans can likely expect to see them plenty during the pro season too.
This weekend, Indiana Fever forward (and all-but-certain to be Clark’s future teammate) Aliyah Boston will join ESPN’s Final Four coverage, closing the divide even further.
Advertisers have added to the push too. Reebok’s message in response to Reese’s draft declaration was simple: “Keep Watching.”
Still, there are reasons why women’s basketball exploded first at the college level, and why the WNBA is looking to catch up. With only 12 pro teams, there are far fewer touchpoints around the country. Among this year’s Final Four, only UConn also has a W franchise in its home state. It has also been relatively difficult for the league to build interest and visibility during its playoffs, which start just as the NFL season is getting underway.
Due to several factors, amateur and international women’s sports competitions—from the Olympics to the U.S. women’s national soccer team to NCAA hoops—continue drawing the largest audiences, to the point where some openly doubted if it even made financial sense in the NIL era for America’s top college basketball players to leave school.
Both Clark and Reese have accepted the challenge. And who is left doubting them now?
