MUSIC:
(Instrumental music begins)
Announcer:
From the New York Stock Exchange at the corner of Wall and Broad Streets in New York City, welcome Inside the ICE House. Our podcast from Intercontinental Exchange is your go-to for the latest on markets, leadership, vision, and business. For over 230 years, the NYSE has been the beating heart of global growth. Each week we bring you inspiring stories of innovators, job creators, and the movers and shakers of capitalism here at the NYSE and ICE's exchanges around the world. Now let's go Inside the ICE House. Here's your host, Lance Glinn.
MUSIC:
(Instrumental music ends)
Lance Glinn:
Women's sports are breaking barriers and commanding the spotlight like never before, reshaping the landscape of athletics and marketing alike. With record-breaking viewership and soaring fan engagement, female athletes are stepping up not just as competitors, but as powerful brand ambassadors. Big brands are recognizing their influence, tapping into authentic stories and fierce talent to connect with passionate, purpose-driven audiences. Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment helps brands turn investments in women's sports into real business drivers by aligning purpose with performance. Using strategic storytelling and data-driven insights, they create meaningful connections with fans. Founded in 2023 by today's guest CEO Laura Correnti, Deep Blue has grown to become the trusted partner for those ready to do more than support from the sidelines. Laura, thanks so much for joining us Inside the Ice House.
Laura Correnti:
Thank you so much for having me. Thrilled to be here.
Lance Glinn:
So Laura, Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment made a powerful statement at Cannes Lions this June with the Women's Sports Yacht Club supported by JPMorgan Chase. The activation brought together athletes, brands and changemakers for panel discussions that explored the evolving landscape of women's sports and its role in marketing. So after just taking it all in, what key trends or takeaways did you observe in how brands are now approaching women's sports and the broader entertainment ecosystem?
Laura Correnti:
Sure. Well, I think first and foremost, if there was one thing that was a clear takeaway, judging by the steady stream of attendees and participants we had over the course of our three days, is women's sports is not a fluke. It is a very viable business. It is a very viable market and is one that is accelerating at warp speed. Both in terms of investment coming into the space as well as the returns that those investors, be it private equity venture all the way through to brand and media, are seeing as a result of their interests and overall support of the space.
Lance Glinn:
Cannes Lions often serves as a crystal ball for where the marketing world is headed. So stepping just outside of sports for a moment and looking at the broader themes from the festival, how do you think brand storytelling is evolving and will change over the year plus to come?
Laura Correnti:
Sure. It was an interesting year in that, to your point, every year you look at for new formats or ways of storytelling, right? It is the largest creative festival in the world. And so everything you hope is in service of improving, iterating, optimizing how storytelling is not only captured, told, but also distributed. And the two biggest, I would say banners that were hanging across the Croisette, if you will, were that of AI. I think the advertising industry is absolutely enamored with the potential prospect. And also implications of what this industry will bring into the world of creativity, advertising, media marketing. And at the same token, the other one would be that of influence, be it creators, be it influencers, those who are taking creativity into their own hands. And many of which are using some of these tools to help storytell, to help distribute their work.
But ultimately, definitely this interesting transition over the years of the way of institution perhaps falling to that of the individual. And how those individuals are leveraging the tools, technology and resources available in the free market and across the free web to help them accelerate their platforms and the stories that they want to tell.
Lance Glinn:
And so you operate, right, really, at the intersection of media marketing and culture. In a world increasingly influenced by AI, which you obviously mentioned, data and really rapidly shifting cultural moments. How are you just seeing creativity being redefined? What does it mean to be truly original and resonant in this evolving landscape?
Laura Correnti:
Sure. I think one thing I've learned over the course of my 20 plus years in the industry is data is directional, right? Original, free thinking, free flow of creativity and ideas is something that cannot be automated. It can be enhanced. It can be advanced. But ultimately, I think figuring out the roles and responsibilities of creative in conjunction with, not as opposed to or in sort of fighting against, the tide of technological advancement is something that the advertising industry needs to be prepared for. And so I think what you're seeing is this great period of exploration. We are at the earliest days. Some are well out in front in leveraging how they're using it to apply it to creative thinking about even use case of research for strategy, all the way through to the distribution and development of content. But what informs it, right? The prompts that we put in, the way that we're developing the algorithm, how we're eliminating biases. All of these things are important for the advertising industry to consider. Not just with respect to how it can support the output, but ultimately how we can shape and inform the inputs.
Lance Glinn:
So I want to turn the spotlight now onto women's sports because it's rise has truly been one of the most compelling stories in media and marketing. I have a sports background. While I'm at the NYC now, I started off in sports media covering-
Laura Correnti:
Do tell. Do tell.
Lance Glinn:
Yeah. I covered college football recruiting for Paramount and did podcasts for them for about three years. So I have a little bit of an idea of just the sports landscape and the sports media landscape and how it's evolved. And the rise of women's sports has been just so wonderful to see. We've seen athletes like Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers, Coco Gauff, Simone Biles, just to name a few. They've become marquee faces for major brands. There's clearly, I think, a shift happening in how companies are thinking about these athletes and just about women's sports as a whole. So from your vantage point, how is the momentum, or how is this momentum, I should say, reshaping marketing strategies really across industries? This doesn't have to just be sports, right? They're becoming the brands and the faces of industries, from insurance to skincare to cars to whatever it might be.
Laura Correnti:
Yeah, I think it's important to break down sort of the "Why now?" Why are we experiencing this zeitgeist-breaking moment? And some of the things we were just referencing with respect to technological advancements, access through things like social media... The ability for these athletes to bypass some of the gatekeeping that has happened that has kept women, their platforms, the sports they play, their off-court regimens, for example, out of the media and out of the press. To mainstream and create access and awareness for fans has all been disintermediated thanks to the advancements in technology, social media, and many of the other tools that they have available to them to build the fandom that we're all seeing and experiencing and able to measure today. But when we started Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment, it was important to understand... I should say, it's important to go back to the origin of why we developed the company in the first place. And then sort of take a full throttle two years later to how this is manifesting at the Cannes Lions Festival.
But ultimately, when we got into the business, it was really informed by an interesting moment that happened in 2019. This was the year that the US Women's National Team had won the Women's World Cup in France. This also happens to be the very same year the US women's national team, a number of their players, sued their employer in US soccer for equal pay and won. And in that final game when they were lifting the trophy, something really sort of chilling happened. The entire crowd in that stadium started chanting "equal pay" instead of "USA." And it was this moment in time where many of the broadcasters, commentators, the social media feed, was lit up around, "Are we experiencing a new moment in women's sports?" We hadn't felt that level of shape-shifting happen since perhaps Brandi Chastain rips off her jersey in her penalty-shot winning moment in '99.
But the reality was, inasmuch as there was a ton of consumer excitement, fan hype, commentating inquiry, the reality is the advertising media marketing industry, which is very critical in making sports and entertainment economies go round, wasn't batting an eye. Not only were they not interested, they weren't investing. And you start to dig into why. And with women's sports, what we've come to learn over the course of the last few years is that it wasn't a product issue. That team I was just referencing in the US Women's National Team is probably one of the most winning teams in the world, men or women, period. So it's not a product issue. They were dominant for decades. It's not a story issue. You've got athletes and you covered many of them, so you know, who are multidimensional, multihyphenate... I love seeing athletes today like Flau'Jae Johnson who's a star basketball player for LSU's women's basketball program and also a recording artist.
The dimensionality of what these women bring to the table wasn't being covered. And when you start to ask why it's not being covered and why it's not being invested in, you start to realize it's not a product issue. It's not a storytelling issue. It's a systems issue. And a small microcosm of that... Just to give you an example and to get nerdy with it for a second, the way women's sports is transacted on, and what I mean by that is how advertisers come to the table to buy inventory.
So advertising space in and around women's sports competition, be it games, playoffs, championships, whatever the case may be, is on the same currency and the same measurement system as that of men's. So if you are somebody who's buying on behalf of a brand and you're presented Monday Night Football, or perhaps the WNBA playoffs. And you have a dollar to spend, and most advertisers are driving you to get as many eyeballs or scale as possible, as cost-efficiently as possible, I can tell you where that dollar is likely going 10 out of 10 times. Because I don't have to justify the decision in something that has been scaled, in something that has been measured over decades.
And so you start to realize the system is broken. And so we got in and around this space not just to celebrate, of course we're doing that, and highlight so much of the incredible work that these athletes are doing. But it's really to right-size the systems and infrastructure that sits around it. To ensure that the coverage and the awareness exists so that it's a commercial opportunity that is viable, that it's sustainable, and that can grow.
Lance Glinn:
And to that point of growth, I would say, just from an outside observer's standpoint, the audience for women's sports is growing immensely. I mean, just look at the WNBA. And whether you think it's because of Caitlin Clark or Angel Reese or Paige Bueckers, whoever you may think may be driving this sort of interest in the league, it's clear that interest has increased substantially. And it's far more evident and notable on TV, in endorsements, just in overall marketing and advertisements as a whole. It's clear that the fan base for women's sports... It's passionate, values driven, obviously fiercely loyal. But when it comes to brands, how are brands adjusting their messaging and creative strategies to authentically tap into that passionate, loyal, value-driven fan base and connect with this engaged community? This community that I think can sort of tell apart the brands that are just getting into it because they think it's a nice trend, but the brands that are in it with authenticity.
Laura Correnti:
Yeah. Before I answer that question, I think two notable points to the coverage in the explosion of audience. I just did a great podcast on my show called Courtside with Laura Correnti. With Colie Edison, who's the chief growth officer of the WNBA. So I encourage your listeners to check that one out. Because the amount of statistics that Colie rattled off in double and triple digit lift just over the course of her time there, which was starting in 2022 to 2025, I don't know that you see many of those types of returns in any industry. So I think there's definitely something to everything you just alluded to. But a lot of it does come with coverage. WNBA legend Sue Bird is a partner in Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. And Sue often reminds me that she was playing and sold out arenas when she played for Uconn. But the coverage, the interest from the media, the awareness of the advertising community perhaps, wasn't just up to par yet.
So it is interesting to see the implications of what media coverage, what advertising investment, what overall resource and infrastructure means, to increase that fandom. Yes, but it is interesting to see the coverage and how it's impacted that. So fast-forward to your question. With respect to brand investment, many brands coming into the space, first of all, recognizing that the returns are astronomical. In that same podcast I was alluding to with Colie Edison, she talked about, for league partners between the 2024 or 2023 to 2024 season, they saw 13 X, an average of 13 x return on their investment. I'm talking to the Center of Culture and Commerce right now at ICE. You know that that type of return is really phenomenal, and a lot of that, then you start trickling down into what contributes to that.
Yes, ticket sales are up. Merchandise sales are up. Ratings are up. And you can attribute it to so many different things. But ultimately at the end of the day, what we are most concerned with is, "How do you sustain it?" And when it comes to brands and their investment, many of them are recognizing this isn't an industry. You're coming in and applying the men's sports playbook to the women's sports playbook. In that, meaning you're just coming for reach, you're slapping a logo, you're running a 30-second TV spot, knowing that the audience is there, tuned in, and ready to receive it. Because they've had decades of familiarity in that game day experience perhaps, to engage.
Women's sports is a much different situation. You're building something from the ground up. And so authenticity, storytelling, how you're leveraging the storylines, the athletes, is really important. At the Cannes Lions Festival this year, we were fortunate enough to have a number of experts across the space. And there was one panel in particular, which featured Colie from the WNBA, Anmoi Malhotra from SNAP.
Obviously seeing the Rise, Gen Z, Gen A, fastest growing audience in women's sports, absolutely dialed in, but dialed in differently. And that's equally important to understand as well. Molly McArdle from Genius Sports cited an example, a case study of CarMax, for example, who is a partner of the WNBA. And when CarMax decided to feature WNBA athletes in their commercials, full stop, triple-digit lift in overall brand returns.
So the level of influence, brands starting to recognize how, where, and when they engage. Recognizing that you have a rabid fan base, you use the word "loyal." One that has been part of building this thing from the ground up and will hold advertisers accountable for how they decide to engage and enter the space. And so it does require a level of education and understanding, that you're not just picking up something that worked over there and applying it over here. It is a unique fan base with unique needs and unique interests. And I think it's... I should say those who pay attention to that and put real strategy around it are the ones that we're seeing thrive and succeed. With rates of return that you'd be hard-pressed to find in many other industries as an advertiser.
Lance Glinn:
Great rates of return, surely an increase just in terms of overall viewership and overall excitement and energy towards women's sports. And with this rapid growth, I think, comes even greater opportunity to build on that momentum. And we're looking ahead, I think pretty much all of us in the country and those interested in sports to LA '28. Not too far away, only-
Laura Correnti:
Three years from yesterday.
Lance Glinn:
And we're going to blink, we're going to blink, '26 will be past us and the 28 Olympics will be here. I know I've talked to Paul Rabil. We've had him on the podcast and I know he's very excited about lacrosse obviously joining the Olympics that year. And I know there's a bunch of other sports coming in '26, '28. But when it comes to LA '28, the Olympics, they offer a massive global stage and a massive global marketing moment. Not just here in the United States, but around the world. How do you see an event like that serving as a launch pad for women's sports and women's sports marketing? Both in terms of just visibility and long-term investment from brands and media platforms?
Laura Correnti:
Yeah, I think LA '28 won't be a launch. It'll be about longevity. I think what we saw in the Paris Games, this was the first Olympic Games on record where there were equal number of participants of male and female athletes. But you could argue, and there is data to back this up, that the female athletes absolutely dominated with respect to press coverage, interest, overall awareness. I mean, Ilona Maher captured the hearts, not just of Americans and the rugby community, but fans around the world. Putting rugby on a map at a level of awareness that I don't know that we've ever seen when it comes to women's rugby, perhaps rugby at large. The US Women's National Team winning gold under the new leadership of Emma Hayes in her first major tournament as a coach. Simone Biles. I mean, Katie Ledecky.
I mean, go down the list of just dominance. The US Women's National Team, the USA Women's Basketball Program, hasn't lost a basketball game since 1992, won gold again. So the storylines are there, and I think women were the story in Paris last summer. And I think what we're going to see in '28, which it's being reported, would be the first time. So we were at equity, or I should say we were at parity in the Paris Games. Women participants will actually outnumber that of their male counterparts going into that.
And to your point, so many new storylines, so many new stars to be made, so much to cover. I'm excited to see things like flag football and how that's shaping up. You're already starting to see breadcrumbs of it from the NFL and other organizations around the country. And so I think what it presents, perhaps not a launchpad for the women's sports industry, but a launchpad for new stars. A launchpad for new storylines. The ability for us to fall in love all over again with those who we've come to know and learn and love during their time playing to date, and those that will be cheering in their debuts and moving forward.
And so, I think these markers are incredible spikes, incredible peaks, for that scale that women's sports has been missing. And a chance to understand. How do you keep it there? How do you build that sustained engagement coming off of it? And I think what we're excited to see on the back end of '28 is the whole full of the United States being the host country for the 2031 Women's World Cup. So for us, it's a, "Let's keep it going." But I think being very strategic about the peaks and valleys, sustaining these periods of professional growth in between these big global moments, to your point. But making sure that they aren't every-four-year moments, because I think that is something we suffer from in the advertising community quick to rally around those peaks. But how are we leading into them and how are we sustaining them? And I think that is what many of us are strategizing now, getting ready for '28.
Lance Glinn:
Absolutely. So as women's sports gains this momentum or has gained momentum and will continue to do so, just how do you see the future shaping up for brands that were early champions compared to those now entering the space? Do you think there is a distinct first mover advantage for those who invested early? Or could you see brands that maybe waited a little bit and are now investing still have their moment at the top?
Laura Correnti:
Well, I think those that invested early, and I think brands like Ally Financial is great one to point to. Who made a very strategic and measurable bet a few years ago in their 50-50 pledge, where they were the first brand ever on record to say, "For every media dollar we'll spend in men's sports, we will spend in women's sports in a quantifiable period of time." They are aggressively approaching that goal in real time as we speak. And the numbers prove it. Andrew Brimmer, their CMO, has gone on record, can be looked up by anyone, to see what the measurable returns have been. So from a business standpoint, those who got in early, invested in the long game, absolutely have benefited on the bottom line. But they can't rest there. The amount of inbound, especially those of non-endemics, I think we've seen a ton of financial service brands who have come into the space, telco, tech, auto, et cetera.
Now, what we're starting to see in our own backyard here in New York. I love some of the partnerships that the New York Liberty, for example, have been bringing to the forefront. Last year, Deep Blue Sports Entertainment, brokered a deal with Bumble, the dating app, to talk about women making the first move. This year we just brokered a partnership with Vagisil, first ever partnership for that brand in the sports arena. And so you're starting to see non-endemics, but those that are endemic to the female consumer, to the female athlete, come online in ways in which they are benefiting. So the space is getting crowded. The famous saying, "Yesterday's price is not today's price." So those that got in early cannot rest on that first mover designation. They need to be all gas, no breaks. Because the market is heating up. And so in order to maintain that, you need to continually iterate and find new and differentiated ways to break through. In what I anticipate will be a very crowded market between now and the LA '28 goalpost you just spoke about.
Lance Glinn:
So Laura, as we wrap up our conversation... At Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment, how are you advising your clients and the brands you work with to approach the women's sports space differently today, compared to just a few years ago when you started the company in 2023?
Laura Correnti:
Sure. I mean, we are talking about... And one of the biggest takeaways from the Cannes Lions Festival, just to bring it full circle, is this shift from breakthrough to build out. I think it was very easy to get in and hang your banner and say, "We support women's sports," just two years ago. I mean, we're not talking about a very long time ago. Two years ago as this zeitgeist-breaking moment started to happen. But as the space matures, as more investment and infrastructure comes in, as more facilities are being built, teams are coming online, leagues are being formed, it's important for advertisers to take a strategic approach. This is not just about coming in and hanging your banner and logo, slapping a badge and saying, "We're here to support this space." This is about strategic growth in the same way you would approach anything from business, men's sports technology. I mean, any industry that you are looking to break through in an advertise, it warrants a strategy.
And so ultimately for us, this is really about value exchange. The way forward that we see at women's sports for people to extract the most return is not just about looking at this as a scale play, but as a deep engagement play. And that requires a two-way street with respect to women's sports. Those that are seeing the biggest returns are not only coming in and reaching the women's sports audience. They're also really providing some sort of value exchange, whether that's more access, free access to content. Whether that's meet and greet with their favorite players. Whether that's enhanced game day experiences... Thinking about things like media training for athletes and how they can create an overall more sophisticated ecosystem, for example. So value exchange is something that we talk a lot with our brand partners about.
And by the way, that isn't always financial. That comes down to strategic and human capital as well. So for example, if ICE and the stock exchange were to invest in women's sports, you sit at the epicenter of how business operates. Well, many of these athletes are business operators, are entrepreneurs, are multi-hyphenates. They can of course benefit from your investment with respect to dollars, but also in your intelligence, know-how, and access. And so we're really working with brands to say, when we think about investment, it isn't just about dollars and cents. It is about intellect. It is about human capital. It's about strategic capital and resource capital in many instances. And so the more we can bolster and bolt on to this, the farther expanse and accelerant we think women's sports will be with respect to growth markets.
Lance Glinn:
Well, Laura, the rise of women's sports has been incredible to see, and the rise of women's sports in marketing has been incredible to see. Thank you for all that you do for it. And thank you so much for joining us Inside the ICE House.
Laura Correnti:
Loved being here. Thank you for the platform.
MUSIC:
(Instrumental music begins)
Announcer:
That's our conversation for this week. Remember to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen and follow us on X at ICE House Podcast. From the New York Stock Exchange, we'll talk to you again next week Inside the ICE House.
Information contained in this podcast was obtained in part from publicly available sources and not independently verified. Neither ICE nor its affiliates make any representations or warranties, expressed or implied as to the accuracy or completeness of the information and do not sponsor, approve, or endorse any of the content herein, all of which is presented solely for informational and educational purposes. Nothing herein constitutes an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy any security, or a recommendation of any security or trading practice. Some portions of this preceding conversation may have been edited for the purpose of length or clarity.
MUSIC:
(Instrumental music ends)
