On the back of the Lionesses’ UEFA Women’s Euros win, we’ve seen brands step into the arena of women’s sport and tackle what is undoubtedly a complex cultural topic in different ways.

And while it’s great that women’s sport is finally having its moment, are we still making too many comparisons with the men’s game?

As England Defender, Lucy Bronze said: “We’re not trying to compare ourselves with men’s football. We want to be who we are and do things our way.”

It’s time brands created a new agenda for women’s sport. One that avoids the negative comparisons and focuses on the positive differences. One that carves its own path, existing with men’s sport, but not wishing to be it. Taking what’s loved about the beautiful game and leaving behind what isn’t.

Here are a few ways brands can begin to approach this:

Leverage diverse fans to be agents of change             

It’s easy for brands to assume that the audience for women’s sports is those who already watch the men’s version.

But TV viewership tells a very different story. According to research by the Women’s Sport Trust, in 2021 over 25% of England women's cricket or The Hundred viewers had not previously viewed men's cricket. And there were 6.2 million viewers of the Women’s Super League Football that had not viewed a Premier League game that year.

This isn’t about stealing ‘market share’ from men’s sports; growth is coming from those who are new to women’s sport. And this is making crowds increasingly diverse; younger and more gender-balanced. Often fans who may not feel welcomed into other sports.

For example, it was refreshing to see Sports Direct’s Women’s Euros spot feature such a diverse set of fans in a variety of contexts. Yes the pub and the stadium appear, but so does the community green and the girls bedroom.

Women’s sports fan culture marks a much-needed shift from traditional sports tribes to diverse and inclusive sports communities. Not only do brands need to hold a mirror up to this new generation of fans, but they also need to understand what motivates them.

Celebrate the ‘female’ in female athlete

Many female athletes have chosen not to share certain aspects of their careers, concerned that the challenges unique to women will somehow undermine their professionalism and lead to unfair comparisons with their male counterparts.

In 2015, Serena Williams took to social media to speak up about post-partum depression, paving the way for others to share the realities of being a woman and an elite athlete. The reality is, women’s bodies and experiences can be fundamentally different to men’s and we’ve rarely seen these stories told until recently.

Take EE’s Women’s Euros sponsorship spot, which tackles the stigma around motherhood and menstruation. Also, earlier this year, Puma released its documentary ‘Do Both’, following Icelandic footballer Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir’s pregnancy journey, birth, and return to elite-level sport after just five months. It’s stories like this that don’t just normalise motherhood as an athlete but celebrate it.

Brands can help women’s sport usher in a new era of transparency. It’s time for more positive, and realistic representation of what it means to not just be an athlete, but to be a female athlete.

Athlete, activist, or both?

Women’s sport has undoubtedly needed its female icons to fight for equality and representation. But in 2022, it’s become the norm to elevate every successful sportswoman to ‘female empowerment icon’, a mantle some feel distracts from their achievements. When commenting on the ‘More Than Empowerment’ signs held by fans, FC Barcelona Femeni Captain Alexia Putellas commented: “We’re professional athletes and I’d like us to be looked at like that. Yes, we’re role models because of the position we’re in but I hope those messages in the future are about the game we’re playing in”.

 We can’t deny that there are still huge disparities that need addressing, but not every successful woman in sport wants to be that icon of change, and not every ad needs to focus on inequality either.

You could argue that Nikes ‘Never Settle, Never Done’ women’s football spot, which is a pure celebration of the game, can shift perceptions of women’s football just as effectively as one that addresses an issue directly.

Brands need to consider when to simply give visibility and credibility to women’s sport, and when to deliver an explicit empowerment message, because both can be equally as powerful in continuing to drive women’s sport forward.

As women’s sport becomes more mainstream, it may become less essential for brands to rely on addressing enemies and comparisons and instead focus on celebrating what makes women’s sport unique; diverse fan bases, the real lives of female athletes, and the beauty of the sports themselves.