Gen-Z Media Opps: WNBA's digital spend skyrockets after CMO appointment (Score 80)

Ever since hiring CMO Phil Cook, WNBA has seriously upped its digital advertising game. Sellers able to offer relevant ad space should get in touch sooner rather than later to offer support of the rest of WNBA's 2021 season, which will end on September 19. I also suggest you offer ways to promote its 2022 season, which will likely begin in early May.

So far this year, Pathmatics reports the organization has allocated roughly $144.4k toward digital ads, almost 6x the roughly $24.8k it spent within the same 2020 timeframe. WNBA's estimated full-year 2020 spend of $161.2k reflected a significant drop from that of $1.3m in 2019. It has earned ~21m digital impressions YTD via Instagram (66%), Twitter (20%), desktop display (13%) and mobile display (1%) ads.

According to iSpot, the only time this year during which WNBA has advertised via national TV was in May, when around $20.4k targeted viewers of its own WNBA Basketball programs. The brand's spend during this time only reached about half of the approximately $42.1k it had allocated by this point last year. WNBA ended up spending approximately $124.2k toward this channel last year, a mere fraction of the approximately $2.7m it spent in 2019. 

As you can tell by WNBA's sharp increase in digital spend and reliance on Instagram and Twitter ads, its traditional target demographic of female sports enthusiasts currently has a strong Gen-Z target demographic. To reach this digitally savvy audience even more effectively, it may begin investing in additional digital channels such as podcast and/or OTT in the future. Per Kantar, WNBA holds planning conversations in Q2 and buying conversations in Q1.

Agency & martech readers - Of course, this organization is still vulnerable to review due to its recent CMO hire; reach out soon if you haven't yet done so. WNBA is no longer working with Translation, which assisted with past creative projects.