Are women in cricket smashing boundaries of the endorsement game?

This year, the world of women's cricket has seen a remarkable surge both in viewership and sponsorship, leading to a significant boost in the brand value of renowned players such as Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur, Jemimah Rodrigues and others. As these athletes shine on the pitch with off-field appeal also skyrocketing, they have been attracting lucrative sponsorship deals and elevating their status to iconic levels in the world of sports. 

Smriti Mandhana, who recently won the Women’s Premier League along with her Royal Challengers Bangalore team, has seen her brand value grow stronger in the women’s cricket industry. Now, Mandhana isn't just a cricketer but a testament to the evolving narrative of women's cricket on the global stage. 

According to GroupM’s Sporting Nation Report of March 2024, Mandhana's social conversations are the highest among women cricketers, standing at 245. Her search volumes touch 5000 which is a little below Mithali Raj but higher than Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues. 

Aviral Jain, Managing Director, Kroll believes, "In light of her remarkable performance and leading RCB to be the Champions in WPL 2024, Mandhana has solidified her position as a prominent figure in the realm of cricket.” 

“Her exceptional talent and consistent stellar performances have not only garnered her widespread acclaim but have also attracted keen interest of marketers seeking to capitalize her influence as a brand ambassador,” he added.

Mandhana endorses brands from varied industries, ranging from healthcare (HerbaLife Nutrition) to Auto (Hyundai Motor) and among others. She currently holds 12 brands in her portfolio and given her continued success, has a potential to expand to 15-18 brands by end of the year, as per Jain. Her current endorsement value is about one to three crore per brand. 

Recently, she became the brand ambassador of Naturals Salon for the anticipated launch of its D2C skin care product segment. Reports even suggest the RCB win has made her brand value rise by 30 percent. 

She also has a substantial social media following of more than 10 million followers on Instagram and enjoys a significant following among the digitally savvy Gen-Z. Given the increasing emphasis on targeting this demographic, Mandhana can be an attractive proposition for new-age brands/technology-driven businesses. 

Are women cricketers the unbeatable choice?

At a larger level, Women’s cricket has been on the rise and with the WPL seeing its inaugural edition being played last year, GroupM’s report expects an uptrend in the days to come. Among the female cricketers, the highest earners were Kaur, Mandhana and Rodrigues. But women cricketers still have a long way to go. 

Lloyd Mathias, a Business Leader and Strategist, opines it is crucial to recognise that the absolute audience for male cricket in India and world over is significantly larger than women cricket.  

“It is also because of the size of the audience. The sheer readership, viewership of an IPL or the last World Cup that happened is much, much larger than women's cricket,” he added. 

As per the same report, where search volumes stand at 5000 for Mandhana, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have search volumes of six lakhs and one lakh respectively. Even a new entrant on the field like Shubman Gill is a part of 42000 search volumes. 

Dr. Sandeep Goyal, Chairman, Rediffusion said, “Women score low on both recognition and recall. The fan base is limited and exposure through the WPL matches is fairly low compared to IPL viewership.” 

Cricketer Kaur too had the same problem. Even though she possesses great talent, good performances but gets low advertiser interest because women cricketers are still below the necessary threshold of mass recognition and mass acclaim, as per Goyal. 

Breaking the boundaries 

On one hand, where WPL has 13,156 search volumes, IPL has 28,99,340 search volumes, and that difference is huge. Cricket associations need to market and amplify women's sports with more opportunities and resources being directed towards WPL.  

Mathias believes it is a gradual process. As the game women's cricket gets more popular, it will definitely go up. Secondly, women cricket endorsers also have an edge since they can endorse a much wider variety of brands whereas men cricketers have a certain amount of restriction. 

When it comes to categories like cosmetics, lifestyle, fashion, a recognisable female sports person will have infinitely a lot more value than male. 

Over time, as more and more cricketers come into the limelight, the following for the game will grow as India does well. The gap will then begin to narrow quite a bit. Anyhow, The future looks promising as 2023 marked a significant milestone in the evolution of franchise sports with the WPL.