Gearing Towards Women: What Sport Can Learn from Zwift’s Female Focus 🚴♀️
For Zwift, pedalling parity is not just about achieving gender equality; it's also about recognising and leveraging a powerful market force. As such, we'd be smart to join them for the ride.
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BIG IDEA
When we talk about the term ‘purse’ in the context of sport, your mind, like mine, probably wanders to the thought of prize money on offer for a heavyweight bout or at a major tournament like the World Cup.
However, it’s well overdue that we start to talk about another type of purse… that of the female consumer – and potential future fan (if we bothered to speak to her).
First off, the financial firepower of women is simply undeniable. That should be obvious by now.
To put some numbers behind that assertion, reports suggest that women control over $31.8 trillion in worldwide spending. In many cases, women are the decision-making unit, driving 70-80% of all consumer purchasing through both direct buying power and influence.
Such figures underscore the pivotal role that this half of the population play in the economy – and this was brought into extreme focus by the Barbie Movie last summer and by the continued and absolutely staggering dominance of Taylor Swift.
For some within the sports industry, this has been obvious for a while. On the whole though, the industry is still waking up to this truth. Despite all the thought-pieces, I’d argue we’re only just starting to see it valued more explicitly by rightsholders and by sports industry-adjacent brands.
Zwift, the innovative virtual cycling platform, is one such change-maker, committing itself to being the long-term title partner of the Women’s Tour de France (Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift) in 2021.
“When women see Zwift, we want them to see a company that champions women, that this is a platform that really cares about women in our content and experiences, but also the way that we spend our money,” says Kate Veronneau, Zwift's Director of Women's Strategy.
Speaking recently on the Sports Pundit Podcast, she explained that “by getting behind the first women's Tour de France, it just shows a massive commitment to growing the sport, to providing the visibility that's going to inspire the next generation of cyclists.”
While this opportunity to both sponsor and actively shape the most famous cycling event in the world came about somewhat fortuitously, it was also the result of Zwift’s steadfast commitment to parity.
Having approached Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), the organisers of Le Tour, during Covid about virtually hosting the race, Zwift could have simply offered to put on the existing men’s event and left it at that.
However, having always previously offered parity across events hosted on their platform, Zwift pushed the ASO to also host a virtual women’s event at the same time.
Once the world re-opened, Zwift then agreed a 5-year-deal to be the title partner of said women’s tour, settling any concerns from the ASO about the immediate commercial viability in the process.
The idea of a relatively new tech brand confronting one of the most traditional and storied sports properties in the world and asking it to change and adapt is brave. Many cycling brands, desperate to work with the Tour de France, would simply have fell in line with the status quo as to not squander or lose the opportunity. But for Zwift, disruption was ingrained deep into the company’s culture.
The result is a new sports property which is boosting cycling’s appeal to women all over the world. Women with money to spend.
As Veronneau explained, when it came to throwing both a men’s and women’s event, they saw no other choice.
“We have a virtual world. We have no excuse to not do things the way that we want to see them done and to build a world of cycling that we want to be a part of… [One] that offers equal opportunity, that can be more inclusive and accessible than a lot of the previous cycling spaces.”
“Because we are a virtual world, we can easily host two events and have the same distance, the same prize purse. There was no reason not to, honestly. We also just saw a massive opportunity to do things differently,” she explained. “What has driven our company since the beginning is thinking differently around the sport.”
Thanks to these sorts of efforts, the dialogue around women’s participation and involvement in sport is changing for the better. The industry is beginning to unlock the proverbial purse, but there is still some way to go...
This is true even for Zwift. Women still only constitute around 20 percent of their user base – a reflection of broader participation trends within cycling.
There is still a massive opportunity for yet more initiatives to welcome women into sport and to create environments where they feel supported and included. We’re still right at the start of this journey.
It’s not just about achieving gender equality; it's also about recognising and leveraging a powerful market force.
As such, it would be smart for everyone to join Zwift for the ride.
Not yet a subscriber? Join over 2,000 sports business leaders, from Formula 1 to the Premier League, that read Sports Pundit every week to get impactful industry insights.
THE PODCAST
Want to hear more from my conversation with Kate?
We discuss the launch of the Zwift Academy, what community looks like on Zwift, the (positive?) impact of COVID, The launch of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, making triathlon a stadium sport, an opportunity for the Apple Vision Pro? and much, much more.
Listen to the full podcast via the link below - and I’d love to hear what you think!👇
FURTHER READING
P.S. Do you want to hear EVEN more about the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift?
Avid cyclist and Los Angeles SPSC host Kelsey Smith previously asked if the women’s Tour had long-term staying power on a global scale. She has kindly granted Sports Pundit exclusive access to her writing… Here’s what she concluded 👇
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JOB BOARD
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