• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, March 12, 2025

TV and media investment in ad spending for women’s sports more than doubled in 2024 (139%) versus the year before -- to $244 million, according to EDO Ad EnGage.

The media-measurement company says those live events boosted engagement for brands by 40% over the average prime-time commercial. In 2024, there were a total of 26 billion video impressions (up 131%) versus the year before, coming from 30,322 commercial airings (up 37%).

Major sports content featured the WNBA and NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament. Ads during the 2024 WNBA playoffs were 24% more effective that the average prime-time spot, with the NCAA Tournament up 18% over prime time.

Other women’s sports including tennis, gymnastics, lacrosse and volleyball also fell into the same engagement range -- 18% to 25% more effective than prime time.

Top brand advertising fell into a similar top category with that of men live TV sports programming -- automotive ($27.2 million), pharmaceutical ($26.2 million), internet/telecom ($25.6 million), financial services ($24.5 million), insurance ($20.6 million), food/beverage ($20.5 million) and retail ($14.9 million).

Some of the brands with the best business outcome engagement versus low media spend were KFC, Starbucks, and Polestar. Those with high media engagement driven by high media investment include Pizza Hut, Zillow, and Airbnb.

On the flip side, those with more limited results coming from their high media spend included Jeep, Wendy’s and Instacart.

The biggest-spending individual brands overall included State Farm ($5.5 million), AT&T ($5.5 million), Allstate ($4.5 million), Nike ($4.4 million) and Skyrizi ($3.9 million).