Endorsements for women players: WPL has hit the ball out of the park, say analysts

Players of the Women's Premier League (WPL)

The Women’s Premier League (WPL) T20 cricket tournament has opened a world of opportunity for female cricketers, who are bagging more deals, at par with some male Indian cricketers in terms of size, and even attracting new categories.

The response time by brands for endorsement deals is now shorter, say sports marketers.

Deepti Sharma, who currently endorses Puma, ThumsUp and BatBall11, and Pooja Vastrakar are bagging deals of the same size as their male counterparts, barring the ones playing in the national team, said Bandana Chhetri, co-founder of sports talent management agency FairPlay Sports.

The company currently manages various women cricketers, including Disha Kasat of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), Sneha Deepthi of Delhi Capitals (DC), Kiran Navgire and Anjali Sarvani of UP Warriorz, along with Vastrakar from Mumbai Indians and Sharma from the UP Warriorz.

“We are getting more queries for Deepti and Pooja and even for Anjali, who will soon be signing a furniture brand for a yearly deal. So, in the coming months you will see a lot of deal signings (for women cricketers),” Chhetri added.

Many women sportspersons are getting endorsements but it is a pyramid with star players getting big brand deals, noted Ajimon Francis, managing director at Brand Finance India, a brand valuation and strategy consultancy.

Emerging cricketers in limelight

“It looks like emerging female cricketers are bagging brand deals too as there is plenty of opportunity at the regional level,” said Francis. “Newer categories of brands have come forward due to the WPL. Healthcare and cosmetics kept away from the IPL for the last 10-15 years due to the league being male-centric. But then we saw the likes of Lotus associating with the league. More women-centric brands are ready to lap up female cricketers.”

Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues and others are seeing an increase in their endorsement portfolio, as are emerging female cricketers, who are being noticed by brands after the WPL.

“Many players who were playing domestic cricket have suddenly got into the limelight and now brands ask about them individually. Earlier, brands would ask for star players and then ask for three more players. But now that they know, they will ask for Anjali, Disha... So, that is a good start. Because of WPL, emerging stars are getting more prominence,” said Chhetri.

She added that due to the WPL, many players bagged bat sponsorships, which was uncommon for female cricketers earlier. “(In the past) many names have come up for which I would have to explain to brands how much they have scored, the matches they have played… but now, I don’t have to as people can see them perform in the WPL. It has given a chance to so many athletes who only played domestic cricket earlier.”

Puma, which has Harmanpreet Kaur as its brand ambassador, is looking to add more to its roster. “If you look at our endorsements today we have a lot of women cricketers right from Richa Ghosh to Harmanpreet. We are engaging with a lot of women cricketers at the grassroots level who are kitted by us. We will be signing on more women cricketers,” said Abhishek Ganguly, Managing Director of Puma India and South East Asia.

A game changer

The endorsement game is changing for women cricketers, said Chhetri. “As many IPL (Indian Premier League) franchises like Mumbai Indians (MI) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are going global, there will be a wider appeal for WPL players. Like the MI team will be used for events … engagement beyond India … this could help even the Nikes of the world to associate with female cricketers,” said Francis. “The Dubai league will be starting and the Caribbean League will be after that, so it will be a year-long engagement. I am waiting for global brands to enter the endorsement game for female players.”

He added that the space occupied by women athletes has gone up in the last 6-7 months. “Earlier we had PV Sindhu but now you see multiple faces. The WPL has expanded the sponsorship space as women-centric brands that had not looked at the IPL are doing so now via the WPL. Both national and regional brands from FMCG to consumer durables will have wider options for brand ambassadors."

Social media and digital campaigns are also boosting the brand value of female cricketers.

“We are getting a lot of social media campaigns for WPL players. Most of the deals are for one post… one reel… but there are bigger campaigns as well, which are for a six-month period. During the WPL, we did get a lot of digital campaigns but players did not have time. So, we couldn’t execute them. But now we will be executing a couple of them,” said Chhetri.

She also pointed out that thanks to the success of the WPL, other sports federations will look at starting leagues for women players. The Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) recently said that it is planning to start a women’s version of the tournament.

“If there is one successful women’s league it will give a push to other leagues. This will help players decide whether they should take up a sport they are good at as a professional career. It will help build women athletes in every sport. But that will be a long cycle,” Chhetri said.