ESPN Aggressively Sells Its Female Audience To Advertisers, Starting With CFP Coverage

ESPN, equipped with new data about its viewers, is more "aggressively selling its female audience" to advertisers, beginning with this year's CFP, according to Alexandra Bruell of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. Northwestern Mutual CMO Aditi Gokhale said that a "new pitch and compelling data from ESPN helped the company 'come up with different ad spots' targeting women and families." The campaign, dubbed "Spend Your Life Living," includes an ad that "follows the story of a female architect who decided to leave her current job to start her own business, with support from Northwestern Mutual." Gokhale said that it is the company’s "first TV ad with a storyline focused solely on a woman and her career." Warner Bros., also a longtime ESPN advertiser, used the CFP to "promote its family-friendly film 'Paddington 2.'" ESPN’s sales pitch is an "extension of its new marketing strategy to broaden its audience, with the aim of giving a boost to ratings and subscribers." This comes as ESPN "grapples with a shift from traditional TV viewing to online consumption, leading to cord-cutting and subscriber losses." Optimum Sports Managing Dir Jeremy Carey said that advertisers targeting women "aren’t necessary flocking to sports because they think more women are watching sports," but because it is "getting more difficult to reach women through general primetime programming." The shift in ESPN’s sales strategy is also shown in "how the network is promoting the playoff." The net teamed up with ABC's "The Bachelor" to "create a video in which college football mascots, instead of women, compete for the heart of the bachelor during the show’s Rose Ceremony." The net also "changed up its media mix to include ad buys reaching female and casual fans, such as The Skimm, YuMe and Spotify" (WSJ.com, 1/8).