EMMA LAX is the founder of We Are Disrupt, a marketing agency specializing in women's sport. Throughout her career, she has sought to change the landscape of sport for other women. Following the 2012 Olympics held in her native U.K., she became determined to shift the balance of power. In '13, she collaborated with London Sport on projects such as "Summer of Sweat." The campaign showcased the diversity of opportunities in sport participation such as paddleboarding, yoga, parkour and trampolining. Armed with this experience, she assumed a role within Women In Sport, consulting with governing bodies such as the FA, Rugby Football Union and British Cycling on how to drive participation and market sports to a female fanbase. Following a stint with CSM Sport & Entertainment as head of women's sport & lifestyle, Lax founded We Are Disrupt earlier this year. We Are Disrupt aims to empower women and girls through sport. Lax spoke to SBD Global about how her new venture can level the playing field between men's and women's sport, why marketing sport to women is beneficial to brands and her long-term vision for equality in sport.
On her inspiration to enter the women’s sports marketing field ...
Emma Lax: London 2012 was a real catalyst for me. During London 2012, there was lots of stuff in the media about how women's sport only got 5% of media coverage, 0.4% of commercial investment. ... From a personal perspective, sport had played such a transformative role in my life, so I thought that it's not really fair that women and girls won't get access to the same opportunities that I did, to experience all of the different benefits of sport, both as participants and fans. I thought, "Alright, that is a thing that I'm going to change."
On how she endeavored to bring about change ...
Lax: The thing that I thought I could personally change was media coverage. ... While I was at Women In Sport, I got this massive opportunity to spend a couple of years really understanding the women's sport ecosystem and how it all fit together. I realized that actually, for me, my belief is that if you can drive commercial investment, it will help professionalize the game, it will help drive media coverage, it will help improve the fan experience, it will do all of these things, which will then professionalize women’s sport and impact all of the other pieces of the puzzle.
On the importance of marketing to women ...
Lax: From a commercial perspective, women are the majority of purchasing decision makers. Therefore, you should be targeting through something which is a passion point for them. I think it's a misconception that women don't consume sport. ... At a very simple level, women are participants and fans, so why wouldn't you use sport as a way to engage with them through something that they're passionate about?
On the differences between marketing to men and women ...
Lax: There's lots of nuances between how men want to consume content and how women [do] and there's obviously lots of overlap with that. But if you look at some of the media analysis, the content that men tend to engage with tends to be more hero and villain, more black and white, whereas women are more likely to engage content where there's more context and narrative around it -- so the journey to the podium or some of the bigger-picture stuff.
On challenges her agency faces ...
Lax: The commercial women's market is really immature, so it's all new -- it's all innovation, it's all new commercial models, it's all new opportunities for activation -- so there's a huge amount of opportunity and clean air in that, but what you need is brands that are going to be brave and bold and are going to join women's sports sponsorship at the beginning of this wave rather than waiting until it's already been proven in terms of how it can support brands.
On her goals ...
Lax: It's about empowering women and girls through sport. It's about creating more opportunities for women and girls like me to experience all of the benefits of sport. ... In terms of what I'd like the sports business landscape to look like, the idea would be every agency sees women's sport as as big of a commercial opportunity as men. So, you have a head of women's cricket and a head of men's cricket. You have a head of men's rugby and a head of women's, or it's integrated -- you've got head of rugby and they view women's rugby as having the same weight as men's. That would be the ambition.
On when to expect a level playing field ...
Lax: If you were to take men's football out of the equation, I can imagine it within my lifetime. But football, just because it makes up the majority of sponsorship deals, it's quite hard to see that being balanced in the next 20 years. But the sports industry as a whole is relatively new so it changes so rapidly and so quickly that everything is up for grabs. ... If you'd said to me 10 years ago, one of the biggest commercial opportunities within sports would be esports or egaming, I would have thought that would probably be ridiculous. So, I think it is the beginning of a wave and I think it is a really exciting time for women's sport. It's got the potential to change the landscape dramatically over the next 10 years.
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