Women’s sports are smashing record levels of TV viewership ratings — and the 2024 WNBA season was no exception. The league capped a breakout campaign with a thrilling WNBA Finals that boasted the league’s highest Finals viewership in 25 years.
But while industry observers are well aware of the WNBA’s growing ratings, media buyers might not know that the WNBA is also posting strong growth when it comes to advertising effectiveness, as measured by an ad’s likelihood of moving the average viewer to search for the advertiser online or visit its website. In fact, ads during this year’s playoffs were 24% more effective than the average spot during primetime broadcast and cable programming.
Let’s take a look at the numbers and break down how the WNBA is fast becoming one of TV advertising’s MVP.
Powered by rookie sensation Caitlin Clark and a host of veteran stars, the WNBA’s ad effectiveness continued its long-term growth trend in 2024. Ads were 12% more effective during this year’s playoffs than last year’s, with year-over-year growth of 7% and 2% for the regular season and WNBA Finals, respectively.
When combined with the league’s ratings growth, this uptick in ad effectiveness creates a powerful impact for advertisers. We found that brands earned twice as much total impact from an ad during this year’s Finals as they did during last year’s event.
The league’s growing star power paid off for advertisers in droves. When airing during WNBA games, TV ads that featured the league’s players were nearly twice as effective at driving consumer engagement as those that did not. Call it a spinoff of the “Caitlin Clark effect” — or maybe just the WNBA effect.
WNBA audiences were also responsive to ads featuring the league’s male counterparts. TV ads featuring NBA players that aired during the WNBA 2024 regular season were 93% more effective than those without NBA players.
Successful implementations of this strategy include CarMax’s ads featuring current and former WNBA stars Sue Bird, Chiney Ogwumike, Sabrina Ionescu, and A'ja Wilson, as well as New Balance’s ads that featured Los Angeles Sparks rookie Cameron Brink alongside a diverse cast of superstar athletes like English soccer dynamo Bukayo Saka and recent World Series champion Shohei Ohtani.
For media buyers looking to make an impact, you can’t do much better than the WNBA, which delivers outsized ad engagement across a huge — and growing — audience.
For more insights into women’s sports, check out EDO’s Women’s Sports TV Outcomes Report, which explores ad performance for WNBA and NCAA Basketball games alongside other events like World Cup soccer.