Neither Deep Blue Sports + Entertainment nor the Professional Women’s Hockey League existed before 2023, but each can help the other advance women’s sports for the foreseeable future.
Deep Blue just announced that it is adding the PWHL to its Deep Blue Exchange (DBX), which is dedicated to representing teams, leagues, and businesses in the commercial marketplace. Through DBX, Deep Blue wants to show sponsors and media partners the value of women’s sports brands and the players, stories, content, and ad space associated with them—with help from affiliated agency Giant Spoon.
“For us, it really is about awareness and positioning,” Giant Spoon partner and Deep Blue founder Laura Correnti said. “The PWHL has a very unique model in that it’s built with the players and is working hand-in-hand with the players, so that level of access for advertisers, we know, is paramount.”
For much of the past year, both Deep Blue and the PWHL have been making fans independently.
Correnti announced Deep Blue’s launch in December as the agency of record for women’s sports, and Deep Blue got to work quickly, bringing aboard Women’s National Basketball Association legend Sue Bird as a partner, teaming with Ally on a Super Bowl party, hosting a Women’s Sports House at Cannes Lions, and announcing the Women’s Sports Audio Network on iHeartMedia with sponsorship from Capital One and e.l.f. Beauty.
DBX is just the latest iteration of its work.
“What we have seen historically is that women’s sports are a brand play, not a sponsorship play, and that very much is a result of the fact that reach and efficiency models and going out and selling on rate cards are not consistent with where women’s sports are in their life cycle,” said Correnti. “We believe that by leading with strategy, leading with storytelling, focusing on experience, you start to really pull through the value of what these leagues and teams bring to the table for advertisers.”