What that did for us was have us ask another very simple question: Where are they? Where are the underserved communities who haven’t been given a voice, that we can use our platform to give a voice? When you think about what we’re doing with the iHeart Women’s Sports Audio Network as a founding sponsor, it’s another moment to create pathways for growth.
Are you starting to see that growth?
That was the important part for us with the iHeart Women’s Sports Audio Network, because we’re always trying to look under the tip of the iceberg at what needs to be true. What needs to be true to get the 9% of all sports sponsorship dollars [in 2023, according to Sports Innovation Lab], to get to [20% in 2025]? What needs to be true to get from the 15% of coverage to equal parts over time?
What I love about Billie Jean King is she’s always anchoring me in progress with a capital P, because my first inclination is always to be pissed off. “What do you mean less than 10% of all sponsorship dollars go to women?” And she’ll look at me and say, “Kory, when I was coming up, it was less than 1%.” Or when I say, “What do you mean 15%?” She’s like, “Kory, that number used to be 3% or 4%.” What it makes you recognize is that if we can all contribute to incremental progress—more women getting sponsorship dollars, more networks covering women’s sports—then the change will happen way faster than anybody trying to do it on their own.
I hope more brands wake up and get in here. I don’t see it as competition. I see it as progress.
Where has e.l.f. found opportunity in racing, football, and other sports in which women still comprise 40% to 50% of the fanbase?
Let’s use the Super Bowl: The same math that told other people not to go was the math that told us to go.
It’s how you frame the issue. Why is e.l.f. in a Super Bowl commercial? Well, it’s the largest spectator sport, more than 100 million people watch it, and more than 80% of them say they’re there for the commercials. Who’s the audience: 50% of them are women. OK, now show me the commercials: Less than 1% of them have anything to do with something that a woman is interested in.
We followed that logic and said there is a large group of people who are underserved at this exceptional moment. We’re going to show up for them. And not only we’re going to show up for them, we’re going to show up in a bold and unapologetic way with Jennifer Coolidge, a 60-plus-year-old-woman.
