Rihanna’s several billion dollars brand has invested in the WNBA – and it’s just the start
Fenty’s partnership is the last between an important brand and a professional women’s sports team. The other transactions include Covergirl as an official Sky and Sephora sponsor, in the new WNBA expansion team, the Golden State Valkyries. In 2020, Glossier became the first beauty partner of the WNBA and remains a key sponsor for the League today.
“I think it’s pretty cool now that the two parties meet in the middle,” said Isabelle Harrison, an attacker for the New York Liberty. “I finally found a perfect space to represent everything I am, not only to be an athlete, not only to be a drug addict. So, with this partnership with The Liberty, he really gathered my two worlds. ”
Harrison said she had noticed that her team and league comrades adopt new marketing opportunities. An example is the Chicago Sky Angel Reese striker, who signed with Melle Organics, a brand of hair care belonging to blacks. It is part of a new generation of sports influencers that mix performance, personality and personal style.
Meanwhile, brands like Essie and Pinterest make their first sporting sponsorships with the WNBA – not male leagues.
“There is something special in the unique character of redefining what sports sponsorship looks like women, in the name of sport, in the name of culture,” said Clarke.
She recalled the day the players came for their favorites and other media for the season, and saw how enthusiastic they were when they saw the makeup artists and the Fenty products for the shooting.
“There was a familiarity that made them feel special and made them feel seeing,” said Clarke.
The tunnel time has become a basic food in professional sports – WNBA, NFL and NBA players used their arrivals as a bridal to present their style. Harrison intends to prepare for his tunnel moment as part of his preparation for the match day.
She said women contacted it not on basketball, but on her skin care routine, and in turn, they became basketball fans.
“I’m not just a basketball player. I am a girl of beauty, I am a girl of health, I am a girl of a girl, “she said. “Partnerships like this with Fenty, it simply shows that you can invest and that you can show that we have value, and we will always make a return to our value. We have shown it. We have proven it every year. I hope that most of the other companies will catch up what Fenty does, because it is huge.”
