How cell phone companies can save women’s professional sports

So I’ve been brainstorming for the past 24 hours about ways women’s professional sports can generate popularity (see yesterday’s posts for details about my call with @WNBA).

One of my ideas (which came out of that brainstorm) is that cell phone companies can work with the WNBA, WPS, the LPGA (and others) to generate major in attention in marketing their products and engaging the athletes directly with their audiences (with the help of Twitter and Facebook mobile apps, of course).

Take a look at this article published last year titled, For teens, the future is mobile. Here’s what they found:

Marketers convened  to figure out how best to reach teens on the Internet. The answer: It’s all about the mobile phone. Advertisers are clamoring to reach teens in digital environments because that’s where they’re spending much of their time–either online, with cell phones or playing video games. What’s more, teens wield an estimated $200 billion annually in discretionary spending.

Now, take a look at this quote from America.gov:

Today, almost 3 million girls participate in high school sports in the United States (roughly one in three).

There has to be a way to market to this HUGE audience of female athletes through mobile technology, promoting positive role models at the same time. Actually doing it is the responsibility of professional female sports institutions.

So why not directly enagage the professional athlets with these audineces both in person and through mobile applications such as Twitter and Facebook?

Shaq’s doing it, actively promoting his T-Mobile G1 phone as he Tweets from the road.

All in one shot, he’s engaging directly with fans, bringing a sense of transparency to his image, advertising T-Mobile G1 phone and promoting online communication. He does this conistently, which brings people back to his page.

From what I understand, female professional athletes have incredible stories to tell (I would go as far as saying that they probably have more interesting things to say on a regular basis than Shaq).

So approaching a mobile company and asking them for one phone (or four or five) isn’t exactly going to break the bank.

The athletes are instructed to text message Twitter a few times a day. It’s critical that the athletes are not restricted by a bunch of “rules.” (they won’t be themselves).

The athletes post action pictures (maybe even tweet from the bench?) and promote their use of mobile phones on Facebook and in other media outlets. They can even promote apparel by sponsors (opportunities are endless here).

Meanwhile, professional sports organizations continue  to build online allies (mommy bloggers, sports bloggers, feminist bloggers, coaches, teachers). They form relationships with them,  and take extra steps to generate attention within those audineces by consistently provide value and ask for feedback.

They create Facebook apps, give away tickets and prizes to people who become “fans” of the page within a certain time period. They then ENGAGE people through that medium, consistently providing valueable information and opportunities on that page.

They go to in-person events (e.g., youth sports championships and big tournaments), bring professional athletes and engage directly with the youth (regularly). They tweet about it. They post info on Facebook about it.

Slowly but surely, their market/audience starts to emerge, because it’s new, fun and exciting. And the audience is actually a part of the process. Suddently, the sports organizations realize they’ve built consumer evangelists – creative consumers contributing to, or even owning the advertising campaigns, both authorized and unauthorized.

The teens who were engaged now want to be online so they can follow the athletes. They want the same phone. But most importantly, they now have a role mode.

This is probably overly simplified, but I’d love to see it happen. It will take a lot of work on the part of sports organizations, but I think it would have a nice ROI, specially in this economic environment.

If more organizations engage the way the WNBA has, I think the future of women’s professional sports looks bright.