Rising Tide 🦈 July 22, 2025

🤿 Below the Surface

Here's what's on deck this week:

• Signal Strength: The Confidence Cycle — How Invisalign builds sports partnerships that win

• In the Current: All eyes on Indy for WNBA All-Star and a new women’s soccer record gets set

• Blue Zone: Deep Blue’s WNBA All-Star lineup

• Wave Watch: How do you position women’s sports initiatives within your org?

⚡️ Signal Strength  

The Confidence Cycle: How Invisalign Builds Sports Partnerships That Win

For companies targeting female consumers—whether they're buying for themselves, their children, or influencing household decisions—women's sports offers direct access to an engaged and growing audience.

Invisalign has mastered this approach through partnerships with athletes that are all genuine product users whose authentic stories resonate with their diverse customer base — like they did with their Invisalign Confidence Clinic at the NFL Super Bowl LIX with Diana Flores, Mexico's flag football team captain.

By the numbers:

• Women viewership on ESPN platforms for the 2024 season was up 165% compared to the previous year, with ESPN's unique viewership rising 157% in 2024, introducing millions of new fans to the game

• Female athletes generate 24% higher engagement rates on sponsored social content compared to male counterparts

• 57% of consumers trust endorsements from female athletes compared to 50% for their male counterparts, proving that women sports stars deliver an authenticity premium.

What they're saying: "There's a misconception that women's sports doesn't return business results," says Kamal Bhandal, SVP of Global Brand and Consumer Marketing at Invisalign. "For any brand whose buyer is a woman, women's sports is an obvious place to reach her."

How it works: Invisalign has developed a five-part "Confidence Cycle" framework for building authentic sports partnerships that drive business results:

1. Find Natural Champions: Identify athletes already connected to your brand

2. Tell Real Stories: Showcase authentic journeys that resonate with audiences

3. Create Community Moments: Develop experiences that connect athletes with customers

4. Measure What Matters: Track consideration and emotional connection, not just visibility

5. Evolve with Feedback: Let customer insights guide partnership evolution

The bottom line: Repositioning women's sports from peripheral initiative to core marketing strategy transforms partnerships into powerful business drivers that reshape consumer connections and deliver measurable ROI.

Don’t leave ROI on the table—read the full “Confidence Cycle” playbook now

📰 In the Current  

We monitor the current so you can ride the wave. Here's what you need to know this week:

• Amidst CBA negotiations, WNBA players made their voices heard - and seen - with “Pay Us What You Owe Us” t-shirts at All-Star game

• The Stud Budz - Courtney Williams and Natisha Hiedeman - dominated the content game during WNBA All-Star weekend

• Canada’s Olivia Smith sets new transfer fee record with $1.3M Arsenal signing

🦈 Blue Zone  

Deep Blue Sports + Entertainment kicked off WNBA All-Star weekend alongside Ensemble and iHeart Women’s Sports, with a slate of though provoking panels around innovation in women’s sports business in partnership with DoorDash, EssentiallySports, Viarae Prosecco, NEXT IS NOW, and Sei Less.

Our daytime programming featured the launch of iHeart Women’s Sports latest podcast with UConn superstar and NCAA Champion, Azzi Fudd - aptly titled: Fudd Around and Find Out. Sarah Spain, Emmy award winning journalist and host of Good Game with Sarah Spain, sat down with Fudd for a live taping to talk about her basketball career, her moves off the court, and what fans can expect from her new show.

Indiana Fever star and 2025 Commissioner’s Cup MVP Natasha Howard joined EssentiallySports’ Head of Advertising, Josh Howell, to talk about her role as Special Athlete Correspondent during All-Star weekend with the content platform as part of their “It’s Her Moment” campaign, which will focus on growing storytelling around women’s basketball.

Jam Sessions also featured a conversation with the teams behind NEXT IS NOW: The Fastest Six Weeks in Sports. The conversation included insights from creative development to marketing to sponsorship with Religion of Sports’ Chelsea Marotta, Ensemble’s Ian Shafer, and DoorDash’s Hank Kauffman, moderated by Deep Blue’s Laura Correnti. The Fastest Six Weeks in Sports debuts on September 12th on Roku.

The afternoon also featured a live taping of the Levels to This podcast hosted by WNBA icon Sheryl Swoopes and WNBA reporter Terrika Foster-Brasby with special guest Esther Wallace, Founder and Creative Director of Playa Society, on what inspired her to launch the merchandise brand that’s become a WNBA staple. WNBA merchandise sales are up an astounding 600% YoY from 2024.

🌊 Wave Watch