Delta Air Lines knows that women’s sports is where it is at.
The airline is the first official airline of both the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) to rewrite the script on what brand partnerships can look like.
“We’ve got a 100-year-old brand, and between both WNBA and NWSL, in many ways, these leagues are very much still in their infancy,” said Alicia Tillman, chief marketing officer of Delta Air Lines. “Helping to put 100 years of really significant brand equity is only going to help lift their brand awareness. There’s such a tremendous amount of shared values that exists between both leagues, WNBA and NWSL. Our commitment to lifting people up and getting them to where they want to go has always been a very core part of Delta’s values.”
Delta is working with these growing leagues to produce unique content that showcases the journey of the athletes, while at the same time highlighting Delta’s commitment to elevated travel experience for the leagues.
In both cases, Delta hopes to be the storytelling vehicle to use its brand equity to raise awareness and connections between the players and the fans. For instance, Delta recently teamed with WNBA on Power Forward, which highlights three icons of women’s basketball – Nneka Ogwumike, Breanna Stewart and Cameron Brink. The three-part series highlights their journey to success.
“Oftentimes when it comes to celebrities or professionals, you really only get the exposure to them when they’re at the top. And that’s the most unrelatable part of their journey,” explains Tillman.
“Where the relatability really occurs between people is when you start to unpack their journey, and what they went through in their life, and what did sacrifice look like, and what was their family life like,” she continued. “We knew that if we were able to tell those stories, it would create a deeper connection with fans to create that necessary followership that’s needed to boost their awareness of the league overall.”
The content-driven approach is also good business. Women’s sports are seeing tremendous growth in revenue, viewership and fan engagement. Revenues are expected to reach $2.35 billion globally this year, with commercial revenue surpassing $1 billion for the first time in 2024, according to Deloitte. Delta recently found that 42% of WNBA fans have taken at least one round trip flight in the last 12 months.
“That’s a pretty significant percentage. If we think about that, nearly half of the traveling population are fans of the WNBA,” she explained. “Consumers today are very interested in brands that have multiple touch points in their lives. Someone may fly Delta primarily for work and we know that if they’re spending their leisure time at a WNBA game, seeing Delta in that manner helps to drive even stronger loyalty and brand attachment over time.”
Tillman said that to build loyalty, it is important to connect with customers across different facets of their life. “They may be a business professional during the week and during their free time they are consumers of things like sports and arts and music and so many other things that life offers,” she said.
Producing content around women’s sports gives the airline brand the in to show support for a growing passion point and showcase their brand at the same time.
