Advertising veteran Laura Correnti announced the creation of the Deep Blue agency for women's sports
The GIST: On Monday, advertising veteran Laura Correnti announced the creation of Deep Blue, a new advertising firm with the goal of becoming the top agency for women’s sports. The news follows a record year for virtually every women’s sports league as the industry looks to generate $1B in revenue during 2024. There’s definitely something in the water.
The team: Giant Spoon — the creative ad agency where Correnti is already a partner — helped kickstart Deep Blue this month. Several sports industry veterans are on the new agency’s advisory council, including former athletes Melissa Ortiz, Rennae Stubbs, and Shasta Averyhardt, with more names set to join the crew soon.
- Deep Blue will unite advertising, media, and marketing experts with active and retired pro athletes to give the agency an edge in a market dominated by the likes of CAA, Wasserman, and WME Sports.
The strategy: Deep Blue is entering a competitive sports agency space worth billions, so in order to stand out, it’s taking a page from successful women’s leagues by utilizing input from current and former athletes. Another cue from contemporary trends is its analytical focus on media investment, partnership, and asset valuation. Numbers don’t lie.
- This April, Correnti also launched the first-ever Business of Women’s Sports Summit, which sought to close a major advertising gap — women athletes only receive 5% of sponsorship dollars and coverage
- Presenting sponsor Ally has already done some work in this space, but as an agency, Deep Blue hopes to further facilitate representation through an acute understanding of women’s leagues.
Zooming out: With women athletes setting plenty of records on and off the field, media companies, sponsors, agencies, and anyone else looking to capitalize on that popularity are racing to enter a market that’s filling up fast. When women’s sports become a billion-dollar industry, outfits like Deep Blue will be ready to get a bite of the action.
