How One Media Buyer Quietly Snatched Up 35% of Commercials in Iowa-LSU Women’s Basketball Game

variety.com:

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor The outsized audience for this week’s highly-watched women’s NCAA basketball match between Iowa and LSU may also have noticed that many of the commercials seen during the game belonged to AT&T, State Farm, Home Depot and Gatorade.

There was good reason. Optimum Sports, a media agency that specializes in sports properties and is part of ad giant Omnicom Group, had quietly snatched up 35% of advertising time during the game, a record setter in terms of viewership for women’s sports and the latest example of how interest in female players and the leagues in which they play is booming.

The match-up drew 12.3 million viewers — more than any individual game from the 2023 World Series or 2023 Stanley Cup Finals. “We placed a huge bet, and it came up for our clients,” says Jeremy Carey, chief investment officer at Optimum Sports, in an interview.

The agency’s spend around the Women’s NCAA basketball tournament — televised by Disney’s ESPN, not the joint venture between Paramount Global and Warner Bros.