The Group Chat: Dubs in the chat

Today we’re chatting about athlete authenticity, a driving force behind the rapid rise of women’s sports. The game grows when fans fall in love with star athletes on and off the court, and no league has harnessed that power like groundbreaking women’s basketball league Unrivaled.

• Unrivaled’s game-changing strategy goes way beyond the innovative 3v3 format — the league is all in on cultivating a cool-girl culture for players and fans.

• As the playoffs roll on and we await Wednesday’s championship game, we’re deep diving on how Unrivaled defied expectations for women in sports and built something truly one-of-a-kind. Let’s ball.

🔥 Unrivaled’s media strategy is twofold: Let players be themselves, then introduce them to everyone. The league creates space for players to show up as holistic people, at once fiercely competitive elite athletes and stylish, funny women who like clothes, dancing, and each other.

• Example A? The emphasis on fashion and beauty baked into every inch of the league’s physical and digital environment, from their expansive Sephora partnership to the built-in room for tunnel ’fits to shine. Unrivaled is for the girls, no doubt about it.

Leaning into the more girly-pop aspects of some players’ personalities is especially revolutionary. Women athletes are often perceived as un-feminine, and sports media can feed that perception as a way of legitimizing their play. The thinking goes, men’s sports are the model, so in order to be taken seriously, the women should be more like men. Obligatory eye roll.

Of course, Unrivaled exposes that concept as totally absurd. Obviously, women can perfect their contour in the Glam Room one minute, then trash-talk on the court in the next. Like their fans, these hoopers contain multitudes, and embracing their duality helps them feel seen while drawing in new, nontraditional fans. Coi Leray said it best: Girls is players, too.

With player authenticity fostered, the next step is to show it off to the world via the league’s sprawling social media footprint. Unrivaled content dominates feeds, and much of their content centers off-court: Think practice shenanigans, friendly competition, and TikTok dances.

• The league has its own vibrant social media accounts on several platforms, as do each of the individual teams, and style varies widely. The on-the-ground, courtside feel on TikTok is different from the more traditional Instagram approach or YouTube’s behind-the-scenes content, while Laces’ cinematic vibe differs from Phantom’s more chaotic feel.

• But consistent across all accounts and platforms, the content is player-led, intimate, and often meme-able. The priority is athletes’ and teams’ personalities shining through, leaving fans feeling like they have a backstage pass at Miami’s Sephora Arena.
  

Surveys show that women’s sports fans — especially young ones — are super into behind-the-scenes and lifestyle content from their favorite athletes. They’re most engaged when they feel like they really know players, and players benefit from feeling fully known in return.

• It’s a key part of Unrivaled’s broader ethos regarding player relations, which extends the legacy of women’s basketball pushing progress forward again and again, from the WNBA to the NCAA and beyond.

• Athletes are at the center of everything Unrivaled does and are always celebrated — see Rose star Angel Reese’s multilayered midseason rollout — and that investment pays dividends in the athlete-driven fan environment. Dubs in the chat.