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he Ministry of Sport Women in Sport Summit 2021 took place on Friday, June 25 at USC Stadium, delivered in partnership with Sunshine Coast Lightning and Tourism and Events Queensland.

True North Research director, Chris Hobden, spoke at the Summit about the data supporting the growth of women’s sport.

Reflecting on the Women in Sport Summit, Hobden said the thoughts of the other speakers show the united nature of women’s sports in Australia.

“What I’ve enjoyed is the consistency of the thinking, and I think that’s important because you really need to be united in this space to make it work,” Hobden told Ministry of Sport.

“The talks I’ve listened to have been on very different topics, but very consistent in terms of their approach and what needs to be done,” he said.

Discussing his own speech and the importance of understanding key data such as True North Research’s emotional connection, Hobden said: “The key takeaway when it comes to sport is that emotion matters and the greater the number of emotionally connected fans you have, the better the outputs are for sporting organisations and sponsors as well.”

“It’s in everyone’s interest to really nail that and help grow emotion.

“It starts at grassroots and goes all the way through.

“It’s different depending on the outputs you’re trying to achieve, there’s no one size fits all advice.

“Look at the data and what it is telling you and make your decisions based on that.

“There’s so much information out there and if you make your decisions based on the data, you’re going to build emotional connection on the right brand pillars,” he said.

True North Research’s latest publication evaluated data from interviews with over 21,500 Australian and New Zealand respondents aged 16+ since October 2018 and revealed the sponsors of women’s teams outperform the sponsors of men’s teams in driving a strong return on investment.

Over the coming weeks, Ministry of Sport will be releasing video footage from the Women in Sport Summit 2021, including Chris Hobden’s speech on this latest report and data surrounding the growth and success of women’s sport.