As it prepares to kick off the regular season tonight (March 14), the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) finds itself on a hot streak. The league last year broke records for attendance, surpassing 2 million fans for the first time, and viewership, which saw a five-fold gain from the 2023 season.
Beyond those metrics, NWSL Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer Julie Haddon is most proud of the league’s growth on social media, where followers have grown 102% year-over-year, with engagement up 56% and club social account followings up 52%.
“A lot of that is because we have young fans and young players, and finding non-traditional ways to build audience is something that a lot of our clubs, as well as the players themselves, are very skilled at,” Haddon said.
Building that audience falls under Haddon’s purview at the NWSL, where the executive began in 2022 after five years at the NFL and stints at tech companies including eBay, Twitter and PayPal. She most recently oversaw the release of the league’s 2025 brand campaign, “Just Watch,” which will run across digital, social and broadcast platforms, along with out-of-home billboards in Times Square. The effort centers on a lively, gameplay-focused 60-second spot set voiced by musical artist Latashá, who has broken down barriers in similar ways to what the NWSL has worked to do.
“The opportunity here is to build a commercial muscle to match the level of sporting muscle that the game already has,” Haddon said.
Building partnerships
While founded in 2012, the last few years have seen increased attention and investment around the NWSL, in line with similar gains by other women’s sports and leagues. The league in 2023 signed four-year deals with CBS Sports, ESPN, Prime Video and Scripps Sports for domestic media distribution.
The expanded media presence has raised the profile not only of its games, but of partners like mom-founded pediatric nutrition company Bobbie, E.l.f Cosmetics and Unwell Hydration. The latter, the beverage brand founded by “Call Her Daddy” podcaster and former Division I soccer player Alex Cooper, will launch a fan community called Unwell FC that Haddon described as “the ultimate fan club.”
For its part, E.l.f. Cosmetics made a three-season deal with the NWSL earlier this month, becoming the league’s official makeup and skin care partner and making plans for a “Glow for Glory” contest that revolves around open tryouts in key NWSL markets. The partnership follows other moves by E.l.f. around women’s equality in sports and business.
“The new partners that have recently joined speak volumes to the commitments to disruption, innovation and breaking barriers that we've seen around this league,” Haddon said.
Media — social and otherwise
Apart from brand partnerships, the NWSL has been disruptive in the ways that it uses technology to share content and engage viewers. The league in 2020 experimented with streaming games on Twitch, has a deal with Google Pixel around live-content capture and just announced a league-focused experience with Roku. But it is a Gen Z-centered content partnership with media company Overtime that speaks to how sports content and social media are becoming a potent pairing for marketers.
“This is Overtime’s first-ever partnership with a professional women's league, and we've been thrilled with the level of integration that they’ve provided,” Haddon said.
Overtime, which has more than 100 million followers across social media, broadcasts game highlights and behind-the-scenes footage that isn’t a part of traditional television broadcasts, giving the league’s clubs and athletes more reach and giving fans something they can’t find elsewhere — a key part of the NWSL’s promise as a rising league.
“I feel really good about how our our league is a very social-first league,” Haddon said. “We do things in a non-traditional way, because we very much have a challenger brand DNA.”
