#StartupStory: Women's sports, how this sets Sports Mvt apart

"The exclusive focus on women sports is for the pillar of entertainment. The services provided by the other pillar are not limited to a specific gender. This allows us to provide our services to organisations involved with men's sports as well as male athletes," explains founder Bhekani Bright Ndebele.

The love and passion for women’s sports. It is a space that is highly neglected and overlooked. So when we launched, we wanted the agency to have an exclusive focus on women’s sports because we believe we have what it takes to contribute to the brand development and campaigns related to women’s sports.

Bhekani Bright Ndebele, founder of Sports Mvt.

Here, Ndebele tells us more about their focus on women’s sports and why it sets them apart from other digital agencies...

How did you come up with the name?

Hahaha, this is quite interesting. The name came up at the time when Fees Must Fall was at its peak in 2016 and 2017. A number of students referred to it as a movement. Due to the fact that the aim was to make a move in the sport industry and be the change or face for women’s sports, I founded a combination of Sports and Movement, so we founded Sports Movement the agency, but in short, we call it Sports Mvt.

What are some of the offerings?

Our offerings are women sports content creation, social media solutions, personal brand development tailored for athletes and advisory services.

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

#SportsMvt | #ItsTimeItsNow ▫️ We Are �� Africa. We celebrate: ▫️ �� Family ��‍♀️ Culture �� Unity �� Empowerment

A post shared by Sports Mvt (@sportsmvt) on Jun 10, 2020 at 5:18am PDT

The first barrier that comes to mind would be the level of experience in the sports industry. I and my co-founder, Thabo Sengwayo, who serves as a strategic director, have little experience in the business of sport. This has also made it hard to secure new clients since we do not yet have a long service track record or client reference. However, this is faced by most startup companies in all industries, so only time can break this barrier.

How has Covid-19 influence the way you do business and how have you dealt with the challenges?

Covid-19 has not had much of an influence as we are a digital agency and 90% of our work is digital-driven. However, the challenge is keeping an ongoing conversation with potential clients as we prefer face-to-face interaction over online communication.

Women's sport represents untapped sponsorship opportunity in SA

Nielsen  6 Feb 2020

What sets you apart from other digital agencies?

One thing that stands out about us is our exclusive focus on women’s sports. This allows us to become experts when it comes to anything related to women's sports. We have had several people and companies come to us for women sports content instead of going to the respective federations, which we found interesting and a confirmation that we are on the right track to achieving our goal of being known as the go-to agency for women sports content.

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

Maties Netball captain, Nicholé Taljaard, praises her as a player who seems to be a very hard worker on and off-court. ▫️ Last year July, she made her Netball World Cup debut. ▫️ A few months later, she signed with the Team Bath of Vitality Superleague in the UK. ▫️ �� “My goal has always been to play abroad and challenge myself. I always strive to better myself and give my best on and off-court. Hopefully, my skills and abilities will be of great contribution to Team Bath in 2020.” ▫️ To date, she holds individual awards such as: ▫️ �� Player of the Tournament - Brutal Fruit Netball Premier League (BFNPL) �� Centre court Player of the Tournament - SPAR National Netball Championships �� Player of the Series - BFNPL ▫️ HAPPY BIRTHDAY, University of Free State - Sportswoman of the Year 2019 and SPAR Proteas international, Khanyisa Chawane!!

A post shared by Sports Mvt (@sportsmvt) on Jan 14, 2020 at 10:34am PST

From a personal perspective, I am aiming to obtain an International Basketball Federation (FIBA) agent licence, produce women’s sports TV shows, and from an agency perspective, the vision is to see ourselves as a multi-award winning digital sports media and entertainment agency. The awards we aim for are the Loeries Awards, Cannes Lions Awards, and Sports Industry Awards. This would be influenced by the work done with different brands in the women’s sports space, sports federations, and most importantly, working with athletes for their personal brand development.