You already know her. She’s the one who posts dumps on her feed that she’s been curating in her head for two weeks. She knows which audio is about to trend before it hits your For You page. Her captions are so effortlessly cool that three other girls will borrow some version of them by the weekend. Everyone knows which hot‑shot brand she works for. The marketing girly.

She is not “just” on social media. She is the missing piece in how sports organizations in this country can actually grow.

Before going all‑in on golf, I worked in marketing — campaigns, brand positioning, partnerships, the works. When I crossed over into sports, I was surprised by how much of that world hadn’t made the trip with me. You can run a technically flawless tournament and produce incredible athletes. But if no one feels connected to it — if no one knows why it matters to them — you’re leaving an enormous amount of value on the table. Marketing was never the afterthought. It was what churned the butter. That truth doesn’t change just because you’ve swapped a product for a sport.

Instead of piling on more analogies and pretending I had all the answers, I called someone who actually lives this space. Enter Kavisha Di Pietro — Kav — a dear friend from my R&A Women in Golf Leadership Programme and Senior Marketing and Content Manager across the PGA of Australia and Golf Australia. She leads a team that shapes how golf is seen, consumed, and experienced in one of the most progressive sports markets in the world.

Kav’s path was a mix of timing, instinct, and figuring it out as she went — journalism first, then golf marketing during the Covid boom, driven by a desire to change the game’s perception.

And the results speak for themselves: in just a few years, Australia went from roughly 2.5 million adults playing golf to nearly 5 million. Participation doubled. People now feel like golf is for them. That’s not a coincidence. That’s intentional marketing at work.

“What people see in marketing is just the tip of the iceberg,” Kav says. Behind every campaign is strategic planning, audience segmentation, and brand positioning — all the unsexy work that never makes it to anyone’s feed, but determines whether anything works at all. Sports organizations that underestimate this aren’t just under‑resourced. They’re under‑imagined.

As for TikTok — Kav doesn’t post, but she’s addicted to social and considers it an edge: “There’s no better way to understand your audience than by knowing what’s happening on social media.” So no, women aren’t just out here doom‑scrolling. The best marketers balance cultural relevance with brand alignment.

There’s something else women bring to the room that’s less technical but just as powerful: the ability to make people feel something.

“Creating emotional connection is critical — because you’re asking people to give up their time and their money,” Kav says.

Sport thrives on that connection more than any other industry. The best organizations don’t just broadcast wins and losses — they make you care before the game even starts. And women, wired to see people and not just products, naturally lean into that.

This is not about being emotional or strategic. It’s about mastering both — and that intersection is exactly where the marketing girly lives. Sport is still male‑dominated, and Kav doesn’t sugarcoat it: “There is still an underlying misogyny in sport.” Her advice? “Back yourself.” If you don’t believe in what you bring to the table, no one else will. And once you’re in: “Help someone else. A rising tide lifts all boats.”

The Philippines is not short on marketing girlies — sharp, culturally fluent, emotionally intelligent, and deeply online in the best possible way. Sports organizations looking to grow their audience and build something lasting wouldn’t be hunting for a diamond in the rough. They’d be unlocking a talent pool that has been ready and waiting.

Hire the marketing girlies — not as an afterthought, not as the social media girl tucked into a corner of the office, but as the strategic force they actually are. Because if we’re serious about growing sports in this country, we don’t just need better players. Look beyond the scoreboard; we need better storytellers. These marketing girlies have been waiting for us to make the call.