Ally Financial’s Pioneering Commitment is Changing How Brands Consider Investments in Women’s Sports
Women’s sports have been soaring in popularity, yet they still receive less than ten percent of media coverage. Too often, media investments for women’s sports are only included as an add-on to men’s packages.
Ally Financial took a pioneering step in May 2022 by committing to spend equally on men’s and women’s sports within five years. Ally also scored a huge early win by working with CBS to move the National Women’s Soccer League’s championship game to its first-ever prime-time slot. This decision paid off. Viewership was up 71% over the previous year, and the game became the most-watched match in the league’s history.
Ally’s 50/50 Pledge is now changing how brands consider investing in women’s sports. We discussed this groundbreaking effort with Bridget Sponsky, Ally’s Executive Director of Brand and Sponsorship Marketing, and Mariana Dimitrova, Managing Partner & Executive Director at EssenceMediacom.
Bridget Sponsky, a 16-year Ally veteran, emphasizes that the company ethos stresses “deeds over words.”
Ally had to prove that their women’s sports sponsorship was more than a “passion project.” It also had to drive measurable business growth and make a cultural impact.
To reach new audiences and build cultural relevance, Ally activated its unique brand ethos to transform perceptions from that of a generic sponsor to a meaningful player in people’s lives, both in and out of the sporting arena. As a financial services company with the largest all-digital bank in the U.S., Ally’s mission has always been to improve the economic mobility of the people it serves. That commitment is found in everything from better interest rates and no overdraft fees to engaging financial education for those who need it most. It also means demonstrating to potential customers, like women’s sports fans, that the bank can be their financial ally.
EssenceMediacom’s Mariana Dimitrova emphasized how Ally focused on transforming media practices to give women’s sports a bigger platform.
Due to the 50/50 Pledge, Ally has increased its women’s sports programming spending by 300%.
CLICK for the ENTIRE INTERVIEW with Bridget Sponsky and Marian Dimitrova.
Key Brand Asset: “A-L-L-Y Words”
One of Ally’s most recognizable brand assets is using “a-l-l-y words.“ This is a crucial memory construct employed across all Ally marketing efforts to visually demonstrate how customers always have an ally by their side. Not only does this put the Ally name and logo front and center, but it drives awareness, especially among new audiences. In the case of women’s sports fans, the message was that they’re always better off with an ally – monumentALLY, fanaticALLY, iconicALLY.
A powerful TV spot—“Watch the Game. Change the Game.”— flipped the narrative around women’s sports, forgoing stories of hardships and biases to instead showcase the skills of awe-inspiring women athletes. That message—“Watch the Game. Change the Game.”— was also a historicALLY significant moment in sports.
Building an Ecosystem Around the 50/50 Pledge
Systemic change is rarely achieved through a single effort, so Ally stepped up and created a unique, invite-only club in partnership with The Sports Innovation Lab. Named The Women’s Sports Club, this collective aimed to bring other brands, media platforms, and sports innovators into the fold and get them to commit to driving substantive change in women’s sports.
Ally built an ecosystem around the 50/50 Pledge to bring its message to different audiences. This included impactful TV spots, partnerships with influential athletes and creators, and investments in media platforms to ensure that the Ally message resonated across various touchpoints and reinforced the brand’s commitment to supporting women athletes.
To learn more about Ally’s 50/50 Pledge and The Women’s Sports Club from Bridget Sponsky, Ally’s Executive Director of Brand and Sponsorship Marketing, and Mariana Dimitrova, Managing Partner and Executive Director at EssenceMediacom, watch the video interview on Internationalist Marketing TV (IMTV) on YouTube by CLICKING HERE.
In our conversation, we discuss the following:
- Talk about Ally Financial’s origins, mission, and why it’s so important for a bank to reach new audiences and build cultural relevance….
- Tell us about Ally’s involvement in sports… did it begin with sponsorship of women’s sports, or did you grow to include it?
- Give us some background on your thinking behind your support of women’s sports. I realize there is a disparity in athlete salaries—in terms of men and women professionals—but that may be partly due to the airing of sports programming and viewership.
- So, Ally decided to break the cycle and drive change with a very powerful brand action: your 50/50 Pledge. Tell us about this commitment… and also how you used the brand assets.
- Would you also talk a little about your experience regarding the significance of women athletes as influencers?
- Describe The Women’s Sports Club… and why you reached out to other brands, media platforms, and sports innovators…
- How challenging was it to create this kind of change?
- Given the accountability aspect of marketing today, I’m assuming that even if any sponsorship was extremely worthy and evoked tremendous passion and pride, the brand still had to drive business results…. Would you tell us about that? Also… I wonder if one of your metrics was also to drive cultural impact.
- Ally has always been considered a purpose-driven brand. In fact, you were “born” with purpose in your response to the financial crisis and the perception of distrust in banking. Your ideas of purpose keep evolving. Do you have advice for other marketers who are grappling with their own purpose and efforts to keep it relevant?
- Finally, can you give us a glimpse of what’s next… or is that a secret?
Listen to Bridget Sponsky of Ally Financial and Mariana Dimitrova of EssenceMediacom discuss Ally’s commitment to changing how brands invest in women’s sports and to The Internationalist’s entire Trendsetters podcast series here on iHeartRadio’s Spreaker or wherever you download your podcasts.
Among women’s sports fans, Ally reached a historic high in brand awareness and doubled future usage intent. Among the audiences who saw the brand film, Ally increased their consideration by 40%.
The Ally brand is now held in the same esteem as some of the world’s most iconic, purpose-driven brands. Two years in a row (2022, 2023), Ally has been recognized as one of Fast Company’s Brands That Matters, largely due to its work in women’s sports.
Banking may not be considered a “much beloved” category, yet Ally has seen extraordinary increases in affinity metrics like Likeability (+25%) and Brand Preference (+20%) among women’s sports fans. Most impressive is Ally’s Trust metrics. Despite a lack of consumer confidence in the industry, Ally has increased consumer trust by 1.2 points, one of only four US banks to do so.
Ally has won the Internationalist Awards for Innovation in Media, and The Internationalist’s Marketing Makes a World of Difference Awards.
About Ally Financial
Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE: ALLY) is a financial services company with the nation’s largest all-digital bank and an industry-leading auto financing business, driven by a mission to “Do It Right” and be a relentless ally for customers and communities. The company serves more than 10.5 million customers through a full range of online banking services (including deposits, mortgage, point-of-sale personal lending, and credit card products) and securities brokerage and investment advisory services. The company also includes a robust corporate finance business that offers capital for equity sponsors and middle-market companies, as well as auto financing and insurance offerings through more than 22,000 dealers nationwide. For more information, please visit www.ally.com(opens in new window) and follow @allyfinancial.
