Live sports could be described as one of the last bastions of live television. With so many eyeballs in one place at one time, marketers are desperate to embed their brands — especially in women’s sports.
Ally Bank’s chief marketing and PR officer Andrea Brimmer is one of those marketers. Back in 2022, the bank announced its five-year goal to reach parity in ad spend across men and women’s sports media. This year, Ally claims it met that pledge, but Brimmer did not provide specific spend figures.
Sponsorships have become table stakes as the arena gets more crowded. Women’s sports impressions grew last year, and ad spend rose 69%, according to a recent WPP report. P&G this year struck a multi-year, multi-brand partnership with Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). Last year, Publicis Sports created a dedicated women’s sports unit.
Digiday caught up with Brimmer to talk about how the bank is brokering deals with media partners, how Ally is navigating sports rights fragmentation and what emerging platforms Ally is putting its next bet on.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
