Connect with execs from The New York Times, TIME, Dotdash Meredith and many more
The Big Ten men’s college basketball championship final last weekend at Madison Square Garden had a new type of brand sponsor: SoFi.
The San Francisco-based personal finance brand joins a small club of finance startups making a name for themselves through a connection to sports. Quicken Loans has long-established sports sponsorships, including naming rights to Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland and links to college sports teams; and Credit Karma is playing in gaming, by becoming the “official personal finance partner” to eLeague, the gaming league formed by Turner Broadcasting and IMG tournament two years ago.
“As part of an overall media buying strategy across a number of platforms and formats, we’ve identified sporting events such as the Super Bowl, the Big Ten tournament and the X Games as excellent ways to reach our target audience,” said Margi Brown, SoFi’s vice president of marketing and media. “Our marketing strategy is driven by meeting our members where they are, with a unique focus on brand awareness marketing.”
More in Marketing
In Graphic Detail: Inside the state of the creator economy industrial complex
The creator economy might have started out as an alternative to traditional media, but is becoming more and more like it as it professionalizes.
Shopify has quietly set boundaries for ‘buy-for-me’ AI bots on merchant sites
The change comes at a time when major retailers like Amazon and Walmart are leaning into agentic AI.
WTF is ‘Google Zero’?
The era of “Google Zero” — industry shorthand for a world where Google keeps users inside its own walls — is here.