What Ally Bank learned from building a sports marketing strategy before the market caught up

It’s not that her own sports playbook didn’t work, but investing in sports marketing sooner would have made it even more effective. 

Marketers are entering a new phase of sports marketing. Audiences are fragmented, ad costs are rising and the sports arena is more crowded than ever. The argument, at this point, is less about the value of sports marketing and more about how brands are structuring their partnerships to maximize return. 

Brimmer has set her sights on emerging media — podcasts, and other athlete-led content — as marketers continue to beef up their sports marketing spends. 

“It’s a different door into sports sponsorships,” Brimmer said. She later added, “Those are really interesting to us because it’s a very different way to create relationship stickiness with those fans.”

Sports media and sponsorships make up about 40% of Ally’s overall marketing budget, per the CMO, who did not provide exact figures. That percentage is expected to grow, she added, considering the rise of AI-generated content and the difficulty in establishing brand loyalty. 

Ally found success in women’s soccer by sponsoring the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) in 2021. In renegotiatig that deal, Ally gave up some exclusive rights, in categories like mortgages and investing, to get the deal with NWSL over the line. Since then, the bank has publicly pledged to split sports media ad spend equally between men and women’s sports. Ally has also scaled its portfolio, inking a multimillion-dollar Disney/ESPN deal in which 90% of investment supported women’s sports across the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference), SEC (Southeastern Conference), and NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) championships.

Between this year and 2030, linear and streaming sports TV ad spend combined is expected to grow by $5.3 billion, per eMarketer’s prediction figures. To compete with big sports spenders like Visa, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, Ally isn’t betting on straight media buys, Brimmer said. The CMO is eyeing crossover partnerships — think taking talent from taking athlete talent and integrating them into unexpected places. One example Brimmer proposed on the podcast was having soccer athletes show up at the Women’s U.S. Open to discuss golf.

“We don’t just do logo slaps. We want to do interesting things,” Brimmer said.