Ally reaches ’50/50 pledge’ on women’s sports spending ahead of schedule

In 2021, Ally Financial Inc. committed to supporting women’s sports.

A year later, the financial services company announced its “50/50 pledge,” a promise to spend the same amount on advertising women’s sports as it does men’s sports by 2027.  On Tuesday, Ally reached that goal, a full year ahead of schedule.

The pledge, which aimed for gender parity in sports media investment within five years, has been realized in just four. Over this period, Ally increased its spending on women’s sports by more than 4.6 times, while maintaining its investment in men’s sports.

“We always believed in the real difference delivering on this pledge could make for the women’s sports ecosystem, but I’m not sure any of us expected just how significant the impact would end up being on our brand and reputation,” Ally’s chief marketing and public relations officer, Andrea Brimmer, told The Athletic. “This has been the single best marketing decision we’ve made in the past five years — I can say that without hesitation.”

For Ally, the investment has coincided with brand gains. The company, citing Brand Finance data, says its brand value has increased 40 percent since 2022, surpassing $3 billion, with stronger trust metrics among women’s sports fans. According to Ally’s (NYSE: ALLY) fourth-quarter financial results released on Jan. 21, the company’s revenue exceeded $2 billion and saw a 32.7 percent increase in earnings over the past year. The company’s customer base increased 13 percent to three million, with total deposits of $142 billion and net revenue of $8.2 billion, a 36 percent increase since 2018.

Ally became a sponsor of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) in May 2021. In October 2022, Ally further solidified its commitment to women’s sports by signing a five-year contract with the league, upping its investment in women’s sports by 300 percent in 2022. A 2022 deal with CBS moved the NWSL Championship into prime time, resulting in 915,000 viewers, a 71 percent year-over-year increase. The following year, a broad agreement with Disney and ESPN concentrated the bulk of Ally’s media investment on women’s sports, spanning live rights, studio programming and digital inventory.

The strategy expanded into league and team deals. Ally also became a WNBA partner and aligned with the Las Vegas Aces, while backing newer properties like Unrivaled, the 3-on-3 league launched by Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier. In golf, its agreement with the USGA included presenting rights to the U.S. Women’s Open and support for a record $12 million purse. More recently, Ally tied media dollars to emerging inventory, including the first nationally televised U.S. game for the Professional Women’s Hockey League.

“The approach was right: show up with real dollars, work with partners to build infrastructure that didn’t exist, and be willing to do things differently,” Brimmer said. “Moving the NWSL Championship to prime time with CBS, structuring that Disney deal where over 90 percent of the investment went to women’s sports, coming in as the founding partner of Unrivaled before anyone else — those weren’t things we could have known would work in advance. We had to move with conviction and adjust in real-time.

“We’re always very intentional about where we show up. Ally is never going to be the biggest spender in sports, but we’re highly focused,” she added.

So, what’s next for Ally?

Despite accelerated growth, women’s sports still account for a minority share of total media rights value and advertising spend. Ally’s approach, maintaining men’s spending while scaling women’s investment, runs counter to a zero-sum view that has historically shaped media buying in sports.

At the same time, rising valuations are introducing new pressures. Ticket prices are increasing across several leagues, and media distribution is becoming more fragmented as additional partners enter the market. Ally’s research indicates the average fan now spends more than $1,600 annually on sports, highlighting the cost side of the category’s expansion.

“That rising cost is definitely something we intend to focus on. As a bank, how can we help people plan for fandom, save for it, and think about it differently? How can we reduce some of the costs and advocate on the behalf of the fans?’ Brimmer said. “Ally will keep investing across teams, leagues, players and media platforms, of course. But if this is going to be a long-term growth market, it has to work for the fans fueling it, too.”

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

WNBA, NWSL, Women's Soccer

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