Newsletter
Ally Decimates the Glass Ceiling on Women's Sports Investment
'Like a Girl' takes on new meaning
We all know the lines that end with “…like a girl.” But in a landmark sponsorship with ESPN/Disney, Ally Financial is turning that famous campaign slogan into a war cry.
In May, the digital banking institution, which has a diverse sports portfolio and a nigh-on Olympian female leadership team, signed a five-year initiative to split ad spend on women’s and men’s sports down the middle.
This week blows that out of the water: Ally announced a sponsorship with ESPN/Disney that will invest 90 percent of spending into women’s SportsCenters and women’s ACC sports—a complete reversal of which gender’s sporting pursuits usually receive the most money.
It merits mention that Andrea Brimmer, who leads Ally marketing and was instrumental in getting the 2022 NWSL Championship game into primetime on CBS, has a forearm tat that reads “Like a Girl”—which she flashed last year in the board meeting related to that particular announcement.
In a LinkedIn post announcing the news yesterday, Brimmer wrote, “My team has worked so hard to put this together and I can’t describe the amount of pride I feel seeing our sponsorship with ESPN/Disney that will pour 90 percent of the spend into women’s sports and women’s ACC sports.”
She concluded: “This mission was personal for me and my bad-ass team of women leaders and athletes. We’re doing this by the mantra I live by—’Like a Girl.’ Congratulations to everyone, we’re just getting started.”
Angela Natividad is the European markets editor at Muse by Clio. She also writes about gaming and fashion, and whatever else she’s interested in, really. She’s based in Paris and North Italy, so if you’re local, say hi. She might eat all your food.
