Introducing students to a leader making a difference through marketing is inspiring.

Andrea Brimmer, chief marketing and public relations officer for Ally Financial, joined my #MSU #PR class recently to discuss how the 50/50 Pledge she spearheaded at the Detroit-based financial institution is changing women’s athletics. Ally pledged to reach parity across its paid media spending in men’s and women’s sports.

“We spend the same amount on women’s sports as we do on men’s,” Brimmer told the Michigan State students. “And we’re getting a lot of scale.”

Woman’s sports receive less than 10 percent of media coverage with similarly low ad buys compared to men’s games, ESPN reported. Those buys are often an add-on to men’s packages – no intent or strategy involved.

Ally’s first bold act on its pledge is an example of the scale it’s getting.

Ally partnered with the National Women’s Soccer League to increase its media investment with CBS Sports to move the NWSL’s 2022 championship match into prime time for the first time. Viewership jumped 71% over the previous year.

Another example: The ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament has its first-ever title sponsor. It’s now called the Ally ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament.

Ally introduced the pledge last year to honor the 50th anniversary of Title IX and its influence is spreading.

Indeed, Disney announced a partnership with Ally in February to extend its “powerful support of women’s sports with a multi-year, multimillion-dollar investment intentionally designed to advance equality in women’s sports coverage.” 

The Ally x Disney deal puts 90% of the ad spend into women’s sports first, versus it being an afterthought or add-on to a men’s sponsorship. The deal also includes more women’s highlights on ESPN’s SportsCenter and deeper engagement with other women’s ACC sports.

“We know investing in women’s sports offers outsized returns for our business when it comes to growing brand affinity and love,” Brimmer noted in the ESPN release. “The push for equity and parity in sports elevates all of us.”

“We are reaching a large swath of people,” Brimmer answered a student who questioned why Ally invests heavily in sports. “It’s unskippable media – you watch sports in real-time – and there’s a massive conversation around sports online.”

For Ally, an online financial institution, it is also logical. Perhaps it’s time for more big advertisers to cut into all that scale to support more growth for women’s sports.