The two companies enter an official partnership that vows to allocate more than 90% of the investment into women’s sports coverage across ESPN networks.
Financial services firm Ally and The Walt Disney Company have announced a joint pledge to continue being one of the premier sponsors of women’s sports. Announced Monday, the multi-year, multi-million-dollar pledge will boost equal opportunity within women’s sports.
“For too long, women’s sports programming has been treated as an afterthought in the media buying process, perpetually giving women athletes the short end in terms of media exposure and income opportunity while limiting investment opportunities for brands. This cycle needs to change,” Andrea Brimmer, chief marketing and public relations officer at Ally said of the occasion.
“We are taking a major step forward together with Disney and the ACC to change the way women’s media is packaged, and through this barrier-breaking partnership – that channels funds directly to women’s sports and begins to level the playing field for female athletes – we hope to create the kind of systemic change needed to significantly increase visibility, opportunity and fandom in women’s sports.”
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Brimmer is right. According to the release, the media highlights women’s women’s sports less than 10% of the time, oftentimes only using it as an accompaniment to men’s sports options. So, how do we combat this issue?
This alliance vows to invest more than 90% in women’s sports and highlights, with an added target to broadening focused game highlights, branded content, and feature stories across the ESPN networks, like regular SportsCenter segments.
This deal also means Ally Bank is now the official retail bank of the Atlantic Coast Conference and in possession of media branding and activation rights across all ACC Championships. This includes the first-ever title sponsorships of the ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament and Women’s Soccer Championship as well as the exclusive presenting sponsor of the 2023 ACC Women’s Lacrosse Championship.
Ally’s activation is expected to begin in early March at the women’s and men’s ACC basketball championships at the Greensboro Coliseum. Ally and Disney also purposely organized the ACC Network media part of the agreement to make it possible for other financial entities to sign on, consequently thereby increasing exposure for women’s sports.
Think of this new partnership as an add-on to another agreement reached last year. In 2022, Ally called on Disney to develop an innovative sponsorship package to spotlight women’s sports. This resulted in a collab with Disney’s CreativeWorks team, with an intention to produce unique creatives that centers around gender equity.
Look out for the two spots on SportsCenter at some point during the summer.
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