Women’s sports are about to get a cash infusion.
Financial services firm Ally has announced that, for the next several years, it will give as much to marketing and media efforts around women’s sport as it does to men’s.
“While there’s been incredible change as a result of Title IX, viewership of women’s sports is still underrepresented,” Andrea Brimmer, chief marketing and PR officer for the company, said in a video posted to Ally’s Instagram account.
She then evoked the company’s tagline – “Do it right.” – before getting specific about the firm’s new pledge: “Over the course of the next 5 years, for every dollar we spend in media in men’s sports, we’re going to match that, $1 for $1, in women’s sports.”
The Detroit company, which has a market capitalization of $13 billion, didn’t disclose exactly how much it plans to spend on sports marketing. But the company has a history of supporting athletes: During last year’s Olympics, Ally announced it was committing $250,000 to fund promising athletes who need financial help. The company recently joined forces with the National Women’s Soccer League to become the sports organization’s first banking partner. And earlier this month, Ally served as a co-sponsor of an ESPN event focused on women in sports.
The latest announcement is a timely move, as the 50th anniversary of Title IX, which prohibits sex- and gender-based discrimination in schools and educational programs, will be marked this summer.
In a press release about sponsorship of the NWSL, Brimmer said that these moves represent Ally’s “deep commitment to diversity and inclusion.”
