How Ally Financial started seeing results from its WNBA and Paige Bueckers deals well ahead of tip-off

Ally Financial has been all over women’s sports since 2022, when the company committed to splitting its media spend equally between men’s and women’s sports within five years. Since then, the financial services brand has carved out a significant presence across leagues from the NWSL to Unrivaled, and major sporting events from the Women’s World Cup to March Madness to the Super Bowl.

There was one major women’s sports property that Ally didn’t have a big presence in, though: the WNBA. That’s about to change.

“The WNBA is one of the crown jewels, so you’ve got to be investing there to reach those fans [of women’s sports] in the right way,” Stephanie Marciano, Ally’s head of sports and entertainment marketing, told Marketing Brew.

When Ally broke into pro women’s basketball last year, the W already had an official bank in US Bank, but when that deal came up for renewal and the league was permitted to enter into conversations with other potential sponsors, Ally jumped at the chance. The partnership, which was announced last month in the short window between the end of March Madness and the WNBA draft, is already paying off, she said.

More than media

Prior to the league deal, Ally was already making some inroads with the W. Last year, the banking brand became the jersey-patch sponsor of the Las Vegas Aces, and it has endorsement deals with players including Indiana Fever guard Sydney Colson and New York Liberty forward Breanna Stewart.

By becoming a WNBA sponsor, including being part of its slate of Changemaker brands, Ally is taking an even bigger stride toward its 50/50 sports media spend goal. The company is already on track to reach that milestone in 2026, a year earlier than expected, and partnering with the W gives it first-look access to a slate of “high-impact” ad inventory reserved for sponsors, Marciano said.

Beyond media buys, Ally is serving as the presenting partner of the inaugural WNBA Rivals Week, an event that’s becoming increasingly common across leagues like the NWSL (where Ally is also the presenting partner) and the NBA.

“Rivals Week is a huge one for us, because everybody knows that rivalries in sport drive fandom,” Marciano said. “That’s what drives people to go to games, that’s what drives people to tune in, that’s what drives people to consume highlights and social media.”

Ally is also the presenting partner of WNBA All-Star voting, in which fans contribute to the decision of which players get to start in the All-Star Game, and will have its logo on all of the All-Star jerseys, in addition to other activations at the event.

Buckets

To further bolster its WNBA presence, Ally inked a deal with NCAA champion, No. 1 draft pick, and newly minted Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers. Bueckers, who NIL platform Out2Win deemed as the most marketable woman in March Madness this year, had the highest social following of the athletes in the tournament, and Ally is aiming to work with her to build narratives around financial literacy as she continues managing her sponsorship income and WNBA salary, Marciano said.

Already, Bueckers joined Stewart and Colson in an Ally ad that ran on social media and during the WNBA draft in the commercial slot immediately following Bueckers’s selection. As of late April, the spot was already Ally’s “highest performing post on our organic channels in the last handful of years,” Marciano said, with about 2 million views and an engagement rate of 12%; Ally’s average is usually between 8% and 9%.

“It even outperformed our expectations, and it’s proven that we need to continue to use these great athletes in more creative, because contextually relevant creative works in sport,” she said. “We’ll be doing a lot more with them as the season goes on.”

Generally, Ally leans into its athlete partnerships through efforts like collab posts on social media, which are aimed at extending the brand’s reach, one of the overarching goals of the WNBA partnership. With more than a 50% unduplicated audience compared to the NWSL, according to Marciano, Ally has a lot of room to grow its brand with new potential customers this WNBA season.

So far, the signs point to likely growth in KPIs like favorability, likability, consideration, and intent to use Ally’s products and services, she said.

“There’s just an incredibly compelling business case for all of the work in women’s sports, and I think to continue to expand our footprint in the WNBA is just going to continue to drive those numbers up,” Marciano said. “This work is powerful for our brand and powerful for our business, and that’s why we continue to grow our investments in the space.”