Demand for women’s sports has never been higher, but it’s still under-represented, receiving less than 10% of sports media coverage. This fuels a vicious cycle: rare coverage, poor timeslots, lower viewership ratings, less advertising support, and consequently, lower pay for athletes.

As a brand that leads with deeds not words, we set out to change the vicious cycle through the following initiatives:

- Highlighted inequity in women’s sports media

- Made strides towards breaking the vicious cycle with commitment to equal investment in women and men’s sport media

- Cemented Ally’s as a leader in the advancement of women’s sports

To break the cycle, we knew we had to start at the corporate level, securing better investment, scheduling, and promotion for women’s sports. Enter The 50/50 Pledge, a historic initiative to achieve equal media spend between men’s and women’s sports programming. This wasn’t just a campaign but a commitment: a monumental demonstration of financial allyship.

To bring our message to consumers, we honed in on a single-minded call to action: Watch the Game, Change the Game. It was a rallying cry, a reminder of the power that viewership can have. By watching women play, you’re showing media corporations that women’s sports demand more visibility, changing the cultural perception of what they’re worth. We produced a powerful piece of film that flipped the narrative, moving away from sob stories about biases and instead showing women athletes for what they are: elite sportspeople deserving of the biggest stage.

Sponsoring the National Women’s Soccer League and buying impressions wasn’t going to be enough. League games were rarely aired —and when they were, it was at times that didn’t enable a following.

We needed to change the game, enable opportunities for people to be part of it, and give the league the prestige it deserved. To put the words “Watch the Game, Change the Game” into deeds, we would partner with the National Women’s Soccer League and CBS Sports to move the NWSL Championship game to prime time for the first time in history.

We sought to provoke systemic re-evaluation of the value of women’s sports. Thus the 2022 Ally Financial NWSL Championship was born.

This would allow us to reach a passionate fan base while also reaching a broader audience through earned media — and showing Ally to be a leader in making actual long-term change in women’s sports.

Collaborating with NWSL and CBS, we brought the game to primetime on CBS and streaming service Paramount+ for the first time ever. For international viewers the live game was streamed via Twitch. This involved major adjustments to marketing and communication plans, and myriad on-the-ground challenges associated with moving the match from noon to 8 p.m.

Our “Primetime-ification” efforts weren’t limited to broadcast. We partnered with female-owned sports media start-up Just Women’s Sports to create a live pre-game show and other programming for fans. We distributed 5,000+ “Watch to Change” scarves and promoted our social CTA via influencers throughout the NWSL ecosystem. We expanded our “Player Allies” program, in which we covered travel costs for player family members and league staff to attend the Championship game. And in the spirit of “doing it right” – we announced a multi-year partnership renewal with NWSL live on-air during the match.

The NWSL Championship was the most watched game in league history with 1 million viewers, representing +71% year-over-year increase. The campaign generated ~65M consumer impressions and over $7.5M in earned media coverage.

Ally is now featured as a top five brand in women’s sports by SponsorUnited, in the company of major players Nike, Gatorade and Adidas.

As for brand impact, we’ve seen a 13-27% lift across key preference and likeability metrics. The Ally brand achieved a 55% awareness among female sport’s fans and an all-time high favorability (85%) amongst female sport fans. It also achieved a 50% increase in awareness among women in general.

Not only did the campaign generate record-breaking viewership and made waves in the market. with others joining the cause. Turner Sports, for example, just closed an 8-year deal with U.S. Women’s National Team to transmit matches.