If she had a dime for every time she heard the slur, she\u2019d make another multimillion-dollar deal. \u201cYou throw like a girl \u2026 You think like a girl \u2026 You drink like a girl.\u201d She\u2019s heard that BS ad nauseam since she was 5, 25, 35 and counting, and it always stabs, then punctures her soul to no end.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s nothing like a throaty comeback, or better yet, a response written in stone or ink. On the day Andrea Brimmer informed Ally Financial\u2019s board members that she\u2019d invested her heart and the company\u2019s cold hard cash into moving the 2022 NWSL Championship game into a prime-time CBS slot, everyone in the conference room was ecstatic. Or said, \u201cCongrats.\u201d Or said, \u201cYou did the right thing.\u201d Or said, \u201cAbout time.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n So Andrea Brimmer did right then what Andrea Brimmer tends to do. She peeled back her sleeve, exposed her left forearm and double-tapped her three-word tattoo:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cLike A Girl.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u25a0 \u25a0 \u25a0 \u25a0<\/span><\/p>\n There\u2019s no business like the payback business. At Ally Financial, a digital banking institution that has a wide and burgeoning sports portfolio, a handful of senior-level women \u2014 led by Brimmer \u2014 are driving an ambitious five-year initiative to split advertising on men\u2019s and women\u2019s sports straight down the middle. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Ally executives draw from the experiences of their playing days. Brimmer played soccer.ally financial<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Announced last May as an ode to the golden anniversary of Title IX, the company\u2019s 50-50 pledge has morphed into a referendum on equality for the former female college athletes at Ally who developed it. And now their latest, ground-breaking announcement this week \u2014 a sponsorship with ESPN\/Disney that will pour 90% of the spend into female-centric \u201cSportsCenters\u201d and women\u2019s ACC sports \u2014 is the ultimate flip of the lid. Normally, nine-tenths of sponsorship money would go to the ACC men, with the women tossed in as a value add. But not this time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWell, we wanted the reverse of that,\u201d said Ally\u2019s head of sports and entertaiment marketing, Stephanie Marciano, one of Brimmer\u2019s sidekicks. \u201cThis is a first of its kind on the college side.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n One by one, deal by deal, the executive women at Ally are announcing their presence with authority. There is Brimmer, the company\u2019s chief marketing and PR officer who played soccer at Michigan State and was unfortunately born too soon to be an Olympian. There is Marciano, the mighty-might former point guard at Yale who says, \u201cI\u2019m only 5-3, but I feel taller.\u201d There is Bridget Sponsky, Ally\u2019s executive director of brand and partnerships who was a softball power-hitter in high school and a state champion in competitive cheer. There is Jackie Hartzell, Ally\u2019s head of external communications and former ballet dancer who ran track at the University of North Carolina.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Bridget Sponsky played softball.ally financial<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe are a team of badass women,\u201d Sponsky said, laughing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Hartzell\u2019s communications team is, in fact, the one that first brainstormed the 50-50 pledge. But the company\u2019s overall collective stance is an impassioned outgrowth of what these four Ally businesswomen have seen and heard over the years: the athletic inequities, the 9 a.m. \u2014 instead of p.m. \u2014 championship games, the caustic digs from chauvinistic men.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHorribly insulted when people say, \u2018Oh, you throw like a girl, you think like a girl, you drink like a girl,\u2019 whatever,\u201d Brimmer said. \u201cCould not be more insulting. But I love the double entendre of that. \u2018Yeah, you\u2019re damn right I\u2019m like a girl. You wanna sit down and drink with me? Have at it, cowboy. You want to try and catch something I\u2019m throwing at you? Have at it, buddy.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cSo the empowerment of the statement \u2014 it\u2019s taking your power back. It\u2019s taking something that\u2019s used in a negative way and absolutely taking your power back.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u25a0 \u25a0 \u25a0 \u25a0<\/span><\/p>\n Brimmer is universally considered the \u201chead coach\u201d of the C-suite women at Ally and, long before she entered a Florida tattoo parlor to have \u201cLike A Girl\u201d permanently etched onto her forearm, she was a whirlwind on the soccer field. \u201cA total scrapper,\u201d she said. \u201cNobody got by me, and if you did happen to get past me you were going to pay for it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Stephanie Marciano played basketball.ally financial<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n She was first freshman to ever play for her high school\u2019s varsity; the first sophomore to ever be team captain; a freshman starter at Michigan State in 1984. All that was missing from her r\u00e9sum\u00e9 was \u201cU.S. Olympian.\u201d But she\u2019d been born ineligible for that: In the 1980s, there was no women\u2019s soccer in the Olympics.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>My biggest dream and still the biggest hole I have in my heart, is I never got to compete for an Olympic spot,\u201d Brimmer said. \u201cBecause I felt I had a real chance to make an Olympic team. But there was no women\u2019s national team, just a men\u2019s national team.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSo that was a huge inequality. And I never wanted another girl to feel that. I never wanted another girl to feel like \u2018My sports career has to dead-end and there\u2019s nowhere for me to go.\u2019 And that\u2019s really what a lot of what 50-50 was about and why I\u2019m so super motivated by it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Fifteen years ago, when GMAC was rebranding into Ally Financial, Brimmer was hired to help create the mission statement, the name, the logo, the culture. One of her co-workers was Marciano, the former Yale basketball spitfire who similarly noticed how the world tilted toward men. At the age of 9, Marciano was the only girl in her North Edison, N.J., Little League; a catcher to boot. Her mother, a stellar athlete in her own right, wanted to coach the team, and the league said, sorry, forget it.<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n Marciano watched her mom fight for her right \u2014 and win. Then when the team ended up taking the boys championship, led by a mother and daughter, equality was ingrained in the 9-year-old for perpetuity. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s just a natural bias [against female athletes] that happens automatically,\u201d Marciano said. \u201cAnd until someone raises their hand, it doesn\u2019t get fixed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Brimmer, in her early days at Ally, had also recruited a fellow Michigan State alum, Sponsky, to be her right hand on the rebrand and sports sponsorship front, and later ushered in Hartzell. They were all moms, all dealing with the messy balancing act of work and family. So Brimmer passed along her personal motto to them all, \u201cEmbrace The Slop,\u201d and they united in the name of sports.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Jackie Hartzell ran track and field.ally financial<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI wanted to be surrounded by all ballers,\u201d Brimmer said. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n She was validated by an Ernst and Young report that said 94% of C-suite women in the Fortune 500 played sports in their lifetimes, with 54% having played collegiately. And under the leadership of CEO Jeff Brown \u2014 who\u2019d often remind Brimmer \u201cIf you get the culture right, everything else takes care of itself\u201d \u2014 Ally fortuitously began delving into sports deals five years ago.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A small international soccer partnership was soon followed by a NASCAR sponsorship of Jimmie Johnson\u2019s No. 48 car, beginning at the 2018 Daytona 500. Brimmer and Sponsky were on the track pre-race, hugging and in tears over their first significant sports deal. \u201cEveryone was like, \u2018What\u2019s wrong?\u2019\u201d Brimmer said. \u201cWe\u2019re like, \u2018Nothin.\u2019 We\u2019re just feeling the vibes.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Other deals eventually emerged with the Detroit Pistons, Charlotte Hornets and Charlotte FC \u2014 teams located near Ally\u2019s two city home bases \u2014 but, at the urging of Ally\u2019s senior-level women, the company also onboarded with a league near and dear to Brimmer: the NWSL. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On paper, it was a risk. But key WNBA and NCAA basketball sponsorships were already spoken for, leaving Ally with no choice but to hedge on an under-the-radar league. But Brimmer, from her background in the sport, knew better. She had breathlessly watched the U.S. women\u2019s national soccer team of 1999 win the World Cup in a penalty shootout, as well as the ensuing Brandi Chastain sports bra celebration that made the moment resonate more.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt was effin\u2019 awesome,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s why the inequity between men\u2019s soccer and women\u2019s soccer is so perplexing and frustrating.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n Brimmer told the Ally team that any or all soccer hysteria in the U.S. was driven by that one \u201999 Chastain moment and that a women\u2019s pro league could replicate it. So the company incrementally bought in to the NWSL. It started with a leaguewide sleeve patch sponsorship that also divvied a portion of Ally\u2019s rights fees into a players impact fund. The league had just been sullied that year by a verbal and sexual abuse scandal involving coaches, and its commissioner had resigned. But instead of bailing, Ally became the first brand to sponsor the NWSL Players Association and pushed to expand the league\u2019s playoffs from four to six games. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Ally team convinced CBS to move the NWSL Championship to prime time.USA Today Network<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe doubled down on the relationship,\u201d Marciano said, \u201cand also teamed with the players association because the players were the ones hurting the most.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Brimmer and her team were in tune with the players \u2014 after all, Brimmer was a kindred spirit. Marciano had years before introduced Brimmer to Julie Foudy, a \u201999er who had also won two Olympic soccer gold medals, and every time Brimmer and Foudy crossed paths, the envious Brimmer would ask, \u201cCan I see your medals? Where do you keep your medals?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n So the bond with the league was solid oak. And when someone informed the Ally team that women\u2019s sports receives only 5% of the media coverage that men do, the five-year 50-50 initiative was conceived. Brimmer became even more obsessed. She remembered how, two years prior in Louisville, the NWSL had played its title game at 9 a.m., and had it televised on tape delay at noon. It was another \u201cLike a Girl\u201d slur to her. She went to Ally\u2019s media agency, MediaCom, to help accelerate the 50-50 pledge, and the agency\u2019s executive director, Mariana Dimitrova, remembers thinking, \u201cWhere are we going to spend the money? There just isn\u2019t enough media to buy in women\u2019s sports to get to 50-50.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n But Brimmer said she \u201cwouldn\u2019t take no for an answer,\u201d and began her maniacal mission to move the 2022 NWSL title game from noon into prime time on CBS, a relative pipe dream. Conversations began with the league\u2019s new commissioner, Jessica Berman, and CBS Sports Executive Vice President Dan Weinberg \u2014 the initial hiccup being that the time slot wasn\u2019t available. Brimmer said she \u201cbecame extremely annoying\u201d by calling Weinberg and Co. for weekly progress reports. \u201cThere\u2019s no chance it wasn\u2019t going to happen,\u201d Brimmer said, laughing. \u201cBecause I wasn\u2019t going to let it not happen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The NWSL rode her coattails along the way \u2014 \u201cHer ambitions are our ambitions,\u2019\u2019 said league Chief Revenue Officer Mitch Poll \u2014 but the NWSL was also on the receiving end of her phone binges as negotiations dragged on. \u201cShe\u2019d give me a call and say, \u2018Hey, this isn\u2019t going to work. We\u2019ve got to get this done this way,\u2019\u201d Poll said. \u201cThe bluntness and the openness has been why it\u2019s been a successful partnership \u2026 And I just think that directness and to be able to understand where she\u2019s coming from has probably been my favorite part.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Eventually, Ally made what Brimmer calls \u201can enhanced media commitment,\u201d an undisclosed amount of money that seemed to nudge the proposal toward the finish line, and the deal was finally done on a marathon Zoom call.<\/p>\n Then, on the night of Oct. 29, Brimmer stood front and center on Washington, D.C.\u2019s Audi Field for the championship game, fighting back tears and 50 years of demons. Eleven of the original, still-active NWSL players approached her one by one to thank her on the turf, saying they never thought they\u2019d see this day. She thought of her failed Olympic dream, thought of every bright-eyed female in the stands.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was at that moment you realize no little girl who is playing sports now will ever have to think she is not deserving of that stage,\u201d Brimmer said. \u201cI had tears running down my face. Not many times in your career do you get to make that kind of impact.\u201d<\/p>\n Before she headed off, she peeled back her sleeve, eyeballed the stadium full of fans and double-tapped her tattoo. Like a badass. <\/p>\n
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Ally Financial partnerships in women’s sports<\/h3>\n
NWSL<\/strong><\/h5>\n
NWSL Players Association<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Women\u2019s International Champions Cup<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Detroit City Football Club<\/strong><\/h5>\n
ACC<\/strong><\/h5>\n
espnW Summit<\/strong><\/h5>\n
ESPN\u2019s \u201cLaughter Permitted\u201d podcast<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Just Women\u2019s Sports<\/strong><\/h5>\n
WNBA Twitter (media only)<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Regional college basketball (media only)<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Multiple players \/ athletes \/ brand ambassadors<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Source: Ally Financial<\/strong><\/h5>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n