Andrea Brimmer, CMO and public relations officer, Ally Financial

Ally Financial

Brimmer has been instrumental in getting brand growth for Ally Financial, while pioneering new approaches to marketing and sponsorship that move the industry forward.

Since around 2022, Brimmer has been driving positive change across the investment of brands in women's sports. This year marks the two-year anniversary of Ally's 50/50 pledge, with the aim of spending equally on women's and men's sports by 2027. She continued these efforts in 2023 with a first-of-its-kind media deal with Disney and ESPN, which included spending more than 90% on women's sports. In 2024, Ally became the official banking partner of the USGA, and both US Open golf tournaments, sponsored several women-funded and women-owned media sports properties, and worked with the Sports Innovation Lab to create the largest women's sports networking group.

The Ally logo is recognized by around three-quarters of sports fans, and women's sports fans, in particular, have a 71% higher likeability rate and 82% higher preference for the Ally brand, the company said.

Elsewhere, Brimmer has led Ally's streaming strategy. This included the March launch of the "Side Hustlers" reality series, which spotlights women entrepreneurs and successful investors. The Roku Channel series exceeded viewership projections and boosted visits to Ally.com by up to 17%. Ally also ran a streaming-only Super Bowl ad this year — when a 30-second linear TV spot cost upwards of $7 million — to emphasize the brand's marketing messages around saving money.

Brimmer's marketing team is also testing generative AI to make marketing productivity gains and cost savings. Using the Ally.AI platform's large language model chat and prompt functionality, a group of its marketers was able to reduce the time required to create content by up to two to three weeks and reported average time savings of up to 34%.

Ally says that overall, its brand value, as measured by Brand Finance, jumped by 30% this year, while its trust score grew by 10%, a testament to Brimmer's efforts.