Earlier this month, Ally revealed its unique paint scheme for Jimmie Johnson's No. 48 carHENDRICK MOTORSPORTS
Ally will focus on brand awareness with its new Hendrick Motorsports partnership, including a couple different ads and content series with new brand ambassador Jimmie Johnson. Ally this year is beginning its first season as the sole primary sponsor of Johnson’s No. 48 Chevy and earlier this month revealed its unique paint scheme of the car on ABC’s “GMA.” Ally Chief Marketing & PR Officer Andrea Brimmer said that was the start of what it hopes to be a disruptive and high-profile partnership. Ally has a myriad of different products across financial services including investing, car financing and banking, but Brimmer said that Ally is planning to focus on its overall brand with the partnership in ’19 and hopes consumers find the product that fits their needs from there. “We’re trying to introduce people to Ally, and we really try to let people pick the product that’s right for them, whether banking, investing or mortgage or credit card,” she said. “What we typically find is they like the customer service and brand so much that they create a multi-product relationship, so this is more at the brand level and trying to get people to naturally gravitate to Ally.” Brimmer said that Ally is planning to shoot a NASCAR-specific ad with Johnson, as well as incorporating him into a wider Ally brand ad with several company endorsers that pokes fun at the banking category. Ally will also shoot a digital content series around Johnson. The company is planning to do most of its social media marketing from Ally Racing-specific social media accounts. Hendrick Motorsports worked with Lowe’s to transfer Lowe’s racing account over to Ally, giving Ally 275,000 followers to market to from the start instead of starting from scratch.
DRIVING AHEAD: Ally is looking into doing some track deals, but Brimmer said the company will have to rely on guerrilla marketing at next month’s Daytona 500, as Fifth Third Bank is Daytona Int’l Speedway’s official banking partner. Brimmer would not get specific but said Ally was planning to do some marketing around the city of Daytona Beach that week. Ally has not yet confirmed if it has signed a motorsports agency to help handle the HMS deal, but it works with Anomaly, N.Y., for its consumer marketing. Meanwhile, Ally’s new paint scheme has evoked a strong reaction on Twitter, with opinion somewhat split because the design is bold and different in a sport that usually tends toward conservative schemes. There is also some concern in the industry that Ally’s striped hood could end up making the brand name read blurrily on TV. However, Brimmer said she’s thrilled with the paint scheme and that it represents the disruptive nature that Ally is going to bring to NASCAR. Brimmer: “We’ll have to learn and see, right? (The hood was) a big part of our branding element, and Jimmie really liked the use of stripes and bringing that across the car. I think it’ll read fine, and we also have (company slogan) ‘Do It Right’ in bright yellow and strong Ally branding on the back of the car. We’re also going to be surrounding races with media, dedicated spots and other stuff, so I’m not worried at all that our brand isn’t going to show up and we’re not going to get noticed -- we’re definitely going to get noticed.”
