• by Danielle Oster , October 2, 2024

Las Vegas Aces point guard and two-time WNBA champion Kelsey Plum stars in a new campaign promoting digital financial services company Zip.

The “Pay How You Want” campaign highlights Zip’s various flexible payment offerings. It ties the message to Plum’s need for flexibility in juggling the various aspects of her life on and off the court (Plum also launched her own cigar brand). It follows her as she goes shopping for clothes before a game, makes her way through the tunnel onto the court, and takes a photo with a young fan.

“Pay How You Want” launched yesterday with a video ad, arriving in the midst of Plum’s Aces taking on the New York Liberty in the WNBA Semifinals. The campaign is running across platforms including cable, on-demand TV, OOH, and digital and social media channels including Meta, TikTok, and YouTube.

“We have strong overlap between WNBA fans and our existing customers. Kelsey has one of the fastest growing fan followings, and we worked hard to build a story that highlights Zip as a payment method in her life. We wove in some fun Easter eggs in the narrative for her fans: the tunnel walk, her favorite catchphrase, inclusion of her other brand endorsements,” Zip CMO Jinal Shah told Marketing Daily.

“Our hope is that her fans will feel seen and by association, will feel seen by Zip. Entertainment, such as sports ticketing, is also a natural fit for Zip as we explore more ways to engage fans and provide flexible payment solutions for their experiences.”

The campaign isn’t the first appearance Plum has made for the brand. She acted as a brand ambassador and Grand Marshal for a NASCAR event at Sonoma Raceway this past June, according to Shah, another fanbase the brand is courting. Shah described both leagues as “active cultural movements” the brand wants to tap into.

Plum is "so much more than her score on the court," added Shah. "She has been doing unbelievable work with raising the next generation of female athletes with her ["Dawg Class" program helping women transition from playing college basketball to playing professionally]. We see tremendous value alignment with her.”

Shah declined to share specifics about future work with the star, but said that Zip and Plum were “just beginning to write this story together” alluding to “more to come.”  She explained the brand was benchmarking campaign performance against a control group to measure campaign effectiveness across quantitative and qualitative metrics, adding, “As a B2C and B2B business, qualitative success for us would be strengthening of our sales pipeline and shortening the sales cycle, among other attributes.”