To champion women's financial independence, Ally launched Side Hustlers, a five-part unscripted series on Roku. The show paired real female entrepreneurs with powerhouse mentors Emma Grede and Ashley Graham, culminating in real investment decisions. Ally promoted the series via high-impact Roku ad units and social media.
As the first all-digital bank, Ally has disrupted the industry by offering financial services that truly serve its customers, breaking the norms of traditional banks.
Women are massively under-represented in business. The brand's challenge was to change the game for aspiring business leaders and inspire female entrepreneurs, building brand affinity that Ally approaches money differently.
This was a first of its kind partnership between Ally, Roku Originals, and Hello Sunshine. Between a series of efforts from Ally to showcase women on their journey to financial independence and Hello Sunshine's mission to provide a platform for female driven narratives, the TV series Side Hustlers was authentically aligned.
This follows a series of efforts from Ally to showcase women on their journey to financial independence, including the Daring to Disrupt content series (which included a contest aimed at empowering and supporting women entrepreneurs with funding to help them build their businesses) and their commitment to equity in women's sports. Ally understands the financial impact of having women succeed in any of their business endeavors and as a company, they strive to see women financially gain.
Less than two percent of venture capital funding goes to women-led companies in the U.S. and less than 15 percent of venture capital investors are women.
With so few women-owned businesses receiving financial investments, Ally wanted to showcase women starting and growing small businesses to inspire the next female entrepreneurs.
With 70 million Americans — 45 percent of the workforce — having a side hustle on top of their nine-to-five, Ally created Side Hustlers — a TV series aiming to turn women's side hustles into main hustles, elevating women and underrepresented voices in the startup and entrepreneurial space, putting them in the spotlight.
The idea was to build the five-part TV series on America's No. 1 TV streaming platform, Roku, to reach female audiences with the stories of real female entrepreneurs looking for mentorship and funding from established female investors.
The show gets at the truth of how complex and daunting building a business can be for female entrepreneurs and the unique struggles they face balancing their home lives with building their businesses. It showcased how women supporting other women can lead to a movement, and create a cycle that sees representation in building up and funding women.
Side Hustlers launched as the No. 1 show on The Roku Channel with distribution in the U.S. The series brings together two investors, Emma Grede, co-founder and CEO of Good American and founding partner of Skims, and world-renowned model and entrepreneur Ashley Graham. They each mentor three female founded businesses in a high-stakes boot camp, sharing the tools, resources, and expertise they need to supercharge their hustles. This culminated in Emma and Ashley deciding if they wanted to invest in the businesses and the side hustlers decide if they were going to finally quit their day jobs.
Side Hustlers was promoted on Roku's streaming platform — including high-impact ad units, custom vignettes, a 30 second spot. Ashley Graham, Emma Grede, and executive producer Reese Witherspoon also shared the program on their social accounts.
As the first all-digital bank, Ally has disrupted the industry by offering financial services that truly serve its customers, breaking the norms of traditional banks. Through its media and advertising, the brand continued to uplift female leaders who are changing and challenging the status quo.
Side Hustlers launched as the No. 1 most viewed Roku Original for the month of March and a top Roku Original unscripted title. It was also the No. 1 title on the Roku Channel for both reach and engagement the week it launched and in the month of March. What's more, the program generated over 500 million impressions, and more than 1.8 billion earned media impressions across more than and 45 press hits. Key coverage included the Today Show, CBS This Morning, and The Drew Barrymore Show. On social media, the campaign generated over 100 million organic impressions throughout the launch window. Lastly, it created a 15 percent spike in web traffic on ally.com.
Side Hustlers has already been renewed for a second season on Roku — continuing Ally's mission of encouraging and inspiring female entrepreneurs to turn their side hustle to their main hustle and increase overall investment in female founded businesses.
