In May, Serena Williams stoked rumors that she was contemplating a return to the court with a single vague tweet. But until the retired tennis legend makes it official, one of the best place to see her — apart from Paris Fashion Week or a random Ulta store — can be “In The Arena: Serena Williams,” an eight-episode docuseries that can debut on ESPN+ starting July 10.
Morgan Stanley serves because the presenting sponsor for “In The Arena” and can be featured across in-show branding elements on streaming and linear properties, voice-over promotions inside ESPN studio shows and brand mentions across ESPN cross-channel promotions. The sponsorship, a collaboration with Disney Advertising, allows the financial services company to proceed an investment into women’s sports that is an element of its larger marketing priorities.
“We’ve spent a good period of time since late 2022 to early 2023 really focused on and searching at how to lift up women’s sports,” said Morgan Stanley CMO Alice Milligan. “How can we as a firm change that and move the needle on something we imagine in that represents our core values?”
The firm’s investment comes amid an ad industry-wide reevaluation of girls’s elites sports. The market, which traditionally only receives 1%-2% of total sports investment, is forecast to surpass $1 billion in revenue this yr, per Deloitte.
Morgan Stanley’s moves into women’s sports and other cultural avenues reflect a broader push to modernize its nearly 90-year-old brand for a recent generation of investors. Leading those efforts is Milligan, who joined Morgan Stanley as chief marketing officer in 2021 after a two-year stint as chief customer officer at subsidiary brand E-Trade.
Morgan Stanley CMO Alice Milligan
Courtesy of Morgan Stanley
Marketing Dive spoke with Milligan in regards to the “In The Arena” sponsorship, how Morgan Stanley approaches purpose-driven efforts and what’s on her radar within the second half of 2024.
The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
MARKETING DIVE: How does the partnership with Disney and ESPN reflect your marketing priorities?
ALICE MILLIGAN: We launched a marketing campaign for the firm last yr called “Old School Grit. New World Ideas,” and Serena is a living example of grit and vision. She leverages her passion for what’s possible and has broken down barriers in her profession across the game. It gave the look of a natural fit with what we were doing when it comes to our brand marketing, in addition to our core values of giving back, lifting up and helping women and young girls.
Tennis is something we have really doubled down on, between our partnership with the Women’s Tennis Association, our “Come Play” initiatives for young girls as a part of that partnership after which having Leylah Fernandez as our brand ambassador.
How do purpose-driven initiatives fit into Morgan Stanley’s larger marketing efforts?
MILLIGAN: As a firm and as a marketer, we do not just do things for press or to make the news: We do things which are consistent with our core values and what we’re doing when it comes to our marketing message.
When I first took over the role of CMO, one in all the primary things we did is get a sense of where Morgan Stanley stood when it comes to our clients and prospects, and what did we wish to accomplish as a firm on our growth agenda and our business strategy. What we saw was, with the acquisition of firms like E-trade and Eaton Vance, Morgan Stanley not only purchased incremental, modern technologies and capabilities, but additionally the chance to appeal to a much broader base and audience than they’d before.
Expanding into younger generations, diverse audiences and girls was really essential as we considered our marketing strategy: how can we start to bring to life the advantages of doing business with a firm like Morgan Stanley, because there’s advantages for all, not only for a select few.
It’s really essential to understand the message you are trying to send and who’s the audience. How do you choose things that basically are reflective of what you suspect in as a firm versus doing things simply because it’s something that’s popular or timely.
Outside of girls’s sports, what other related efforts has the firm undertaken?
MILLIGAN: We did an initiative called “Creating Space” which was all about making it more conducive for ladies to be in space economy by doing a partnership around women’s space suits. We also partnered with Rebecca Minkoff and did a refreshed version of the banker bag for a recent generation of girls on Wall Street. We also recently partnered with the Met where we sponsored their Women Dressing Women event that featured women designers over time, their history and what their contributions were to fashion.
We revamped all of our social media and our social presence. We checked out doing modern things with technology. At The Players tournament this yr, we did an AR activation with Justin Rose, we did 3D billboards, we’re doing AI with our financial advisors. There’s been a whole bunch of things that we’re doing to show the firm is modern and current, but additionally has that legacy and history of having the ability to stand the test of time during complex market environments.
As we glance ahead to H2, what issues within the marketing industry are in your radar?
MILLIGAN: I’d say privacy is at all times top of mind, especially being within the financial services industry. We take very seriously people’s data and data, how that is used, how that is protected, and the way we keep that secure.
Data and analytics are at all times a very important elements as a marketer: the more data and data you possibly can get on the outcomes and the impact of what you do, especially in tough economic times, is admittedly essential. My team spends a lot of time just really ensuring that we’re able to share, explain and communicate the outcomes from the marketing initiatives that we do.
With generative AI, we have really been how best to leverage it. I feel a number of the initial things that we’re doing as a team across my marketing organization are the use cases we are able to test. A very good variety of them, at the very least initially, are really internally facing: How can we be more efficient and effective at how we use our marketing dollars, how we develop and distribute our content, but additionally where people have been bolder, what does that seem like and what are the outcomes?
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