Zip has already done the hard, expensive part. Through its sponsorships of the Philadelphia Flyers, Philadelphia Phillies, and New Orleans Saints, Zip has bought attention and earned trust with three of the most passionate, loyal fan bases in American sports. The cool part is that these fan audiences look remarkably like Zip's core customer: everyday Americans who live paycheck-to-paycheck, often fall outside traditional FICO lending, and want flexible ways to pay for the things they love.
What's missing is the bridge from brand awareness to revenue. We build that bridge and monetize the adjacency it creates, turning "Zip is on the boards and in the stadium" into "Zip is in the checkout cart" at the retailers those same fans shop every week.
Across the market, brands spend only about 80 cents activating every dollar of sponsorship rights, and just 18% spend enough to make it pay off. Zip has bought the audience. Almost nobody cashes it in. That's the whole opportunity, and the layer we run.
When SprintRay sponsored the LA Kings, we didn't settle for a logo on the ice. Our "Close the Gap" campaign found the authentic intersection of product and player, a 3D dental printing company and a hockey player famous for losing teeth, and turned a sponsorship into a story that fans, media, and prospective customers genuinely engaged with. That's the template we bring to Zip: sponsorship as a credibility asset that opens doors, not just an awareness buy.
A focused program against the retailers your fans already shop.
High-volume apparel, footwear, and lifestyle retailers whose customers mirror Zip's fan audiences, organized in tiers from the warmest, fastest wins outward.
Fans already buying the gear.
Fanatics and Lids run the official shops for the very teams Zip sponsors, so Zip's fans are already buying jerseys and game-day gear on their platforms, and a $150 authentic jersey is precisely the purchase an installment plan unlocks. Rally House, already a signed Zip partner with a heavy Philadelphia footprint, is the proof the model works.
Same city, same fans, warm intro.
URBN, Five Below, QVC, and Boscov's are all headquartered in the Philadelphia region. A conversation between brands investing in the same city and the same fans is an easy warm introduction, often brokered through the team partnership offices themselves.
New Orleans fan-affinity as the wedge.
Academy Sports + Outdoors dominates sporting goods across the Gulf South, Hibbett and City Gear serve value-conscious sneaker customers underserved by traditional credit, and Dillard's anchors southern retail, all reachable with New Orleans fan-affinity data as the wedge.
Squarely in the BNPL sweet spot.
National footwear players sit squarely in the BNPL sweet spot, where sneaker culture, young demographics, and $120 to $200 average tickets converge.
The data story that earns the meeting
For each account, we build a personalized fan-overlap story: how Flyers, Phillies, and Saints fans map against that retailer's customer base by geography, income, and shopping behavior. Built from first-party sources (Fanatics, Lids, Rally House, Fevo, StubHub) plus ZoomInfo and Apollo. That's the hook that gets us on the decision-maker's radar.
Hospitality as the ABM engine
We convert Zip's existing sponsorship hospitality into pipeline. A suite at a Flyers game or an on-field experience in New Orleans converts a payments decision-maker far better than a cold email ever will.
A co-branded concept in the room
We arrive at every meeting with a customized activation concept, a "Gear Up, Pay Later" game-day promotion mocked up in that retailer's own brand, so the partnership feels tangible before a contract exists.
Tracked to pipeline from touch one
Every meeting and every dollar of pipeline is traced back to its sports-affinity source, so the sponsorship finally shows up in the numbers, not just on the boards.
Two axes decide where we start.
Fan overlap
How closely a retailer's customers mirror Flyers, Phillies, and Saints fans, by geography, income, and behavior. The stronger the overlap, the warmer the room.
Processor fit
Whether the retailer already runs Adyen, Stripe, or Checkout.com, so Zip can flip on at checkout with almost no integration, the way Rally House went live on Adyen. High fit means a near-frictionless close.
The ranked pilot list: every target scored on both axes, prioritized.
Your fan-overlap data stories, built per account.
Zip has already invested in the relationships and the reach. IG turns that investment into pipeline: audience insight, warm introductions, retailer-ready proof points, and a disciplined account-based program that puts Zip's sales team in the room with the retailers who will grow the business.
Suites, cowboy boots, a jazz performance, or twenty other things. We have a lot of ways to come at them, and we know how to connect the dots to prove the value.
Grounded in real data, not hunches.
- Sponsorship activation ratios and the under-activation gap (Lumency; Sport Management Review)
- B2B sports hospitality ROI and deal acceleration (Brand Activation Maximizer)
- Experiential and pop-up ROI benchmarks (Street Teams Co.)
- Zip US x Rally House partnership, June 2026 (BusinessWire)
The full playbook comes with your plan.
The ranked account list scored on fan overlap and processor fit, the per-account data stories, the co-branded mockups, and the budgets, built specifically for Zip. Let's turn the sponsorships you already own into the pipeline you actually want.