Gainbridge's 'Assist-Obsessed' campaign, created by Young & Laramore in April 2025, uses Caitlin Clark's record-setting WNBA assists to reframe financial
ARCHIVEGainbridge Turns Caitlin Clark's Assist Record Into a Finance Brand Moment
Gainbridge's "Assist-Obsessed" campaign, created by Young & Laramore and launched in the United States on April 14, 2025, uses WNBA star Caitlin Clark's record-setting assists to position the digital financial-services brand as an everyday partner in helping consumers manage their money more effectively.
The campaign's central conceit is both literal and conceptual. Clark, the 2024 WNBA Rookie of the Year and single-season assists leader, lends her on-court identity to a brand argument: that Gainbridge, like Clark herself, exists to assist. That parallel gives the campaign a ready-made narrative logic, connecting a statistically verifiable athletic achievement to a financial-services value proposition in a way that sidesteps the abstraction that often burdens banking and finance advertising. In the United States, where consumer trust in financial brands remains a persistent creative challenge, the move to anchor messaging to a concrete, culturally resonant sports record is a deliberate strategic choice.
The campaign ran as a digital and integrated media effort during the 2025 WNBA season, with placements spanning Indiana Pacers and Indiana Fever broadcasts, YouTube, and national digital channels, as reported by Adweek. Gainbridge also secured placement within the Indianapolis 500 broadcast on Fox on May 24, 2025, per Adweek's April 14, 2025 report by Robert Williams. The campaign was shot at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis — the arena that bears the brand's name — lending the production an additional layer of authenticity and local specificity. Creative leadership came from Bryan Judkins, Partner and Executive Creative Director at Young & Laramore, and Zac Neulieb, serving as Creative Director. The Clapboard Score for "Assist-Obsessed" is 52 out of 100.
Gainbridge operates in one of the most active segments of the United States financial-services landscape. U.S. retail annuity sales reached $434.1 billion in 2024, according to LIMRA, and LIMRA further projected that full-year 2025 annuity sales would exceed $400 billion. Within that market, fixed indexed annuities and registered index-linked annuities combined represented approximately 44 percent of total annuity sales in 2024, up from 23 percent in 2015, according to LIMRA — a structural shift toward the kinds of products Gainbridge offers through its digital-first platform.
Against that backdrop, the strategic rationale for "Assist-Obsessed" becomes clearer. Gainbridge competes in a crowded digital finance category where brands such as Betterment and SoFi have invested heavily in sports and lifestyle marketing to build consumer awareness outside traditional financial media. Gainbridge's decision to align with Caitlin Clark during the 2025 WNBA season reflects a recognition that Clark's cultural footprint extends well beyond basketball fandom. As The Drum reported on April 17, 2025, the campaign was designed to emphasize Gainbridge's strategy of reaching consumers in sports-adjacent contexts rather than purely within financial media environments.
The geographic specificity of the campaign also carries strategic weight. Young & Laramore is an Indianapolis-based agency, Gainbridge Fieldhouse is in Indianapolis, and the Indiana Fever — Clark's team — play their home games there. The Indianapolis 500 broadcast placement on Fox extends that local credibility to a national audience. In the United States, place-based brand identity is increasingly used by challenger financial brands to differentiate from the coastal, corporate tone associated with larger incumbents. The campaign leans into that regional authenticity without limiting its distribution reach.
Ryan Ebner directed the campaign for production company ArtClass. The creative team at Young & Laramore included Bryan Judkins as Partner and Executive Creative Director, Zac Neulieb as Creative Director, Jane Driver as Associate Creative Director and Writer, and Baker Wright as Art Director. Executive production was handled by Jackie Vidor, with Lauren Dwyer serving as Account Director and Ben Bertsch as Senior Account Manager. On the production side, Geno Imbriale served as Managing Partner at ArtClass.
The decision to film at Gainbridge Fieldhouse rather than a neutral or fabricated location is a meaningful creative choice. It roots the spot in physical reality — the arena where Clark plays, where Gainbridge's name appears on the building, and where the assists record being celebrated was set. That specificity resists the tendency in finance advertising to operate in abstracted, aspirational spaces. Instead, the campaign meets consumers on familiar visual terrain, using the basketball court as a shared reference point before pivoting to the financial message.
The Drum described the execution as "slick" and "light-hearted" in its April 17, 2025 coverage by Catherine Wolf, a tonal pairing that is deliberate in the finance category. Financial advertising in the United States has historically defaulted to either gravitas or anxiety — retirement cliffs, market volatility, looming uncertainty. "Assist-Obsessed" opts for warmth and wit instead, using Clark's personality and the assists metaphor to keep the tone accessible. The integrated campaign encompassed digital media, television broadcast, and YouTube, allowing the single core creative idea to carry across formats without requiring tonal adjustment. The contained single-asset structure noted by Clapboard suggests the campaign was built around one tightly executed hero piece rather than a fragmented multi-creative rollout.
ARCHIVENo verified performance data for the "Assist-Obsessed" campaign is publicly available. Gainbridge has not published engagement metrics, conversion figures, or brand-lift results in any documented public source, and third-party measurement data for the campaign has not been reported by Adweek, The Drum, or any other named outlet as of the time of this analysis.
Structural analysis offers a useful alternative frame. The campaign's media plan — Indiana Fever and Pacers broadcasts, YouTube, digital, and the May 24, 2025 Indianapolis 500 on Fox — distributes a single coherent creative idea across high-attention sports contexts at meaningful reach. The Indianapolis 500 placement in particular represents a significant national broadcast moment that extends the campaign's exposure well beyond the WNBA's core viewership. In the United States, the convergence of sports viewership and financial product consideration is a documented behavioral pattern among the demographic Gainbridge is likely targeting.
The conceptual tightness of the assists metaphor also reduces creative attrition across repeated exposures. A campaign built on a single, easily retold idea — Clark sets assist records; Gainbridge assists your finances — travels through word of mouth and social sharing more efficiently than campaigns relying on layered narrative. The Clapboard Score of 52 out of 100 reflects a campaign with a clearly executable central concept that nonetheless leaves meaningful creative and strategic territory unexplored, particularly in terms of depth of financial product communication and differentiation from the broader sports-celebrity endorsement category in United States finance marketing.
"Assist-Obsessed" is a 2025 integrated campaign created by Young & Laramore for Gainbridge, launched April 14, 2025 in the United States. It features Caitlin Clark and connects her WNBA single-season assists record to Gainbridge's positioning as a financial partner that helps consumers manage their money more effectively.
Gainbridge chose Caitlin Clark because her identity as the 2024 WNBA Rookie of the Year and single-season assists leader directly supports the campaign's core metaphor. Clark plays for the Indiana Fever at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, giving the brand an authentic local connection that reinforces the campaign's geographic and cultural credibility in the United States.
Bryan Judkins, Partner and Executive Creative Director at Young & Laramore, led the campaign alongside Creative Director Zac Neulieb. Jane Driver served as Associate Creative Director and Writer, Baker Wright as Art Director, and Ryan Ebner directed the spot for production company ArtClass, as documented by The Drum and ibj.com.
The campaign ran across Indiana Fever and Pacers broadcasts, YouTube, and national digital channels in the United States. Gainbridge also secured a placement within the Indianapolis 500 broadcast on Fox on May 24, 2025, extending the campaign's reach to a large national sports audience, as reported by Adweek.
The Gainbridge "Assist-Obsessed" campaign holds a Clapboard Score of 52 out of 100. The score reflects a campaign with a clear and executable central concept — the assists metaphor — while indicating that the execution leaves room for deeper financial product communication and stronger differentiation within United States finance advertising.
Gainbridge operates in a high-growth segment of United States financial services. U.S. retail annuity sales reached $434.1 billion in 2024, according to LIMRA, which also projected full-year 2025 sales would exceed $400 billion. The campaign targets awareness-building during this period of market expansion, using Caitlin Clark's cultural profile to reach consumers outside traditional finance media.
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