When the New York Liberty’s Chief Brand Officer, Shana Stephenson, joined the team as a consultant in 2018, her marketing challenge was not simply to attract new fans. At that moment, the team was changing venues, trying to retain its longtime supporters, and making the case for investment in women’s sports at a time when media attention and sponsorship were still limited.
“I saw an incredible opportunity to just continue to tell stories,” Stephenson told an audience of marketing and sales executives at HubSpot’s Unbound conference last month. “There was such a huge disparity in terms of the media coverage that was allocated to women’s sports … They already had a fan base, a very loyal family. So it was about reconnecting with some of those last fans, and really just getting to work.”
In years prior, the Liberty had drawn as many as 10,000 fans to Madison Square Garden, its home stadium. But by 2018, the team had been moved to Westchester County Center, a venue that held only about 2,500. Then Stephenson joined the Liberty and was tasked with rebuilding the audience and attracting partners without losing the fans who had stayed with the team.
In 2019, the Liberty announced a move to Brooklyn, under new ownership and for Stephenson that signaled a fresh start. She saw the relocation as a chance to reach new fans while staying connected to the team’s loyal base. The key to their success was “to cultivate a fan base that was young and cool,” she said. And that meant weighing what to change against what longtime fans valued, including traditions and in-game activations.
Selling a Future Before the Numbers Arrived
Conventional comparisons between women’s and men’s sports could make investment in the Liberty seem hard to justify, according to Stephenson. “When you’re comparing women’s sports and investment and ROI to men’s sports, it’s always going to show that it might not be a worthy increase,” she said.
Her answer was to sell partners on a longer horizon. “You have to be able to spend money to make money,” she said, describing the case for investing in women’s sports before the broader audience and commercial interest had arrived. The argument, as she framed it, was not that short-term measures didn’t matter, but that they couldn’t capture the full opportunity.
The move to Brooklyn helped the team connect its identity to a place Stephenson saw as a cultural center. “Brooklyn shapes New York culture. New York shapes U.S. culture. U.S. culture shapes the world,” she said. The relocation also meant deciding which traditions to carry forward and what new elements might help the team find its footing in a different community.
From Impressions to Belonging
When the Liberty moved to Brooklyn, the team had one corporate partner, HSS. Stephenson said it now has close to 60. In her account, those early sponsorship conversations centered less on audience size than on shared values and the community the team was trying to build.
“It wasn’t about reach. It wasn’t about impressions. It wasn’t about ratings. It was really about building something. It was about values,” she said. Those values, she explained, included basketball and pride, as well as the LGBTQ+ community. “Being really loud about that” was part of the team’s approach.
That framing gave the Liberty a way to make the case to partners when the team’s audience was smaller. It also set a standard for which partnerships made sense. Stephenson said the team wanted to work with brands that understood the effort would take time and respected what the Liberty was building.
A Risky Mascot as a Test of Brand Conviction
One of the bolder decisions in the Liberty’s rebrand came in the form of a mascot. For long-time fans, Maddie had been a familiar presence, and the fan base was already dealing with ownership changes and venue moves. Replacing Maddie with a new mascot, Ellie, risked alienating loyal supporters at a delicate moment.
Ellie also carried potential political baggage. An elephant can be read as a partisan symbol, and the mascot’s debut came during a tense political climate, Stephenson explained. Some fans questioned the decision. The Liberty’s response was not to back away from the choice but to deepen the story behind it. “We created an entire story around how Maddie passed the torch to Ellie,” she said.
The team rooted Ellie in local history and symbolism. Stephenson reminded attendees that after the Brooklyn Bridge was built in the 1800s, a herd of elephants walked across it to prove that the structure was sound. She said they tied the Brooklyn Bridge’s symbolism to the Liberty’s identity, pointing to its historical connection with Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.
Turning New York Culture Into a Competitive Advantage
Stephenson described New York’s fashion, food, music and art scenes as resources for the team’s brand. Her approach was to bring players into cultural spaces where women athletes had not always been treated as influential figures. Early on, she said, she made calls to get players front-row seats at fashion shows and tables at popular restaurants.
“Women are so influential. They’re so multifaceted, they wear so many hats,” she said. “Making sure that we were putting them in places and spaces where they could thrive beyond the basketball court was really important.”
That work also shaped the team’s internal process. Stephenson said she wanted staff to experience the city and bring those perspectives back into the office. She described discussing ideas across the team to determine whether they felt right for the players, the organization or a different part of the brand, such as Ellie or the dance team.
“Does this feel like an authentic fit for us as a brand?” she said, describing one of the questions the team asks. “If you feel like it is, then let’s pursue it. But if it feels like you have to do too much to make it work, it doesn’t feel like a natural fit.”
Stephenson urged marketers to exercise judgment when making those calls. “As a leader, you ultimately are the one who has to make that decision and say, ‘This is what I’m going with,’ and trust your instincts.”