Mars Blackmon, the motormouthed Knicks superfan and movie-star-turned-advertising-legend, is back to help Nike celebrate its 50th anniversary with a shoutout to history and an eye on the future. Spike Lee, reprising the over-the-top character he originated in the indie hit She’s Gotta Have It, also directs the long-form spot called “Seen It All” which includes…
While the egregious sexism of the Mad Men-era might be behind us, brands are still guilty of promoting products through a male gaze. In April, Samsung caught heat for an ad showing a woman jogging alone through dark city streets at 2 a.m. More recently, Adidas stood accused of “dehumanizing” women with a series of…
When it comes to high-profile sporting events, there are several that come to mind for marketing and brand professionals: the Super Bowl, Formula 1, the Olympics and the World Cup, to name a few. All of these events share the same goal: Make an impact to attract the attention span of new audiences, specifically younger…
The role of athletes as brand representatives experienced a range of dramatic changes in 2021. One of the most memorable examples of the changing nature of these paid partnerships happened last summer. That’s when Sweetgreen found itself ahead of a growing conversation about mental health and advertising that was playing out across gymnastics, soccer and,…
Creating engaging and interactive programming across the fan experience is crucial for today’s mobile-first fan. Jim Norton, chief revenue officer of Flowcode, sat down with Fred Gaudelli, executive producer of NBC’s Sunday Night Football, during Adweek’s Convergent TV Summit to discuss the evolution of sports programming and what the future of fan engagement will look…
A knee injury may have sidelined the NBA’s Ja Morant from the playoffs, but the Memphis Grizzlies point guard will continue to be front and center in a new campaign for Beats by Dre. The music video-style spot, featuring an original song from Lil Baby written especially for Morant, originally dropped on TV last weekend….
Meta helped the National Basketball Association continue to celebrate its 75th anniversary with the introduction of the NBA Lane experience in its Horizon Worlds virtual reality environment. Horizon Worlds is available to Meta Quest 2 users 18 and older in Canada and the U.S., and they can navigate to the Events tab from the application’s…
In recent years, content platform TikTok has been partnering with live sporting events to grow its audience base, a strategy that will continue with its announcement that it will become the official entertainment platform of the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 soccer tournament. The competition will begin on July 6 and will comprise of 31 matches,…
With UEFA’s Champion’s League men’s final between Liverpool and Real Madrid slated on May 28, one of the soccer competition’s main sponsors Mastercard has released a spot featuring tournament winner Lionel Messi’s memories of leaving home to play for Barcelona as a boy. The 1 minute 20 second spot, created by McCann, features a digitally…
The first round of the National Hockey League’s) 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs is nearly in the books, and the league shared details on related activations by more than two-dozen partners in Canada and the U.S. The NHL said new partners for this year’s postseason are Chipotle, Clutch and TikTok, and corner in-ice brand positions for…
Belgium is the latest country to crack down on sports betting ads with its Minister of Justice announcing his proposal of an outright ban on the advertising of sports gambling across the country earlier this week. In a measure to combat gambling addiction across the country, Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne intends to introduce the ban…
The National Hockey League is accepting applications for the fourth edition of its NHL Power Players youth advisory board. The initiative began in 2019, and it will bring 25 hockey fans between the ages of 13 and 17 from across Canada and the U.S. together to advise the league on hockey-related topics that are important…
With Major League Baseball attendance declining steadily since 2007 and television ratings also slumping, the game is increasingly looking for ways to engage with younger fans the way basketball, football and other sports do. Allowing players to be themselves and make a connection with fans, as the Seattle Mariners are attempting, may be part of…
Earlier this year, Adidas caused a stir with a series of ads which used bare breasts and nipples to promote its new sports bra range comprising 43 different styles and 72 sizes. The “Support Is Everything” push was first unveiled as a billboard at Adidas’ Germany headquarters as a photo gallery featuring dozens of breasts–from…
If Rich Kleiman is sure of anything, it’s that what people call “overnight success” is made through hard work and determination. Also, it’s essential to always stay true to yourself if you want to build something valuable. That’s what he did in coming up with the vision of something more than a business. He started…
This year’s NCAA Tournament offered a glimpse at the future of name, image and likeness (NIL) deals in college sports. Though Kansas won the tournament, Saint Peter’s guard Doug Edert, who had 20 points off the bench in the tournament darling’s upset of Kentucky, ended up with a shining NIL moment. Thanks to his performance–and…
In the first year of the NHL’s new TV rights deal with Turner Sports and Disney, the networks are not only seeing total audience gains over former rights holder NBC Sports, but an increasingly young and diverse audience–one that has considerably more women than last season. As playoffs get under way, Turner Sports–who has the…
When your oil-change empire spans 700 locations and 27 states, but you don’t want to pay national ad prices to promote it where it needs help most, what are your options? Take 5 Oil Change, a division of Charlotte, N.C.-based Driven Brands, wanted to focus on specific markets within its coverage area while speaking to…
The Kentucky Derby is the most prized jewel in horse racing’s Triple Crown. Apart from the thoroughbreds and jockeys, brands are the other stars attempting to capture the eyes of the well-heeled, floppy hatted, julep-soaked masses descending on Churchill Downs in Louisville this weekend. Targeting a younger audience, Churchill Downs enters its first full-capacity Derby…
It took more than 70 years, but Formula 1 finally caught up to fans in the United States. A decade after it put a race in Austin, Texas, five years after Liberty Media bought it, and more than four years since Netflix’s Formula 1: Drive to Survive made open-wheel racing binge-worthy, F1 sold out its…
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