day 3

NFL | The Rapid Evolution of Athletes as Brand Builders

I woke up extra early to be front and center for this one! I love sports, especially whenever there’s a crossover episode with advertising. CMO and EVP at the NFL Tim Ellis, Minnesota Vikings Receiver Justin Jefferson, Cincinnati Bengals Quarterback Joe Burrow, and Tennessee Titans Wide Receiver DeAndre Hopkins were speakers on a panel moderated by NFL Sports Analyst Kimmi Chex. They talked about the NFL’s rebranding to reach a new audience. Ellis explained their goal was to bring in more Latinos and women (I check all the boxes!). They wanted to get players’ helmets off to see their interests and humanize the face of the league. In other words, build their brands. I agree this was the right move since the league has to keep up with society’s values to stay relevant and appeal to new generations, especially with transparency and mental health rising to the top. The players shared that they want a brand to understand who they are, what they care about, and what they want. Hopkins also shared how he does this being older. He didn’t have the opportunity in college like they do now with NILs. He invests in a social media team and gives them the tools they need to market him. He teaches younger players to go for what’s comfortable for you, not to just go for the biggest deal. Being able to jump in NIL earlier in their careers, Burrow and Jefferson agreed on sticking with the local brands. Jefferson also touched upon his experience being part of the Netflix doc series ‘Receiver.’ It gives fans more access to what his friends and family struggle with, making them more relatable. Jefferson felt hesitancy at first to showing stuff, specifically his injury, but agreed it was great to show overcoming adversity. Burrow, a more private person, faces a constant battle in keeping as much private as possible while building his brand to be marketable. Then the conversation shifted to more traditional advertising: TV. Post-COVID, Hopkins’ mom got a spot. He wanted to put her and her domestic violence charity on the forefront. It was a campaign to pull people together, and show they had each other’s backs. Now, they couldn’t talk about football and advertising without bringing up the Super Bowl. This year’s 72andSunny spot featured Jefferson. Coming out of recovery, this was a “no-brainer.” I remember seeing this ad all over, and even though it’s not my personal favorite, I do like how it shows the international reach American football has been striving towards. And speaking of playing internationally, everyone showed their enthusiasm for flag football’s expansion globally. Jefferson is already a flag football advocate for the NFL, and Hopkins made a league in Arizona, mostly serving the Latino community. It will be played in the Olympics for the first time in LA 2028, which I find very fitting since they’ll be in the US. Burrow said he’s “playing in that shit, man!” They’re excited for the chance to be Olympians and win the gold, as well as showcase the NFL brand.

WPP | Exploring the New Frontiers of Innovation: Mark Read in Conversation with Elon Musk

Nothing has changed since his tweet. When CEO at WPP Mark Read asked Chief Technology Officer at X Elon Musk if there’s any tweet he regrets, Musk replied with it’s better to be real than go through a filter. Which I can agree with. But I also strongly believe that there’s a way to go about and say things. If he thinks that X is the best place for brands to reach the most influential people in the world, then I think he has to first appeal to advertisers. When he drew comparisons between Optimus, a fully functional humanoid robot, and C-3PO or R2-D2, I instead saw ‘Detroit: Become Human’ unfold. I don’t like the idea of brands building robots like that to be in our homes. When talking about Neurolink, Musk said ideas are easy, while execution is hard. From my experience, the hardest part is always getting to that Big Idea, finding that simple message that inspires change. Once you have it, there’s an endless possibility of executions that could work, because a good Big Idea can live out in many shapes and forms. And I think this whole process is fun, frustrating, and full of emotion because it’s human. We can enhance that, sure, but based on the direction Musk wants to head in, it seems he wants to replace it.

Amazon | You Had to Be There: A CMO’s Guide to Cultural Moments

I love when brands play into what’s going on in pop culture. Director of Global Content and Artist Marketing at Amazon Music Kirdis Postelle, Analyst of Thursday Night Football at Amazon Andrew Whitworth, and Director of Live Production at Prime Video Live Sports Jared Stacy talked about how Amazon taps into culture, specifically music and sports. They take live events and scale them globally, to get fans at home to feel part of the experience. For example, when Whitworth goes to the city where the game is happening, he takes his viewers with him and gives them access to inside parts of the action. He’s had fans approach him just to thank him for including them in the Thursday Night Football experience. They have also been fostering the intersection between music and sports, more than ever now with Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce dating. The Super Bowl featured an ad about daughters bonding with their dads thanks to this. I remember when I first saw it, I found it very sweet and in touch with the cultural moment. They also noted how in music things happen very quickly, so they have to create a quick process to react. This reminded me of when Heinz in less than 24 hours rebranded their Kranch to Ketchup and Seemingly Ranch because of a tweet that went viral about Swift eating piece of chicken with those condiments at a game. I love how they reacted quickly and came up with a simple yet clever solution to not only a product that had the fastest sales decline but also stay relevant with culture.

Google | The AI Era: Supercharging Marketing and Creativity

This was much needed after the Elon Musk talk. The VP and General Manager of Advertising at Google Vidhya Srinivasan and Director of Creative Lab at Google Alexander Chen lifted our moods by stating how “The future isn’t just about AI. It’s about AI and us.” They showed us the AI tools Google offers creatives. Their chatbot Gemini can interpret pictures, videos, and drawings, literally describing what it sees, and GenType creates a font based on a prompt written by the user. They emphasized how AI expands potential, that is when used responsibly. Creativity with control is what makes it useful. Most importantly, we are the marketers, not AI. It’s job is to help us with creativity and performance, to ideate, create, and expand. As a creative starting their career at the same time AI is kicking off, this was all reassuring to hear.

Meta | Paper Planes: Where Art Meets Science

Spoiler: we didn’t build paper airplanes! CMO and VP of Analytics at Meta and Artist and Stage Designer Es Devlin walked us through her work from over the years. With all this new technology emerging, especially AI, Devlin shared how she thinks “If everyone is using the same tools, the difference will be creativity.” This further supports the idea from the previous talk — how AI is meant to enhance creative work. However, that was about it and the talk didn’t really go into anything further.