Sports Marketing is Becoming a Full Brand Ecosystem
ADWEEK’s latest Sports Marketing MVPs spotlight how brands are moving beyond traditional sponsorships and using sports across creative, social, experiential, influencer, media and business development. Adidas, Prime Video, Deloitte, Coca-Cola, Dr Pepper, Fanatics and others are building strategies that make sports part of their broader cultural identity, creating opportunities to engage consumers well beyond the game itself. The shift reflects how marketers are increasingly treating sports as an integrated brand platform rather than simply another media buy.
(AdWeek)
Function Makes Its First CMO Hire, Bringing Marketing Firepower
Health-tech company Function has appointed Taj Alavi as its first Chief Marketing Officer, bringing in a seasoned marketer who previously led global brand marketing at Instagram, global brand and creative at Uber, and global marketing at Spotify. She will build Function’s marketing organization as the company works to bring its personalized-health offering to a broader audience, reflecting a growing trend of emerging brands tapping consumer marketing veterans to accelerate growth.
(PR Newswire)
Walmart Takes its Retail-Media Data into Linear TV
Walmart is expanding Walmart Connect beyond its digital and retail-media ecosystem, giving advertisers access to its shopper targeting and measurement capabilities across Warner Bros. Discovery’s linear TV inventory. The move further blurs the lines between retail media, traditional television and data-driven advertising, as brands look for ways to connect media exposure to actual purchasing behavior. It also underscores the growing power of retailers' first-party data as companies like Walmart compete for budgets that have historically gone to traditional brand media.
Chick-fil-A Turns Surplus Food into a Larger Brand Purpose Platform
Chick-fil-A is expanding its long-running Shared Table program, which now operates at 90% of its restaurants and partners with more than 1,600 nonprofits nationwide. Through its partnership with New York's Bowery Mission, the brand has donated more than 58,000 meals since 2018, using its restaurant network to address food insecurity while reducing food waste. The program demonstrates how a brand can turn an operational capability into a meaningful community initiative, connecting purpose with tangible action rather than treating social impact as a standalone marketing message.
(Nations Restaurant News)
Starbucks Takes Its Brand Beyond the Coffee Cup
Starbucks is expanding its brand beyond beverages through a growing slate of merchandise collaborations and cultural partnerships, giving consumers new ways to interact with the brand outside its stores. The strategy taps into collectibility, lifestyle and cultural relevance, turning Starbucks products into something consumers can wear, display and identify with rather than simply another branded cup. For a mature global brand, the approach shows how merchandise and partnerships can create new sources of engagement and keep a familiar brand culturally relevant.
(AdWeek)