SPORTS MARKETING

KC Current

Ted Lasso is headed back to London and bringing the power of “Believe” to women’s soccer—or, sorry, football. But first, the beloved fictional coach made his support for women’s sports known back in Kansas City.

Season 4 of Ted Lasso, which premieres today on Apple TV, sends the endlessly optimistic Ted back to London to manage AFC Richmond’s newly formed second-division women’s football team—and as part of the show’s promotion, Apple teamed up with the NWSL’s Kansas City Current. In July, the streamer and the soccer team cohosted a World Cup watch party at CPKC Stadium, featuring branded photo ops, a product giveaway, and cobranded Current and Ted Lasso merch, along with appearances from cast members Jason Sudeikis, Juno Temple, Jeremy Swift, Brendan Hunt, and Abbie Hern.

The combination of excitement about the show and the international sporting match made for a night to remember, according to Missy Jenkins, SVP of commercial at the Current, and served as yet another way the show and its characters have shown up around major soccer tentpoles to further boost fandom stateside.

“What better way to start a watch party than to highlight this awesome television show about community and soccer and can-do attitude, [and] to highlight a soccer team in Kansas City who has really great fans and stands for innovation and excitement in a different way?” Jenkins told us.

Continue reading here.—JN

      

Sponsored By Smartpress

You only get one chance to make a good first impression. Your print materials reflect your business, and they can boost memory retention up to 3x more than digital while driving longer engagement.

Make sure your print materials show the same care and professionalism that you bring to your work with Smartpress.

Smartpress provides luxe printing with specialty finishes, premium paper stocks, and total customization. Whether you’re stocking up on catalogs, mailers, signage, or brochures, Smartpress has your back.

With world-class customer service and real, human print experts to help guide you, Smartpress makes creating brilliant print simple. And they do it all fast: Get real-time price quotes and quick turnarounds, so you can be ready for anything.

Physical marketing drives impact in a digital-first world. Here’s what you need to know.

AI

Pie

Marketing startup Pie has a new investor: AmEx Ventures, the corporate venture-capital arm of American Express, the company exclusively told Marketing Brew.

Pie, a marketing and growth platform for small businesses, emerged from stealth in June with a $19.5 million Series A funding round, with participation from investors like Capital One Ventures. Its services span campaign management, including automatic modifications to campaigns that are designed to aid performance. Pie also includes an AI search product that seeks to optimize brands’ presence in AI search. Pie’s clients include Supercuts, Massage Envy, and European Wax Center, according to its website. (The company should not be confused with the social networking and events platform that shares the same name.)

“We built Pie for how small businesses actually operate, meeting them where they are and taking a revenue-first approach to growth,” Syed Ali, Pie’s CEO and co-founder, said in a press release. “The investment from AmEx Ventures will help us accelerate that mission and reach more of the businesses that power local economies across the country.”

Pie declined to name the amount of the AmEx Ventures investment.

Zoom out: To help drive growth, Pie is relying on brand partnerships with software platforms that are already used by small businesses. The company recently partnered with MoeGo, a growth platform that serves pet-care businesses, which embedded Pie’s tools.

Pie’s debut comes at a time when brands are scrambling to stay visible as AI transforms best practices around search engine optimization. Startups like Profound and AthenaHQ have also sprung up to help brands with search or appear in AI responses.—JS

      

SOCIAL & INFLUENCERS

Amber Venz Box

Most e-commerce companies dream of building a subscription model that generates meaningful recurring revenue. Fewer are willing to walk away from it once they do.

That’s the bet Amber Venz Box is making.

As co-founder of LikeToKnow.it or LTK, she built an online affiliate and commerce marketing company to monetize her work as a personal shopper and early online influencer on her own website and on social networks like Instagram. Now, as LTK focuses on its own social shopping platform featuring individual creators, her plan is to pivot away from charging brands and instead openly share the data her platform has collected about creators and product sales with them.

The decision reflects her belief that the creator economy is entering a new phase—one where creators are increasingly building businesses around audiences they can reach directly.

In a conversation with Founder Brew, Amber Venz Box got candid about stepping away from a model that generated predictable revenue, where she thinks the creator economy is heading next, and what it’s like building a startup outside of Silicon Valley or New York.

Read more on Founder Brew.—JH

      

Sponsored By Rocket Lawyer

Read the fine print before it reads you. Contracts are basically legal mad libs — one wrong blank and you're stuck. Rocket Lawyer's free AI review scans yours in minutes, flags the red flags, and connects you with real attorneys for backup. No law degree required. Know what you're signing before you sign it. Try it free right now.

EVENTS

Morning Brew Inc.

By now you know the drill: the Marketing Brew Summit rolls back into NYC on September 30, this time with Netflix, Reddit, and SharkNinja on the docket. Early Bird’s already gone, but Standard and livestream tickets are still around — grab yours before that changes too.

french press

Morning Brew

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren’t those.

Host with the most: LinkedIn lessons for event marketing on the platform.

Search it up: SEO tools that may still be relevant to marketers in the age of AI.

Shopping spree: Why retail media is getting into the content game.

^{*A message from our sponsor.}

PODCAST

Dive into the dos and don’ts of affordability marketing. It’s not for all brands, but some have figured out the ways to keep customers with long-term strategies, while others are opting for a quick, catchy moment. How do you make consumers feel valued and savvy while still providing a good deal? Listen to this episode of Marketing Brew Weekly to find out.

Quiz

Amelia Kinsinger

The week’s biggest Marketing Brew stories, now in quiz form. Test yourself on the latest headlines in brand strategy, social media, influencer trends, sports marketing, and more in a quick, competitive challenge built for marketing pros. Challenge your coworkers and see how your score stacks up!

METRICS AND MEDIA

Stat: 11 hours. That’s how long people in the US and UK are consuming media every day, often across multiple devices like phones and TVs, according to research from Ampere Analysis cited by Advanced Television.

Quote: “If you believe marketing can have an impact on businesses generally, lean into that, have confidence around that and build a plan. And then if you work for a CEO you trust, bring your ambition to them, and ask for support, but don’t be entitled to it.”—Melissa Puls, CMO at IT and security software company Ivanti, speaking to the Wall Street Journal on how chief marketers might move into CEO positions

Read: “Can the OG Glossier playbook still work?” (The Cut)