SPORTS MARKETING

Morning Brew Inc, Photos: @underarmour/YouTube

Earlier in his career, Eric Ogbogu, a former NFL defensive end, was the face of Under Armour, fronting the brand’s iconic “Protect This House” campaign from the early aughts.

Today, he’s worked there for almost two decades, now serving as a director at the company.

In a sense, Ogbogu personifies Under Armour’s marketing strategy. The brand has roots on the football field; founder and now-CEO Kevin Plank has said he came up with the idea for the brand when he played at the University of Maryland (where Ogbogu also played college ball). While football has always been a part of Under Armour’s DNA, Ryan Collins, senior director of global sports marketing, told us, there have been recent years when the sport wasn’t necessarily front and center in the company’s messaging.

“We never got away from it,” Collins told Marketing Brew, but “we maybe weren’t as intentional all the time about speaking to football and telling that story.”

Now, Under Armour is redoubling down on the sport—this time with a more modern marketing spin that extends from traditional moves like an NFL sponsorship to forward-looking bets like flag-football partnerships. The push comes on the heels of basketball star Steph Curry parting ways with the brand after more than a decade.

As an international, endemic sports brand, Under Armour’s marketing teams around the world are focused on a variety of team sports, Collins said, but in the US, football reigns supreme: nearly a third of Americans named the sport as their favorite this year, according to Gallup, even though that percentage has declined in recent years. With Under Armour’s North American revenue down 9% YoY in its most recent quarter, the company’s marketers stateside are betting that football can help them tell the brand’s story while also driving business growth, he said.

Continue reading here.—AM

      

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More channels shouldn’t have to mean more complexity. See how Walmart Connect is evolving commerce media to spark growth.

THE STATE OF THE CMO

Morning Brew Inc.

Considering how much the CMO role may be changing, some wonder if the role will even exist in the near future.

When asked what they expect the role to look like in five years, one respondent to a recent Marketing Brew survey told us that the CMO will be “going, going, gone.” Another said they believe it will become part of sales and product management departments.

Another respondent said it’ll be “nonexistent in all but the largest companies.”

It could be that the role is filled in a fractional capacity rather than a full-time role. Thirty-nine percent of our survey respondents agreed with the statement that fractional or part-time CMOs can be as effective as full-time CMOs. But nearly the same amount—37%—disagreed.

Many more respondents see the role remaining—just adapting and expanding to meet the moment. Half of our respondents agreed that the traditional CMO role is being replaced by other executives or distributed across teams.

That tension and question about the importance of the CMO and whether or not the role will remain as it is may be the one true constant when it comes to the future of the position.

Marketers have been dealing with the “stigma” of being “seen as a cost center only with very long-term ROI” for years, a history that’s left marketing leaders on their “back foot to prove their value” even as the role has changed, Dory Ellis Garfinkle, CMO of branding consultancy Siegel+Gale, told us.

That could lead to continued use of fractional talent over full-time marketing hires.

“I think there’s going to be a lot of businesses that are afraid to commit in a major way to hiring somebody,” Ellis Garfinkle said. “But I also think that future-proofing the role is going to be based on emotional intelligence, leadership, teamwork, adding value, spotting opportunities, and that’s something that you need someone embedded in your business to be able to do.”

Read more here.—KM

      

COWORKING

Emily Steele

Each week, we spotlight Marketing Brew readers in our Coworking series. If you’d like to be featured, introduce yourself here.

Emily Steele is CEO and co-founder of Hummingbirds, a creator and customer engagement platform for CPG brands. She previously ran a consultancy focused on serving small businesses in Des Moines, Iowa.

What’s your favorite ad campaign? Our team recently had a good laugh at Snickers’s focus group with all participants named Reese/Reece. They were trying Snickers peanut butter bars and giving feedback, then realized midway through they all shared the same name. It was a playful way to position against Reese’s (of course), and it felt very authentic.

One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile: I don’t think my obsession with personal growth shines on LinkedIn, but it’s something I’ve been passionate about since I learned my Enneagram at age 16 from a high school mentor of mine. I love understanding more about myself and those I work with so I can help them grow into their full potential. I nerd out with Enneagram, Human Design, and Abraham-Hicks and am always drawn to conversations where people are trying to figure out how to be the best, most aligned version of themselves.

Continue reading here.

      

Sponsored By Walmart Connect

Connect what matters. Marketers need a simpler way to connect planning, activation, and measurement. Walmart Connect brings media and commerce together to help advertisers understand what’s working and improve business outcomes.

french press

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

World Cup wrap-up: Analysis of the companies and industries that spent the most on the World Cup, which generated an estimated $1.7 billion to $2.2 billion from sponsorships alone.

GDPTok: TikTok’s report on its impact on the US economy.

Ready, set, go: A guide to GTM tech, aka the stack of tools brands use to coordinate go-to-market efforts.

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Jobs

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JOINING FORCES

Mergers and acquisitions, company partnerships, and more.

• Adobe signed on as the official creative, marketing, and artificial intelligence partner of the NHL, following years of behind-the-scenes and official work with the NFL.
• Chime partnered with MLS star Son Heung-Min for its latest campaign, building on its work as a league sponsor.
• Asics tapped actress Sigourney Weaver to narrate a satirical ad tied to World Mental Health Day.