Women’s hockey found massive success on the international stage this year, with record-breaking viewership of the overtime Olympic gold-medal game between Team USA and Team Canada.

But until the end of March, the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) had never had a nationally televised game in the US.

PWHL games air on regional sports networks across the league’s four US markets and stream on YouTube, but the March 28 matchup between the New York Sirens and the Montréal Victoire was the first nationally televised game, airing on Scripps’s Ion sports network. The Walter Cup Finals are also set to air nationally on Ion in May.

The national broadcast deal, facilitated with help from PWHL sponsor Ally Financial, comes as demand for women’s hockey continues to grow. Amy Scheer, the league’s EVP of business operations, said it’s a trend that was bolstered—but not initiated—by the Olympics. National linear broadcasts present an opportunity to level up the PWHL even further, she said, and the league has plans to continue the momentum beyond this season.

“To have our games air side-by-side with the WNBA and the NWSL puts us in the company that we belong in, which is the top three women’s professional sports leagues in North America,” Scheer told Marketing Brew. “For us, it legitimizes our product, our brand.”

Continue reading here.—AM

Super Bowl viewers who were able to peel their eyes away from the spectacle of a brunette Guy Fieri in the Bosch ad may have noticed a trend in the commercials this year. Not that one—a lot of them were from AI companies.

With 125 million people tuning into the AI Bowl this year, the underlying push from marketers and ad agencies is relatively simple: follow the eyeballs. AI agents are top of mind for brands and agencies because consumers are using the technology more. What makes this technological advancement different from previous technological industry moves, though, is that both the industry and the consumer are awash in confusion.

As platforms flood brands and consumers with agentic AI tools, media buyers are navigating not only a nascent but rapidly evolving technological landscape, but also varied client sentiment toward agents and perhaps, AI in general.

“On one hand, we see a major rise in conversational commerce where people are describing what they are looking for in the same way as if they’re talking to a friend or talking to a sales associate. The queries are getting much longer, much more descriptive,” Ashish Gupta, VP and GM of merchant shopping at Google, said. “At the same time, what you’re also seeing is that agentic technology is finally catching up, which means that shoppers can delegate some of the most serious part of shopping to the agents…But for this new agentic era to be really and truly successful, it has to work for everyone, especially all the brands and retailers of all sizes, which are the backbone of our industry.”

Read more here.—JS

It’s all fines and games for the social media platforms recently.

Last month, a New Mexico jury found Meta liable for violating state consumer protection laws and ordered the company to pay $375 million in damages in a case related to child safety on its apps. The next day, a California jury found both Meta and Google liable for negligence in fueling one woman’s depression and anxiety as a young user, awarding her $6 million in damages. These decisions marked the first time social platforms have been held accountable for possible harm to children and have been called landmark cases.

But will they cause marketers to flee Meta and Google platforms? If history is any indicator, the answer is likely no, Sean Wright, chief insights and analytics officer at ad intelligence platform Guideline, told us.

“Advertisers continue to spend on these platforms, quarter over quarter, year over year, with almost a shocking level of regularity,” Wright said.

But…If the recent decisions open the floodgates to other similar lawsuits, Wright said it could be “the beginning of something radically different for these platforms,” which he compared to the gradual downfall of the tobacco industry. In the case of child safety, Meta has been sued by 42 state attorneys general, and Wright said that just two or three more wins for plaintiffs could start making advertisers think again.

Continue reading here.—KH

You don’t need luxury pricing to build a beauty powerhouse. Learn how today’s challenger brands are winning shelf space, social feeds, and loyal fans—all at once. Hear how MCoBeauty is scaling smart at The Next Phase of Social and Creator Marketing in NYC on May 12.

Marketers know the power of song and dance, which is why you’re seeing brands like Gap, Hollister, and even Cheetos releasing music videos as part of their product pushes. This week, we’re facing the music and discussing why brands are getting their groove on. Listen now.

Kay Hsu is the global head of Spotify’s creative lab. She’s set to speak at
Marketing Brew’s upcoming event, The Next Phase of Social & Creator
Marketing, on May 12. Explore what she has to say about advertisement
and the media industry.