Brandweek 2026: The Hard Leadership Calls Behind Chicago Fire FC’s Growth ft. Dan Moriarty

Audience targeting may have gotten easier, but getting people to truly care has not.

Live from the Marketing Vanguard stage at Brandweek 2026, Jenny Rooney sits down with Dan Moriarty, CMO of Chicago Fire FC, to unpack why the marketing pendulum is swinging back toward creative.

They also discuss what makes live sports such a powerful attention engine and why brands should think harder about the emotion behind what they sell.

Plus, the inside scoop on why he left the Chicago Bulls for a growth-stage MLS club, and the difficult people decisions that have helped reshape his marketing organization.

What you’ll learn:

Why sports still commands attention in a world built around on-demand content
Why Chicago Fire FC focuses on selling joy and passion rather than soccer itself
How the club turned World Cup energy into an owned Chicago fan experience
Why easier targeting makes stronger creative even more important
Why buying reach is no longer a meaningful competitive advantage
How Chicago Fire FC is restructuring its in-house creative operation
Why avoiding underperformance can cost you your strongest people

This episode is part of a special vidcast series that was recorded live during Brandweek 2026 and presented in partnership with Tatari.

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About our guest:

Dan Moriarty is chief marketing officer of Chicago Fire FC, where he leads marketing for Chicago’s Major League Soccer club. Originally from England, Dan began his career agency-side before moving into brand roles at Hyatt. He later spent around eight years with the Chicago Bulls before joining Chicago Fire FC.

At the Fire, he has been part of a period of significant investment and change across the club, from its on-field ambitions and downtown presence to new facilities, fan experiences and plans for a new stadium. His marketing perspective combines a digital-first background with an increasing conviction that, as targeting becomes easier, creative quality matters more than ever.

Episode Highlights:

[07:53] Use the Cultural Moment Even If You Don’t Own It — Chicago was not a World Cup host city, but that did not stop the Fire from finding a role in the moment. The club built its own large-scale viewing experience and attracted nearly 100,000 people over the tournament period. Dan’s bigger point is that brands do not always need official status to participate in culture. They need to understand where their audience already cares and create something worth showing up for.

[13:53] The Pendulum is Swinging Back to Art — Dan came up in digital with a science-over-art mindset. Now he thinks that balance needs to flip. Platforms have automated much of the audience-building work that once required serious expertise. Reaching the right person is easier. Making that person stop, notice and feel something is harder. His argument for marketers at Brandweek 2026: spend less energy celebrating targeting sophistication and more energy making work people actually care about.

[15:35] Doing Brand Badly Has Never Been Easier — The bar for great brand work is still high. What has changed is how easy it has become to put bad work in front of a lot of people. Dan points to automated media buying as the reason: almost anyone can buy reach now. That means distribution can amplify mediocre creative faster than ever. Easier access to audiences has not made marketing easier. It has raised the cost of being forgettable.

[18:22] Tolerating Underperformance Punishes Your Best People — One of Dan’s biggest lessons at Chicago Fire FC had nothing to do with media or campaigns. It was about people. He inherited a team where some employees were not right for their roles and initially gave the situation time. What he learned was that leaving underperformance untouched sends a message to everyone else. High performers notice. Some leave. His conclusion: when you know something is not working, avoiding the hard call usually makes the problem worse.