This story was originally published in On Background with Mark Stenberg, a free, weekly newsletter that explores the key themes shaping the media industry. You can sign up for it here.

Last week, I reported that Newsweek had seen its traffic decline nearly 75% in a single year, a collapse that coincided with layoffs across its sales, rankings, and video teams and the departures of two senior executives.

This week, chief executive Dev Pragad offered a counter-narrative: Despite the decline in readership, Newsweek is on pace to surpass $100 million in revenue for the first time in its 93-year history.

In a testament to the merits of revenue diversification, both things are true. 

The publisher whose turnaround was built on a sophisticated programmatic advertising business has watched that foundation erode. Revenue from its publishing division is expected to decline between 20% and 25% this year, according to Pragad. 

But critically, the businesses it bolted on over the past two years—internally referred to by their shorthands, Nexus and AdPrime—have grown quickly enough to more than cover the difference.

“When [traffic declines] come, they really are unpleasant,” Pragad said. “Despite that, this year will be our highest revenue ever.”

The company is projecting at least 10% revenue growth in 2026, up from roughly 3% in 2025, according to Pragad, who declined to share a revenue breakdown by source. Since taking over in 2018, he said, Newsweek has generated more than $500 million in cumulative revenue at profit margins of roughly 20%.

The merits of diversification 

The largest driver of its revenue growth is Adprime, the healthcare-focused demand-side platform Newsweek acquired in June 2025, when most publishers were divesting their adtech assets. 

The unit is pacing to more than triple its revenue this year, from $14.8 million to north of $40 million, at a profit margin above 10%, driven by healthcare advertising and connected TV inventory, according to Pragad.

Such growth would make Adprime, a business Newsweek bought without raising outside capital, responsible for roughly 40% of company revenue in its first full year under Newsweek ownership.

Nexus, the business-to-business division housing its rankings business and events, is growing just under 20% year over year, with rankings up roughly 15% and events between 40% and 50%, according to Pragad. 

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After having to cancel an event when a key sponsor dropped out, the company has also shifted its event strategy. 

Now, Newsweek is working to build an experiential portfolio powered by a delegate-fee model, which is designed to attract five or six sponsors per event rather than one or two, de-risking a business that has historically leaned on anchor sponsors.

Video has become another source of growth. 

Non-programmatic video revenue is expected to grow roughly tenfold between 2025 and 2026, according to Pragad, anchored by a seven-figure sponsored franchise, Unconventional, and two six-figure franchises, Newsmakers and From the Paddock. Its social video operation, which includes 2.4 million TikTok followers, generates high-six-figure revenue.

An uncertain future

None of this erases the damage to publishing, which Pragad has deliberately walled off into its own unit so that rankings and events revenue do not subsidize it. 

The saving grace of the division is its eight-figure syndication revenue, which is unaffected by search. 

Likewise, a newsletter list of just under 2 million free subscribers serves as a key source of engagement, one the publisher intends to use to bolster its subscription business. Pragad declined to share the exact number of paying subscribers Newsweek has, calling it only “on the small side,” but the business is a priority and is expected to grow 20% this year.

Still, the headwinds buffeting the core Newsweek business were substantial enough to spur layoffs, and the company could face further challenges in the space going forward.

The full rollout of Google’s AI-generated search results has yet to arrive, Pragad noted. When it does, the Newsweek audience could shrink considerably further, a scenario that could force a more dramatic response.

For now, the publisher is betting that engagement and subscriptions can replace scale. 

“The era of big audiences has peaked and is starting to decline,” Pragad said. “Engagement and subscription is the next thing.”

Talking Heds

Semafor Cinema (EXCLUSIVE): The arms race among publishers to build out their video offerings is officially afoot. The New York Times’ executive editor called its effort to ramp up The Times’ video offering as transformational as its transition from print to digital, and a slew of other outlets, including Fortune, The Guardian, and Bloomberg Media, have sunk serious coin into becoming multimedia platforms. On Tuesday, Semafor joined suit, poaching its new video lead Adam Banicki from Fortune and announcing plans to debut as many as six new shows in the coming months. Specifically, Semafor has adopted an “anti-scale” strategy, which I detailed here, in hopes of capturing the eyeballs of the executive class. Monetization and cost structure will be paramount in these efforts: Remember, these publishers are competing with creators shooting walk-and-talk videos on their mobile phones, so expensive, polished productions are not necessarily the answer. 

Fanatics Festivities: The multiday sports extravaganza Fanatics Fest returns to New York City on Thursday, where the full depth of CEO Michael Rubin’s Rolodex will be on display. Athletes, agents, media, creators, and vendors will fill the Javits Center for four days, which will surely yield a glut of high-visibility social content. There are rumors LeBron James will use the forum to announce which team he next intends to join. The festival, just in its third year, has quickly emerged as a tentpole in the sports media landscape, a testament to how influential Fanatics has become in recent years. The company, which operates three distinct businesses—licensing and merchandise, collectibles, and gambling—sits at a unique nexus in the world of professional sports, and I would not be surprised to see it expand further in the near future.

YouTube IP: Following the breakout success of Backrooms, whose wunderkid director Kane Parsons I profiled in May, Hollywood has taken to scouring YouTube for other intellectual property native to the platform that it could turn into the next surprise blockbuster. According to The Wall Street Journal, YouTube creator Trevor Henderson recently sold the rights to his creation, a faceless monster called Siren Head, for north of $1 million, while the film rights for a series born on the platform, called The Mandela Catalogue, recently sold for “millions of dollars. The only problem? Parsons himself told me that such efforts are likely to fail. Hollywood loves a silver bullet, and it thinks it has found one in YouTube-native IP. But the necessary conditions for a thread of internet lore to turn into a runaway hit are still rare, regardless of the recent body of evidence pointing to the contrary. 

On Lines: New York Magazine recently chronicled what has become an omnipresent sight on the streets of New York: long lines for viral foodstuffs. To its credit, the piece quickly dispenses with the appropriate caveats: Lines are nothing new, and they are the result of a constellation of factors. Bloomberg Media also joined the discourse, examining the commercial impact these queues have on the businesses involved. I cannot help but think that the phenomenon mirrors the broader embrace of events that has gripped the media industry in recent years, which is partially a byproduct of work-from-home culture and a related desire for in-person experience. The queues are just another proof point that cultural experiences that bring likeminded folks out of their homes and into the presence of their peers, especially in an intentional, specifically not serendipitous fashion, will only continue to swell in value.

Hydration Brakes Bank: At the start of the World Cup, I predicted that its new hydration breaks would be reviled by fans, tolerated by players, and adored by advertisers. The novel ad inventory is directly integrated into the game and serves as the only commercial opportunity in the otherwise unbroken halves of play. As it turns out, they have also been quite lucrative. According to some very take-it-with-a-grain-of-salt back-of-the-napkin math from The Hollywood Reporter, the breaks have likely generated at least $250 million in revenue, with some estimates reaching as high as $600 million. With the cost of sports rights only slated to rise, rights owners will be loathe to leave such money on the table going forward. For better or for worse, the greatest legacy of the 2026 World Cup might not be its winner, but the introduction of ad breaks into a sport that successfully resisted them for 138 years. RIP.

Quote/Unquote

This week in Quote/Unquote, I spoke with Mike Shehan, the chief revenue officer of the connected television company Telly and the founder of the video ad platform SpotX, which he sold to Magnite in 2021.

In the conversation, Mike and I talked about how Telly has evolved from its initial, eye-catching value proposition—free televisions in exchange for detailed first-party data—into a pitch rooted in the integrated advertising the platform offers marketers. 

And this week, you can also watch an edited version of our conversation here.

This interview has been edited. This edition of Quote/Unquote is sponsored by Telly.

Mark Stenberg: What is the Telly business, and how has it gotten to where it is today?

Mike Shehan: It’s completely turning this 80-year-old industry of manufacturing, distributing, and monetizing TVs on its head. You get this free, amazing TV in exchange for data—we ask 120 questions in order to get the TV. That enables us to see every single ad and every piece of content that plays across the entire ecosystem, and we can detect how many people are in the room watching.

Mark: The first stage of the business was handing out free TVs to build the data set. Now you’re more focused on the ad products themselves. How is that going?

Mike: Our home screen ads are truly unique. We’re not sneaking spots and dots into a two-minute break here and there—the ads are persistent. Last quarter we served over 50,000 unique advertisers, probably 10 times more than last year. We’ve shown these ads drive much higher brand recall, around 250%, and click-through rates quadruple when we hold those ads there for two minutes or longer.

Mark: Turning TV into a performance marketing channel is something of a holy grail in CTV, and shoppability was a big effort of Telly’s for a while. How is that going?

Mike: The jury’s still out on transacting on a device. What advertisers want is to reach more people per impression. When two or more people are in a room, we know they’re 42% more likely to talk about that ad. 

Mark: What headwinds is Telly navigating?

Mike: On the ad-tech side, TV buying—that’s where you’ll find the headwinds. Anytime you introduce innovation, the challenge is adoption. I saw the same thing in 2014, when CTV ads were introduced en masse. There’s no argument—CTV ads are better in every single way than traditional linear ads. But buyers have established planning cycles, measurement frameworks, allocated budgets. It took years back then just to get CTV ad buying.

Mark: The name of the game in CTV right now is consolidation—Fox buying Roku, the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger. Does that affect Telly?

Mike: We don’t really view anybody else as our competitor. I spent 20 years building companies like SpotX, and every day was spent asking who’s getting between me and my customer, who’s moving my cheese. I don’t feel that at all at Telly. We don’t need 80 million Tellys like Roku has. Our ability to generate revenue from the Tellys that are out there is multiples higher.

Pulled Quotes

“You need journalists on Earth.”
Venture capitalist Keith Rabois, explaining the thesis behind the unlikely outlet State Affairs
READ MORE

“All journalists in the newsroom need to be creator-forward.”
Semafor vidoe lead Adam Banicki, on newsrooms cultivating in-house talent
READ MORE

“We don’t think the box office, Experiences, or brand value would suffer if the library were on a competing global streamer.”
Wells Fargo analyst Steven Cahal, on the case for Disney exiting the streaming business
READ MORE

“You’d think that a magazine that’s been around for 169 years would possess a better sense of life’s continuities.”
The New Republic’s Timothy Noah, on The Atlantic’s “end-ism fetish”
READ MORE

The Trade Desk has appointed Kristi Argyilan as its new chief commercial officer.

Argyilan, an advertising and commerce industry veteran, joins the popular demand-side platform from Uber, where she helmed the advertising business globally. She’s held previous leadership roles at Target, Albertsons, and IPG. 

At The Trade Desk, Argyilan will be responsible for driving growth as the company adapts to an ad landscape increasingly shaped by AI. Argyilan steps into a position vacated last summer by Tim Sims, who held the role for under two years. 

She will take the post officially later this month and will report directly to the company’s CEO Jeff Green. 

Green signaled his support for Argyilan’s appointment in a press release Wednesday, highlighting her “exceptional ability to bring together customers, partners and teams around a shared vision—and then turn that vision into measurable business growth.” She’ll focus on helping clients “seize the opportunities created by AI, commerce, and the open internet,” Green added, “while strengthening the ecosystem that makes that innovation possible.”

Argyilan, for her part, believes The Trade Desk is “uniquely positioned to help marketers navigate what’s next,” she said. She expressed support for The Trade Desk’s “commitment to innovation, transparency and the open internet,” and said she’s excited to help clients and partners “unlock new opportunities for growth.”

She will leave Uber after about a year and a half at the ridesharing giant, where she helped to scale the advertising business globally and establish the company as a more serious commerce media player. Josh Butler, general manager and global head of sales at Uber for Business, will take over Argyilan’s responsibilities on an interim basis. 

“We are grateful for Kristi’s contributions to growing this business and wish her the best in her next chapter,” an Uber spokesperson told ADWEEK. The spokesperson said that Uber’s ads business “continues to fire on all cylinders,” noting that it’s generated over $2 billion in annualized revenue in a year-over-year spike of more than 50%. 

Argyilan’s move arrives in the midst of a wider leadership shakeup at adtech company.

Last month, it brought on Zendesk alum Sarah Gavin to serve as CMO following the departure of longtime marketing leader Ian Colley, and also appointed Nate Olmstead as chief financial officer—the company’s fourth finance chief in the span of roughly a year. Earlier this week, The Trade Desk named former Google and LinkedIn ad exec Penry Price to its board.

Meanwhile, a string of top leaders have exited the company in recent months, including Sims and Colley as well as chief revenue officer Anders Mortensen, chief strategy officer Samantha Jacobson, chief financial officer Alex Kayyal, and three board members. 

Now, the company said in today’s press release, The Trade Desk is entering “its next phase of growth.”

“The leaders we’ve welcomed over the past month bring world-class experience, fresh perspectives and an unwavering commitment to our customers,” Green said. “As AI transforms advertising and the open internet enters its next phase of growth, their leadership will help ensure we continue building the products, partnerships and capabilities our clients need to succeed for years to come.”

Argyilan will have her work cut out for her; The Trade Desk has in recent months undergone high-profile scuffles with clients and platform partners, reworked its platform, and seen its financial growth plateau. It was the worst-performing stock in the S&P 500 in 2025.

Both Argyilan and The Trade Desk declined to comment beyond the press release.

There’s a common narrative around Gen Z: they have short attention spans, they’re chronically online, and they’re disengaged. And to reach them, marketers need to jump on the hottest microtrend and flood them with content. 

But after a year of building Sunnie, Hello Sunshine’s Gen Z-focused media, experiential, and lifestyle brand, I don’t believe Gen Z has the attention problem that most people assume. 

When something catches their interest, they’ll spend hours exploring endless rabbit holes—reading books, rummaging thrift store racks, and yes, scrolling through TikToks. 

They aren’t incapable of paying attention, they’re just decisive about what deserves it—especially in today’s over-saturated media environment.

Being intentional about what deserves their time—and their joy—is a way for them to reclaim control and agency.

Here’s how marketers can crack the Gen Z code:

Start with a community-first strategy vs a social-first strategy 

One of the biggest misconceptions about Gen Z is that their lives happen entirely online. With the loss of third spaces, Gen Z is yearning to take the group chat offline. Social platforms are often where their discovery starts, but we’re increasingly seeing that they’re looking for continued connection beyond social media.

Ninety percent of Gen Z girls value brands that help create opportunities for real-world connection, according to a study we conducted with Westfield Rise. We also found that 73% view malls as a primary social gathering place. They’re not necessarily shopping, but looking for somewhere to spend time together.

The brands that are breaking through today understand that offline communities are often more important than the online ones, and in-person vibes cannot be replicated.

Dig the rabbit hole, don’t build the billboard

Traditional marketing often focuses on reach, but we’ve found that Gen Z responds to targeted depth. 

Whether it’s wellness, fashion, sports, or niche internet culture, this generation is constantly exploring rabbit holes that help them discover who they are. The deeper they go, the more they find a sense of belonging. The opportunity for brands is to be part of these journeys and to build alongside their consumers. 

Some of the most successful experiences we’ve created at Sunnie, such as Sunniefest or Sunnie Reads, have worked because we created passion-based communities—we built third spaces where Gen Z immediately felt like they belonged. 

For us, the goal wasn’t exposure, it was creating energy that can only be felt in-person and building low pressure environments that allow Gen Z to follow their curiosities and find community.

Make experiences that require them to slow down 

With our lives moving so fast, the things that stick are the ones that slow us down. 

Gen Z wants to slow down to counter their constant digital overstimulation—whether they pick up an analog hobby like bedazzling, start a birdwatching club, or master the art of “nothing-maxxing.” They want content and experiences that will stretch time and get them out of the endless scroll. 

Brands need to be as intentional with how they show up as Gen Z is with their time. 

Bring back joy of ‘stumbling upon’

For previous youth generations, exploration and discovery was self-directed: ripping out magazines for outfit inspo or swapping CDs with college dormmates to listen to a new-to-you band. 

Gen Z’s world is curated by algorithm, and the randomness of finding something you love on your own has slipped away. Yes, the algorithm is shaped by their likes and interests but it’s also informed by their insecurities—and they are looking for off-ramps. Novelty lies in discovering something on their own, to curate cool for themselves. 

The approach of “surprise and delight” can no longer be superficial, fleeting moments but rather need to evolve into experiences where Gen Z can discover another side of themselves, and be a moment of exploration.

Co-creation is the new authenticity 

When we started Sunnie, the room was filled with mostly Millennials, Gen Xers, and a few Gen Zers. We quickly realized that we needed Gen Z to be both our inner and outer voices. We created a Sunnie Advisory Board filled with Gen Z trailblazers to help us both conceptualize Sunnie and bring the brand to life. They advise us on strategy, creative feedback, and telling us when we need to pivot.  

We learned that Gen Z doesn’t want to be treated as an audience, they need to be treated as co-creators. In our research, 87% said they want a role in the creative process with brands. That’s a staggering shift from traditional marketing assumptions.

For this generation, collaboration isn’t a campaign mechanic. They expect to have the opportunity to shape the culture they’re being asked to join.

In a world where life feels overprogrammed, optimized to be frictionless, and where the battle for Gen Z’s attention is constant, the brands that will break through are the ones that create space to be human, play in the spontaneity, and allow Gen Z to feel all their senses in ways that respect their time and attention. 

The brands that will build the future with Gen Z will be the ones that respect their attention, reminding them how to be human, and adding some friction back in the best ways. 

LiveRamp, which has for years helped brands, publishers, and platforms connect and activate customer data, is launching its first brand campaign on connected TV. The message, one of trust and flexibility, arrives amid a pending Publicis takeover that has the ad industry questioning whether the platform can remain neutral. 

The adtech company will air 15- and 30-second ads for its services on Netflix for the next five months, targeting executives with a promise to help marketers connect data sources seamlessly and “deliver experiences customers want, maximize marketing returns, and drive more revenue.” 

The core message: Marketers can rely on LiveRamp in the era of AI. “AI is only as valuable as the data that it sits upon, and only LiveRamp has the foundation in data ethics, identity, cleanroom technologies, along with our broad network, which together enable marketers to scale AI-powered workflows and business performance in a way that’s durable and defensible and secure,” the company’s chief marketer Jessica Shapiro said. 

Trust is likely to be a valuable differentiator in light of increasing automation in the industry. When marketers start handing the keys over to autonomous systems to handle campaign planning, audience creation, measurement, and optimization, quality and governance of the underlying datasets will only become more important. 

The promise, right now, is also an opportunistic one for LiveRamp. The company’s claims of neutrality are under heightened scrutiny after French advertising giant Publicis in May announced plans to acquire the platform for $2.2 billion. Since then, some ad industry leaders have not just expressed concern about giving a competitor access to their identity and data infrastructure, but have said outright that they will drop the platform. Among them are Omnicom CEO John Wren. Meanwhile, former Dentsu exec Doug Ray told ADWEEK recently that, as with IPG’s 2018 takeover of Acxiom, there will be a “slow erosion” of clients off LiveRamp.

The new campaign could help do damage control on the perception of LiveRamp’s neutrality and trustworthiness in the market. But the campaign is not a direct answer to concerns about Publicis’ takeover of the platform; it was in the works before news of the acquisition broke and is designed first and foremost, Shapiro said, as a “response to the acceleration of AI.” She added: “It’s, in general, the message people need to hear, and it reinforces what we stand for in terms of neutrality,” Shapiro said. “Being trustworthy and making sure that the data is secure is something that is in the roots of our company.”

Asked whether LiveRamp expects to see Publicis competitors like WPP, Omnicom, and Dentsu using its platform in a few years’ time, Shapiro said: “We maintain that we will be neutral, and we have always been neutral and worked with companies and agencies across the board. And we’re not expecting a change on that front.”

Publicis did not comment by press time.

The decision to position LiveRamp as a trusted platform for activating data in AI workflows builds on the company’s strategic shift. It no longer wants to be seen as just an identity and cleanroom provider; it wants to be seen as a trusted data and governance layer that can undergird a variety of AI marketing tasks. It aligns with recent moves by the company, which last month launched a program to bring more external, partner-run AI agents onto its network and also established an arrangement with OpenAI that lets marketers assess the performance of their ChatGPT ads using LiveRamp’s Conversions API. 

Rooting its CTV campaign in a message of trust, Shapiro suggested, could drive the point home. Marketing decision-makers, she said, need to “make tough choices about which AI solutions to invest in, and so we need to keep reinforcing why LiveRamp is the right solution and drives the right outcome.”

LiveRamp developed the new campaign with Archetype, an agency owned by London-based Next 15 Group that counts Airbnb, Pizza Hut, and Nvidia as clients. The ads debut on Netflix, one of LiveRamp’s top advertising partners, with additional activation on YouTube and across social media. The adtech company is hoping that the push will generate positive engagement, increase the brand’s share of voice in the market, and help it win new business.

FIFA World Cup activations are getting a reboot.

Today, at the Round of 16 match at New York/New Jersey Stadium between Brazil and Norway, Hyundai Motor Company created the World Cup’s first robotics-powered halftime activation. During the stunt, Atlas, an advanced humanoid robot developed by Boston Dynamics, delivered the match ball and performed signature goal celebrations from stars such as Brazil’s Matheus Cunha and Norway’s Erling Haaland.

The activation serves as the first public demonstration of the real-world movement capabilities of Atlas, according to Hyundai, and the first integration of a humanoid robot into a live FIFA World Cup match environment.

“Rather than talking about innovation, we wanted to demonstrate it at the biggest scale possible,” Sungwon Jee, evp and global chief marketing officer, Hyundai Motor Company, told ADWEEK. “The World Cup gave us that stage. Atlas delivering the match ball wasn’t just a moment. It was the strategy made visible.”

Heading into this year’s tournament, Hyundai and its advanced robotics division, Boston Dynamics, were FIFA’s Official Robotics Partner for the 2026 World Cup, which meant finding a way to bring robotics into the experience.

According to Jee, the company didn’t want to just show up. It wanted to make a statement.

“We’re not just competing with other sponsors on that pitch. We’re competing with every reel, every short-form, every piece of content flooding people’s screens every second of every day,” Jee said. “In that context, incremental creativity isn’t enough. You need a moment so undeniably real, so present, that it breaks through.”

Focusing on future goals

The activation builds on Hyundai Motor’s global “Next Starts Now” campaign, where the company is showcasing innovation and the future of soccer/football through elements such as its “School of Football” content series featuring Atlas, several immersive fan experiences, youth football programs, and its fan engagement program, the “Be There With Hyundai” initiative.

“The World Cup, more than any other stage, is where the next generation of football steps up, and where the next ideas first appear,” Jee said. “That made it the natural home for ‘Next Starts Now,’ not just as a campaign platform, but as a live demonstration of what that future actually looks like.”

With the idea of creating a live demonstration, the activation featured several of Atlas’ real-world capabilities, including retargeting technology, which allows Atlas to translate and adapt human movements, such as soccer celebrations; reinforcement learning, utilizing thousands of simulations to train and refine movement; and whole body control, which coordinates movements of the robot’s body.

According to Jee, Atlas had pre-training, testing, and rehearsal for the moment. Though an operator sends commands to initiate the robot’s actions, Atlas’s balance, movement, and recovery are driven entirely by its own capabilities.

Following the match, behind-the-scenes content and additional storytelling will continue in the weeks ahead.

“The ball delivery isn’t a standalone moment. It’s the climax of everything we’ve been building and the point where the narrative becomes a live, real-world experience that fans around the world can see and feel,” Jee said. “From there, the story continues across broadcast, digital, and social, extending the conversation well beyond the final whistle.”

Making its robotics pitch

Beyond the halftime performance, Hyundai also brought its robotics to the 2026 World Cup’s security operations, utilizing its dog-inspired Spot robots to ensure security and asset protection at select venues, according to Boston Dynamics.

“Atlas brings the vision. Delivering the match ball at the World Cup is an emotional moment, but it’s also a statement about where humanoid robotics is heading,” Jee said. “Spot brings the function. Deployed for autonomous patrols across venues, Spot is actively enhancing safety and operational efficiency throughout the tournament.”

Jee said that the World Cup demonstrates how Hyundai is moving beyond the label of an automotive company, instead showing up on the global stage as a future-focused mobility company. Meanwhile, Atlas and Spot are the latest examples of how its robotics are making an impact with real-world applications.

“Robotics isn’t just for highlight reels. It’s already part of the infrastructure. Quietly, reliably, meaningfully running in the background of the world’s biggest sporting event,” Jee said. “The message is simple: They’re not coming. They’re already here.”

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Twelve-time NBA All-Star Chris Paul retired earlier in 2026 after a 21-season career as one of basketball’s most accomplished players. However, the athlete’s influence has long extended beyond the court, and he’s not finished yet.

Over the last two decades, he’s forged longstanding partnerships with Nike’s Jordan Brand and State Farm, where his alter ego “Cliff Paul” became an advertising fixture. In 2022, Paul launched plant-based snack brand Good Eat’n.

He then opened the doors to his media production company Ohh Dip!!! Entertainment (ODEP) alongside his brother CJ Paul in May 2025. The business specializes in non-scripted and scripted television, digital, documentaries, commercials, and films, creating work like The Game Changers on Netflix.

In conversation with ADWEEK CEO Will Lee at ADWEEK House Cannes Lions, Paul discussed how he’s built a legacy that lives beyond the final buzzer and offered brands advice on getting the best out of their athlete partnerships.

Brands shouldn’t just hand athletes a script

When asked what marketers are still getting wrong about working with athletes, Paul said communication was key.

Reflecting on his own experience, he said: “I’ve done everything you could possibly do. I’ve walked in before, and [had a brand say], ‘Here’s your script, go stand in front of the camera and smile.’ [They] don’t realize that some of these people are actually creatives themselves.”

He continued: “That’s how I approached it with State Farm. I’m a consumer, I watch a lot of TV and commercials, TV shows. I never took an acting class, but I knew what I wanted to see of myself.”

His main takeaway for brands? “Over-communicate with the people who are part of the team, because what you think might be funny or cool might not be the way that one person wants to show up. It’s about communication, back-and-forth. If you meet somewhere [in the middle], everybody will be proud of the final product.”

Athletes are (rightfully) more selective about partnerships now

Building on his point, when Paul first started out in the NBA as a young player, brands would “pay a couple of $100,000” for a picture of a player smiling and holding their product.

“Once upon a time that’s how it was. It was like, ‘Give me my money, no matter the leadership behind [a brand],’” he said. But as social media and consumer savvy have evolved, athletes have gotten more selective about their partners to avoid “tarnishing” their own image.

He’s chosen his own deals wisely, including an established deal with Jordan and Nike, and State Farm—which took his profile to “a whole other level.”

“The reach that [State Farm] had, and the commercials themselves, just gave me a chance to show personality,” he said. The team also encouraged him to bring on board fellow talent like Kevin Garnett and John Stockton. “It was cool to bring people along and have them be a part of these campaigns.”

He’s still figuring out his work-life balance

The multihyphenate was candid that, even after a 21-year NBA career, he’s still figuring out how to juggle family, business and life beyond basketball.

“There’s really no such thing as work-life balance,” he said. “I think it just depends on what day it is.”

For most of his career, he revealed, he’s not been fully present outside the court, even at family dinners, because his mind was already racing ahead to training and recovery routines.

Now, in what he calls his “newfound life,” he’s trying to be intentional about whatever he’s committed to in a given day, whether that’s a meeting in Cannes or sitting in the stands at his kids’ games.