The world has changed a lot since the early aughts, but Ogilvy and Mather’s “Wanta Fanta” earworm is still going strong. The fun-loving spirit of the original campaign, first introduced to us by the dance group the Fantanas in 2002, has now been remixed and reimagined for Gen Z.

Embracing enjoyment and pleasure over necessity is the inspiration behind Fanta’s “Wanta Fanta” reprise. Created with Coca-Cola’s global marketing partner WPP Open X, this campaign taps into the original spirit of the 2000s Fanta ads, but with some seriously enhanced VFX for a modernized approach.

The short, directed by Guy Shelmerdine, introduces us to two zoomers entering a bodega to grab drinks. Noting a drab collection of water and tea bottles, they are dazzled by a brightly colored Fanta display. The “Wanta Fanta” remix kicks in as they take big gulps of soda in unison. “Grown-up” activities like studying, doing laundry, walking the dog and even marriage proposals take on a new lens as the pair chooses Fanta. Rounding up the spot, a spaceship full of gray-skinned aliens arrive on Earth, and they also “Wanta Fanta.”

Do What You Wanta

“We created the new platform and work to speak directly to our fans to let them know we see them and hear them,” said Camilla Zanaria, senior director of global shopper and consumer content at Sparkling Flavors, in a statement. “We want to give people permission to carve out more moments for what they want to do.”

The integrated global campaign will be working with TikTok creators who will share content inspired by the remix, as well as launching the “Tell us what you #Wanta?” challenge for fans. Out-of-home efforts will include the Wanta Mobile, an interactive mobile truck experience. In addition to WPP Open X, the campaign is led by Majority and supported by BCW, EssenceMediacom, Goat, Ogilvy, Subvrsive and VML.

“Wanta Fanta is a shout-out to a generation craving more balance and time out for themselves.” said Ibrahim Khan, global vice president of marketing at Fanta. “Walking through the supermarket, we realized the aisles were exploding with functionality. Most products focused only on the physical demands of a Gen Z lifestyle. So instead, we decided to speak to their spirit.”

Join hosts Cathy Hackl and Lee Kebler in this engaging podcast as they discuss the latest news and trends in technology and innovation. From Meta’s opening of its Horizon OS to Apple’s focus on enterprise and brainwave protection laws, they cover a wide range of fascinating topics.

Discover the potential of brain implants for artificial vision and explore the positive impacts of gaming on cognitive function. With their enthusiastic and optimistic approach, Hackl and Lee provide valuable insights and opinions that will leave you excited about the future of technology.

Stream the new episode below, listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or find it on Spotify.

AI continues to drive Meta’s year-long recovery. Revenue from its Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns (ACS) more than doubled since last year, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during the Q1 2024 earnings call.

Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, reported a 27% increase in revenue, reaching $36.5 billion compared to $28.6 billion in 2023. Advertising contributed 97% of that revenue, or $35.6 billion, and the average price of ads rose 6%.

“For all the recent scrutiny of its effectiveness, Meta’s ad business is humming,” said EMARKETER senior analyst Max Willens. “With inventory levels and average price per ad rising, Meta is back to delivering enviable margins even as it continues to invest in opportunities that may be years away from contributing to profits. It must continue that upward momentum in the face of rising costs.”

Meta’s emphasis on integrating AI into its products has yielded strong financial results for the second consecutive quarter. Last week, the company unveiled its assistant Meta AI powered by Llama 3, with plans to introduce the chatbot in multiple languages and countries over the coming months, per the company.

“It’s been a good year,” said Zuckerberg referring to the company’s AI efforts, including Meta AI seeing “healthy growth across our apps.”

Driven by substantial investments in AI infrastructure, including data centers and chip design, Meta said that its projected capital expenditure for 2024 is expected to range between $35 billion to $40 billion. This marks an increase from the earlier forecast of $30 billion to $37 billion.

People using Meta’s apps is up 7% year-over-year, reaching 3.24 billion users on average for March in its ‘family of apps’ such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger.

But it wasn’t all good news. The tech giant expects a lower revenue for the second quarter, ranging from $36.5 billion to $39 billion, dipping below analyst expectations of $38.3 billion per FactSet survey.

Last year, global ecommerce sales totaled nearly $6 trillion and are expected to grow 10% this year. People expect nothing but the best shopping experience every time, and expectations increase every time they experience something better.

This represents a sharp departure from how commerce has traditionally been approached—as a mere transaction after all the creative brand-building and consumer engagement. Now, commerce is often the sole or most pivotal moment where brands interact with consumers, making creativity and commerce work hand in hand. Necessity created by pandemic lockdowns fast-forwarded the world of commerce, creating a world where speed, value and frictionless convenience are the victors and the loyalty that brands have fought so hard and paid so handsomely for are the first casualties.

We have matured immensely beyond the days of short-term commerce tactics like “add to cart” or “buy now.” Modern creative commerce is about far more than getting people to buy something; it’s about getting them to buy into the brand experience before purchasing your product. But how?

Here are four examples of how creative commerce has recently been brought to life to great effect.

When it doesn’t feel like shopping

Durex “Down to Duck” was a 24-hour response to Apple’s announcement to stop autocorrecting “F***” to “Duck.” It is a testament to our belief that people don’t “go” shopping; they always shop.

And aren’t we all delightfully guilty? Be it passive scrolling that turns into Air Jordans shipped overnight, TikTok cooking livestream binges that lead to family-sized Doordash grocery deliveries and shopping during those endless virtual calls. Or our kids on Roblox, spending our hard-earned Robux on their avatars.

When it doesn’t feel like you’re shopping, that’s creative commerce; it’s the hinge between a one-time purchase and a long-term brand-consumer relationship.

The dots between the data points

Online grocery and food delivery services have rapidly grown in the last few years. Voilá, a Canadian challenger brand in the grocery delivery category, targeted millennials by being where they are: Social media. When Dalgona Coffee, Pasta Chips and Kit Kat Cheesecake were trending on TikTok, the ingredients sold out quickly.

By predicting upcoming viral recipe trends and partnering with foodie content creators, Voilá’s “Trending 2 Table” intercepted cultural trends before their competitors, acquiring new customers first and accelerating sell-through on the digital shelf to parent company Sobeys. A custom-built Trend Index collected data from TikTok and Pinterest trends, Google insights, social listening, Voilá’s first-party search, and sales data. Connecting the dots between data points turned into delicious dollars for Voilá.

Commerce interceptions

LATAM Airlines “Fly over Cyber Monday” where the brand had a unique proposition to sell affordable flight tickets to people who were shopping for electronics. This ‘commerce interception’ was inspired by the strategic cultural insight that it’s more affordable to buy electronics overseas, flight tickets included. Clever shopper targeting and redirecting led to $30 mil in ticket sales, lots of brand love on social and inclusion in Forrester’s Best Practice Report.

The ‘adaptive retail’ approach

The future of commerce is frictionless, secure, tech-forward and human-centric. At CES this year, Walmart was already ahead of the game with their ‘adaptive retail’ approach, a dynamic, unified retail experience that’s integrated across all channels people engage with. Another stand-out example was its gen AI-powered “occasion” search experience where people can key in searches like “football watch party” instead of “chips, wings or 90-inch TV.”

What’s important is how Walmart puts people’s experiences at the center. Sure, they want to sell you everything, but it’s on the customer’s terms. And while we’re at it, let’s throw in some cross-category ideas like that dream 90-inch TV, which pairs nicely with football and chips.

In a world where any relationship can forever end with just a swipe or click, brands cannot afford to not make every experience count. It is no longer just about short-term tactics like discounts, freebies or sales spamming.

Creative commerce is a business multiplier, a strategic mission for building enduring and profitable relationships between brands and people. To simultaneously supercharge growth and love for your brand, commerce must be where creativity thrives, not where it ends.

Perplexity, a generative AI startup developing a search engine to rival Google, has secured nearly $63 million in Series B funding. This investment has propelled the 55-person startup to double its valuation in three months, now exceeding $1 billion, with total fundraising reaching $165 million.

The round was led by investor Daniel Gross with participation from Y Combinator chief executive officer Garry Tan, Figma Inc. CEO Dylan Field and billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller. Previous backers, including Jeff Bezos and Nvidia, also joined the round.

“With the new funds, we are prioritizing speed, accuracy and reliability as we scale and bring on more users,” its chief business officer, Dmitry Shevelenko, told ADWEEK. The company reported $20 million in annual recurring revenue.

Perplexity, offering both free and paid versions of its service, handled 52 million queries in 2023 and processed 75 million queries year-to-date, company CEO Aravind Srinivas told CNBC. Like other AI firms, the startup is prioritizing revenue growth by targeting business customers with its AI services, while building its ads business, ADWEEK previously reported.

Perplexity is launching a new enterprise edition of its chatbot, Enterprise Pro, available at a rate of $40 per month per seat or $400 per year. This premium version includes advanced features such as voice-to-text prompts, unlimited file uploads and enhanced data privacy measures. Media agency Universal McCann, Snowflake, Zoom, Paytm, HP and Cleveland Cavaliers, among others, are early users of Enterprise Pro.

“With Perplexity, we are finding it especially useful in integrating AI across various workstreams, our day-to-day work, including client AI trainings and workshops focused on innovative solutions,” said Elav Horwitz, evp of global head of applied innovation at McCann Worldgroup.

With Perplexity Pro, McCann’s wellness and beauty brand can uncover new trends by conducting trend analysis based on age and consumer preferences specific to global markets such as Asia, to inform new product launches, said Horwitz. The agency is also able to process 10,000 documents, synthesizing diverse data points and saving significant time.

“What sets Perplexity apart is not just its efficiency but its role as a source of inspiration, helping us uncover new insights and forge connections that might not be immediately apparent,” she added.

Elsewhere, the Cleveland Cavaliers’ data team is using Perplexity to analyze ticket sales trends and identify partnership prospects. HP’s salesforce is utilizing the startup’s search chatbot to conduct research, enhance pitch development and streamline the sales process. To that, the marketing and product teams at software company Amplitude rely on Perplexity to generate market landscape insights.

Perplexity is also expanding its user base across global markets. The startup has inked partnerships with leading telecommunication giants, Japan’s SoftBank Corp and Germany’s Deutsche Telekom, to market its capabilities to a combined user base exceeding 335 million across mobile and broadband services.

Veteran marketer Kristin Harrer has been appointed to the post of senior vice president and chief brand officer of T-Mobile, the company confirmed to Adweek.

In a LinkedIn post, T-Mobile’s president of marketing, strategy and products Mike Katz lauded Harrer’s “wealth of experience and a proven track record of building brand strength and leading revenue growth.”

Harrer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Harrer indeed brings wide marketing experience to her new role. She spent three years at the agency Weiden + Kennedy before jumping to Nike, where she held several marketing positions. Harrer also held CMO posts at direct-to-consumer darling Dollar Shave Club and Vans, the SoCal skateboard brand best known for its canvas sneakers.

In 2022, Harrer told ADWEEK she wanted to broaden the sports footwear company’s image to break out of associations with bro culture and appeal to a wider range of consumers. She sought to retain Vans’ “badge of authenticity,” she explained. “But as we grow the brand… the access point needs to be broader.”

At a time when the role of the CMO is itself broadening, Harrer’s own view of the title’s purpose remains partly rooted in the traditional, at least according to a prepared statement issued at the time of her Vans hiring in 2021.

“It has long been my belief that the role of a CMO is to set a north-star vision for a brand’s future and to then empower, coach and support teams in forging a path to make that vision a reality,” she said in that statement.

Harrer’s move to T-Mobile is a return to familiar territory. From 2015 to 2019, she served as the head of mobile brand marketing for Samsung Electronics America.

Her hiring comes as a dynamic time for the sector, as the challenge of incorporating AI joins the usual slugging match for subscribers. Ranked by market cap, T-Mobile is the world’s second largest telecom provider. According to a 2024 report from research firm Opensignal, it operates the largest 5G network in the United States, covering some 330 million people.

Netflix is surprisingly upfront about its upfront plans.

The company is set to make its second upfront presentation this May, and in an earnings call today, Netflix’s leaders explained exactly what to expect.

Typically, upfront week presenters are somewhat clandestine about the contents of their presentations ahead of the annual advertising event; however, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos was an open book when teasing Netflix’s first looks and content clips marketers can look out for.

According to Sarandos, the company will showcase a slate of upcoming projects, including new seasons of Bridgerton, Sweet Tooth, That ’90s Show, Dead Boy Detectives, Shane Gillis’ series Tires and unscripted events such as a roast of Tom Brady.

“We’re excited to go and share with advertisers this incredible slate that we’re very proud of,” Sarandos said.

The presentation also includes a peek at the second half of the year, according to Sarandos, with looks at Cobra Kai, Emily in Paris, Outer Banks, The Night Agent, Ryan Murphy’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story and Squid Game Season 2, which Sarandos called, “Our big one.”

Greg Peters, Netflix’s other co-CEO, noted that the upfront will be an “opportunity to reengage with advertisers and look at the fundamentals of what our offering is.”

That offering includes an ad tier that’s continuing to grow.

Per its earnings report, Netflix announced that its ad tier had 65% growth quarter over quarter, following two quarters of growth of around 70% each. Additionally, 40% of all signups in markets where the ad tier is available are going to the plan.

In January, Netflix revealed it had 23 million monthly active ad tier users. Of course, that’s just a small part of Netflix’s overall scale.

Netflix’s earnings call revealed it added more than 9 million paid members in the first quarter, reaching around 270 million paid memberships globally. And the company’s leaders acknowledged the need for more ad-tier growth.

“We’re rapidly growing scale, as we mentioned. That’s the No. 1 request we’ve had from advertisers,” Peters said, adding, “We’re making progress on technical features like measurement on ads products, so we’re excited to get that out there.”

Adding ad-tier capabilities

In its earnings letter to investors, the company outlined three areas where it’s building on its measurement offering, including optionality, driving ROI and maintaining a privacy-safe environment.

Netflix already works with Nielsen One, EDO, IAS and Double Verify, and the letter noted that three new measurement providers would be coming.

These include Lucid (Cint), which will survey consumers exposed to advertising on Netflix and show a lift in upper funnel metrics such as brand awareness, ad recall, favorability, consideration, and brand attributes; Kantar, in partnership with Microsoft, to evaluate brand awareness, recall and consumer sentiment; and NCSolutions to leverage grocery and drug store shopper card data for a look at the incremental lift in sales tied to Netflix ads.

“This is an opportunity to bring all that progress in a package to advertisers,” Peters said of the upfront. “And then, of course, to get input from them.”

Advertisers can also expect updates on the company’s ad formats and capabilities, which include third-party verification, Top 10 targeting, binge ads, title sponsorships and the recently announced pause ads.

When looking at the ad tier, Peters added that there is “plenty more” to do to “realize the potential” Netflix has in the space.

“We’re growing off of a relatively small base in terms of the impact against an already big and substantial business, so even though it’s growing quite quickly, it takes a while to grow that into the point where it’s material,” Peters said. “We look forward to that increasing in ’25 and then increasing further in ’26 and beyond.”

Netflix makes its pitch to advertisers on May 15, with a Netflix Experience event also taking place on May 16.

Though this will be the company’s second upfront presentation, it will be its first in-person event. In 2023, Netflix switched to a virtual presentation amid the Hollywood strikes.

Even by Southern California standards, the traffic jam created by motorists heading home from the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is notorious. In the hours after the annual concert’s end, tens of thousands of revelers sit bumper to bumper on Interstate 10 as far as 60 miles west of the grounds.

There’s not much to look at on a desert highway in the middle of the night. One exception is a billboard about 15 miles outside the festival grounds, aimed squarely at the twentysomething revelers who’ve just partied for three days straight.

“Catch More Than Vibes?” it asks, followed by a web address: “FreeSTDCheck.org.”

The billboard is the work of the LA-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF.) The nonprofit provides services to those with HIV and, as the billboard makes obvious, also guides people to free city-sponsored testing for other sexually transmitted diseases.

With an assist from ad services firm Billups, AHF has been plastering billboards with safe sex messages around Los Angeles—and Coachella—for years. Most famous: a photo of a banana inside a condom along with the caption “Just Use It.”

But this year is different. Shortly after the “Catch More Than Vibes?” sign appeared in advance of Coachella’s April 12-14 weekend, Billups received a cease-and-desist letter from AEG Presents, the owner of Coachella promoter Goldenvoice.

“They said that it was copyright infringement, but we couldn’t find any copyright that we were infringing on,” AHF’s vice president of marketing and creative Jason Farmer told Adweek.

“We didn’t use their name. We didn’t use their logo. We even made sure to keep the typeface away from the way their typeface looks because we were worried they might bring up something like that.”

The billboard did feature an image of the Coachella grounds as a backdrop, but AHF sourced the photo from stock house Getty and cleared the usage rights.

Adweek received no response to a request for comment from AEG Presents, but there’s no shortage of brands that move quickly, as it did, to protect their intellectual property. In 2023, for example, Chipotle fired off a cease-and-desist to Sweetgreen simply for the salad chain’s using the word chipotle (a variety of chili pepper) in an entrée’s name.

Legalities aside, the dustup raises a separate issue that’s specific to marketing. When companies guard their brands this assiduously, they risk passing up a goodwill opportunity—in essence, a chance for some free advertising.

“You would think that this would be a message that they’d want to get behind—be safe, use a condom, and if you didn’t, get checked on your way out,” said Billups’ global CEO David Krupp.

Petur Workman, a veteran brand and marketing consultant based in LA, agrees. Coachella “should have said, ‘hey, could we have your guys attend? Would you like to have a free booth?’ They should have partnered with [AHF] and embraced this.”

Farmer explained that his group’s billboard isn’t a hit on the festival or its owners, just a message directed toward a demographic known for its concertgoing.

“We look for opportunities where we can impact the people that are most at risk, which is youth 15-24, and be in the right place at the right time,” he said, adding: “It’s Coachella—people are going to be hooking up.”

But that might also be the sticking point. “This is the first year Coachella did not sell out,” said Grace Teng, partner and chief media officer for LA media agency Scale by Zambezi. “My point of view is that Coachella wants a cleaner image focused around music and experience and less about hooking up.”

Meanwhile, the billboard remains in place at press time in anticipation of Coachella’s April 19-21 weekend. Krupp is confident concertgoers will see it. After all, he said, “they’re usually stuck in traffic.”

Warner Bros. Discovery wants to be upfront about its data strategy.

Top line

Today, WBD announced that David Porter has been named head of ad sales research, data and insights.

The company noted in a statement that the announcement comes ahead of its May 15 upfront presentation in New York City.

Between the lines

In this role, Porter will partner with WBD’s ad sales to drive revenue growth across the company’s portfolio of streaming, digital and linear, leading strategy for alternative currency, advanced analytics, cross-platform measurement and insights, streaming and digital engagement and data clean rooms.

Porter will also drive the development of advanced tools and tech, enabling advertisers to utilize first-party data, optimize campaigns and measure impact.

The executive will split time between WBD’s New York City and Atlanta offices and report to Jon Steinlauf, WBD’s chief of U.S. ad sales.

“As we head into upfront season, I could not be more thrilled to welcome David to the team. We take a data-driven approach to develop impactful partnership opportunities across the portfolio, and David’s work is essential to that offering,” Steinlauf said in a statement. “David has invaluable experience that will play a key role in continuing to deliver best-in-class client services and consumer experiences.”

Before joining WBD, Porter served as CEO of Canoe Ventures, leading addressable TV advertising across linear, VOD and streaming. He’s also served as vp of ad innovation and programmatic solutions at Turner, leading product management and sales solution teams to increase revenue.

“I am excited to be starting this new role at Warner Bros. Discovery, working with colleagues and familiar faces who have been there with me through the growth of advanced advertising in the media industry,” Porter said. “The timing could not be better as ​the upfront approaches, and I can’t wait to roll up my sleeves and get to work with the team.” 

Bottom line

Tech has been one of the focuses for WBD heading into the upfront.

When announcing WBD’s return to this year’s upfront week in January, Steinlauf noted that the company’s “groundbreaking technology” provides “industry-leading opportunities” to connect clients with viewers across streaming and linear.

The hire is just the industry’s latest strategic addition ahead of upfront negotiations. In addition, Amazon recently announced it’s bringing on former NBCU exec Krishan Bhatia to lead global video ad sales.

Add some NFL jerseys to the football memorabilia lining the walls at your local Applebee’s.

Today, the National Football League announced Applebee’s Grill + Bar as its “official grill + bar” sponsor in a multiyear deal starting just in time for the upcoming NFL Draft.

The more than 1,500-location casual dining chain has ensconced itself in local sports marketing since its inception, but it has made more of a play for the big leagues in recent years—joining NBC’s Football Night in America pregame show for Sunday Night Football as a sponsor in 2019 and partnering with NFL players on digital video projects with Whistle Sports.

With the announcement, Applebee’s further connects itself with the NFL, bringing multiple opportunities for both sides of the partnership.

Naturally, Applebee’s celebrated this news by offering 20 free boneless wings to anyone who makes an online purchase of $40 or more during the 2024 NFL draft from April 25 through 27.

It’s excellent timing for the company, considering that the first round of last year’s draft on ESPN, ABC and the NFL network brought in a combined 11.29 million viewers—trailing only the 12.5 million who watched the 2021 installment and the aberrant 15.26 million who watched in 2020 when all other sports options were shut down.

Teaming up on a new partnership

Tracie Rodburg, senior vice president of sponsorship management at the NFL, noted that there are a few other crucial commonalities between Applebee’s and the league. Most notably, Applebee’s vendors include NFL sponsors Anheuser-Busch and PepsiCo, creating opportunities for the league to interact with fans and friends of all kinds.

“Partnering with the National Football League to be the official Grill and Bar of the NFL is a perfect fit for Applebee’s because many of our guests and team members are NFL fans,” said Joel Yashinsky, chief marketing officer at Applebee’s. “A partnership with the league felt like a great next step to take our authentic engagement to the next level to better serve our guests in new and fun ways and celebrate football year round.”

Since the pandemic, the NFL’s sponsor count has looked relatively stable, moving from 39 in 2019 to 38 today. But as the league’s needs have evolved, so has the makeup of its sponsors. Much as the NFL’s once-exclusive alcohol category partner Anheuser-Busch has made room for Diageo and E&J Gallo, Applebee’s is part of a suite of food service partners that already includes Subway, Little Caesars and Uber Eats. 

NFL sponsors no longer exist to fill a category: They enter the fold based on their relationship with football, what they can bring to the league in return and how well they can play along with others. Given Applebee’s sport-brand pedigree and pre-existing circle of NFL-sponsor friends, it’s made a strong argument for eatin’ good in the league’s neighborhood.

“I need the right partners that are going to work across the league in the NFL ecosystem, support our clubs, support our players and drive fan engagement,” Rodburg said. “Those are the partners that we look at and then ask, ‘How can they fit in with the group that we have, and how can they authentically tell their story?’”

The NFL’s favorite neighbor

According to Rodburg, Applebee’s and the NFL have been discussing this sponsorship opportunity for the last two years. Applebee’s partnerships with NBC and its work with PepsiCo and Anheuser-Busch got the league’s attention, as did the chain’s regular broadcasts of its games through DirectTV’s commercial version of the NFL’s Sunday Ticket. 

For all of the chain’s high-school football decor and connections to the game, however, the NFL impressed the importance of official sponsorship upon Applebee’s early—noting the premium that fans are willing to pay for NFL-official Wilson footballs or Nike jerseys.

“I remember years ago when Applebee’s was just with Football Night in America. They were trying to use NFL content in the opening of the show with their brand, and we kept saying, ‘Nope, can’t do it. They’re not a partner,’” Rodburg said. “You could see years ago where they understood how authenticity helps.”

The league also wanted Applebee’s to realize its sponsorship made it part of a team, and that requires some occasional teamwork.

The NFL already conducts sponsor summits so its partner brands can interact with each other while ensuring no one encroaches on another’s territory. However, with Applebee’s, the league sees an opportunity for Pepsi—for example—to expand its Rookie of the Week promotions to restaurant sites. Anheuser-Busch would have similar opportunities with its promotions and properties. 

“You could do it all in an Applebee’s that makes it even bigger and better because that’s where our fans are,” Rodburg said. “So we make sure that each brand is doing what is authentic to them. But at the same time, we encourage working together because that just makes every program even better.”

Today’s specials

More importantly for the partnership, the NFL’s strategy acknowledges each brand as a leader within its niche and works with them based on the league’s needs.

For example, sponsors TCL, Apple Music and Microsoft all fit within a broader consumer electronics category, but the NFL leans on TCL for televisions, Microsoft for its Surface devices (and Windows software) and Apple Music to connect fans to its Super Bowl halftime acts. 

Rodburg credits the team led by NFL vp of sponsorship strategy and business development Ingrid Petri—who joined the league in October after nearly two years with AEG and eight with the NBA—with producing a mix of sponsors that benefit both the league and each other. Much as Anheuser-Busch the NFL’s wine expertise to E&J Gallo and spirits to Diageo, Applebee’s joins the club knowing that Little Caesars has staked out pizza, Subway has sandwiches and Uber Eats—which often includes Applebee’s among its offerings—handles delivery.

“Each one has its swim lane, and we make sure that their creative is different, their activation is different and how they come to life at our events is different,” Rodburg said. “Every fan and customer wants that customization—they’re going to these brands for a reason, they’re coming to us for a reason—so we work hard with all of our partners to make sure that that differentiation comes through.”