Eyes are everywhere, but do they see the ads all around them?

A company called CrowdIQ is trying to help marketers figure that out. It’s working with professional sports franchises like the Detroit Lions, the Minnesota Vikings, and the Tampa Bay Lightning to install cameras that can track spectators with an assist from AI, all in the name of ROI.

It joins a crowded field (sorry!) of companies that are using AI to help measure sports sponsorships, like jersey patches or on-court display ads. But unlike companies that evaluate sports sponsorships seen on television or across social media, CrowdIQ seeks to measure sponsor activations taking place inside the venue—predominately on the scoreboard—and says it can determine if anyone is paying attention to them.

Teams can use CrowdIQ’s data to give sponsors in-venue metrics that include things like an estimate of the crowd’s demographics and what they looked at during the game.

“Sponsors have money, they want to spend it, they want to work with you guys, but they need data in order to make these decisions,” CrowdIQ’s chief revenue officer Rachel Goodger told Marketing Brew. “Our long-term goal would be to be the Nielsen of in-venue.”

Read the full story here.—RB

Campaigns come and go, but a few impactful ones make big waves in the deep, wide sea we call marketing. And before we get too philosophical (too late?), you should know that Vimeo is chatting with Semrush about how their latest campaign made an unforgettable splash.

Vimeo hosted Semrush’s Andrew Warden, CMO, and Olga Andrienko, VP of Brand Marketing, to discuss all the details behind the timeline, development, and distribution of their hit campaign video series: My Life, My Terms—The Future of Work.

Learn the risks and rewards of using real customers vs. actors, how B2B campaigns can leverage B2C tactics, the value of remaining ~real~, and what the future holds for this successful series.

Watch their chat for all the insights.

In 2021, Diageo made a big play in sports marketing when it became the first official spirits sponsor of the NFL. Back in 2013, it signed a multiyear deal to be the exclusive spirits partner of the NBA. But the alcohol giant doesn’t just have its eye on national league sponsorships.

In fact, according to Tracy Bussan, SVP of brands in culture for Diageo, it has 55 team sponsorships across its portfolio, which includes Johnnie Walker, Guinness, Captain Morgan, Casamigos, Ketel One, and more. Local sponsorships, like its founding deals with Angel City FC in the NWSL and Austin FC in the MLS, help drive success for the company’s league tie-ups, she said. Ed Pilkington, chief marketing and innovation officer for Diageo North America, once suggested to Ad Age that its individual NFL team deals may have even contributed to the inking of the larger NFL deal.

At Marketing Brew’s summit earlier this month, we spoke to Bussan about some of the company’s latest work when it comes to cultural marketing, including sports and fashion partnerships.

Read our conversation here.—AM

Forever 21’s bankruptcy in 2019 can be blamed on a number of factors, but a couple stand out—namely, its overestimation of the number of physical stores it needed (200 of which were eventually closed by the brand’s new owners) and its loss of relevance among its core audience.

In fact, a 2019 survey by research firm Ypulse found that perception of Forever 21 among consumers aged 13–30 had dipped by 13%.

So, naturally, when Forever 21’s current CEO, Winnie Park, who is leading the brand’s restructuring, joined the company in January 2022, she knew she had a tough job ahead: overhauling a fast fashion brand after a public bankruptcy in a climate where concerns around sustainability in fashion abound, as well as bringing back young shoppers to Forever 21’s stores.

But the former Paper Source CEO has stepped into her role with decades of experience behind her, including nine years spent at LVMH-owned luxury retailer DFS, and leading women’s merchandising at Levi Strauss-owned Dockers.

Under Park, the brand has been focused on reopening brick-and-mortar locations with more personalized and curated experiences for younger shoppers and growing the brand’s TikTok presence.

In an exclusive chat with Retail Brew, she tells us how she’s reinventing the brand for Gen Z. Keep reading here.—JS

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

Start somewhere: This guide can help small businesses put together a brand and marketing strategy. 

$$$: Ad Age looked into how brands like GM are spending on Black-owned media.

Wanderlust: These Reddit stats highlight how travelers use the platform.

Greater viz, smarter biz: Manage thousands of ads, launch campaigns, and integrate with oodles of channels all in one place with Channable, a marketer’s go-to spot for seamless e-commerce wherever their customers are. Try it free.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}

If you make it to the end of our newsletter each day, we appreciate you. We also have a small programming note: Moving forward, we’re changing up some of the sections at the bottom of each edition. It’s spring cleaning, but for newsletters.

Each Monday, we’ll recap the biggest executive moves across the industry.

• Verizon CMO Diego Scotti is leaving the company after nearly a decade. Rima Qureshi, Verizon’s EVP and chief strategy officer, will lead the company’s marketing team in the interim, per a memo seen by the Wall Street Journal.
• ABC News hired G. Elliott Morris as its editorial director of data analytics. Morris, who joins from The Economist, “will oversee FiveThirtyEight and all of ABC’s data journalism,” per The Hollywood Reporter.
• Wunderman Thompson hired Rosie Bardales as CCO of its New York office. She joins from BETC, where she was CCO of its London office.
• VCCP has brought on Jed Grossman to serve as the agency’s first US CCO. He was previously executive creative director at Arts & Letters.

Catch up on a few Marketing Brew stories you might have missed.

• Netflix touts nearly 5 million ad-supported members at first-ever upfront
• The CW looks to win over broader audiences—and advertisers—in sweeping programming overhaul
• How companies are addressing Mental Health Awareness Month