The NCAA’s 2021 NIL rule change that gave college athletes the go-ahead to profit off of their names, images, and likenesses came with plenty of implications for brands and, of course, athletes.

But there’s another player in the game: leagues. The policy has potential positive impacts for them as well, according to NIL experts, especially women’s leagues and smaller ones looking to expand their popularity.

Follow me: Jeff Ehrenkranz, COO at sports marketing agency Allied Sports, said pro women’s leagues stand to benefit significantly from athletes joining with preexisting relationships with fans and brands.

• “Those women athletes coming out of college where they had commercial relationships already will bring those relationships and those followings to the professional leagues,” he told Marketing Brew. “We already saw it coming out of [Women’s March Madness] and the draft for the WNBA.”
• This year’s Women’s March Madness broke viewership records, and when the WNBA Draft happened not long after, it was the most-watched in almost two decades, according to ESPN, with 572,000 viewers, up 42% year over year.

Matt Hochberg, who doesn’t work specifically with college athletes, but represents pros in women’s leagues like the NWSL for brand deals, said NIL has contributed to increased brand interest in emerging leagues by giving them a more easily accessible way to try out sports marketing for the first time.

“Then they come to realize, ‘Oh, there’s this entire world of all these amazing athletes who may not be star NBA players or star NFL players, but are athletes, and we can work with them, and we can afford them,’” Hochberg said.

Continue reading here.—AM

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Gatorade’s roster of sponsored athletes runs deep, and it started with the GOAT himself: Michael Jordan. The brand’s second athlete was Mia Hamm, who appeared alongside Jordan in a 1997 ad set to “Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better),” where the two squared off in soccer, basketball, and other sports.

“We were putting, I believe for the first time, a female athlete at the same stature as, ultimately, the GOAT in basketball,” Mark Kirkham, CMO of international beverages at PepsiCo, told Marketing Brew.

Gatorade and PepsiCo were among the most active nonalcoholic beverage brands in women’s sports by number of sponsorships last year, according to SponsorUnited, with deals in the LPGA, WNBA, NWSL, and Australian women’s rugby league. The parent company did a total of 44 deals, per SponsorUnited, including 30 for Gatorade alone.

Within women’s soccer, Gatorade has continued to work with stars from Abby Wambach to Mallory Swanson. It partners with teams including Angel City FC and OL Reign, and also activates around the sport at a more grassroots level.

PepsiCo’s beverage division isn’t a sponsor of this year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup, which kicks off on July 20; Coca-Cola has been an official sponsor of the event since 1978 and has a standing partnership with FIFA through 2030.

Kirkham said PepsiCo and Gatorade are still deeply invested in soccer, including the women’s game. Ahead of this month’s World Cup, we talked to Kirkham about the company’s approach to women’s sports. Read our conversation here.—AM

The summer travel frenzy continues: Last week, Delta said it posted record growth during Q2.

Last quarter, the airline experienced 19% revenue growth year over year, earning a record $14.6 billion. Its net income rose to nearly $1.83 billion, more than doubling the $735 million it made during the same period last year.

• Its growth follows similarly strong Q1 earnings, during which the airline reported experiencing high demand for summer travel and predicted revenue would increase 15% to 20% year over year.
• “Consumer demand for air travel remains robust,” CEO Ed Bastian said in a press release.

The airline made some marketing leadership changes during the quarter: In April, it announced a new CMO, Alicia Tillman, who previously helmed marketing efforts at software company SAP and financial tech firm Capitolis.

In June, Delta SVP and chief communications officer Tim Mapes, who previously served as CMO, spoke with CNBC at Cannes Lions about the company’s marketing efforts. He said the airline’s spend is “incredibly robust” right now.

When asked which types of new advertising channels and formats are most appealing to Delta, he mentioned short-form videos. “They’re consumable, they’re mobile, they’re easy,” Mapes said, though he noted that the “bulk” of much of the airline’s marketing right now involves communicating with its customers directly via channels like email or text messaging.

The airline has also invested in some major campaigns this year. Its agency of record, Wieden+Kennedy, debuted a campaign in February called “Grow Your World,” the airline’s first paid media campaign focused on SkyMiles.

Keep reading here.—JS

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

Hootin’ and hollerin’: The Wall Street Journal on why Duolingo is choosing TikTok over TV.

Early bird gets the worm: A look at American Eagle’s Threads strategy.

♫ And AI will always love you ♫: Read about how execs at companies like Diageo and Adobe are leveraging generative AI.

Executive moves across the industry.

• Lisa Roath, formerly SVP of food and beverage merchandising, was promoted to CMO and EVP at Target.
• Raejeanne Skillern, an Intel alum, is now global CMO and VP of Amazon Web Services.
• Brad Haley, who previously led marketing at IHOP, has been named CMO of Dave’s Hot Chicken.