Olympic excitement seemed at a peak this year. Viewership was up 82% from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, according to NBCU, and use of the term “pommel horse” presumably rose by an even larger margin.

The Paralympics, which are held a few weeks after the Olympics, have also attracted more attention from viewers, networks, and brands. This year, NBCU rolled out what it called “the most comprehensive coverage of the Paralympics in US media history,” and as of Sept. 5, coverage on NBC was averaging 1.32 million viewers, up 49% from the Tokyo Paralympics. Ad sales were also up more than 60% from Tokyo, per NBCU.

The US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) has seen a similar increase in sponsorship interest in the last few years, thanks to a concerted effort to boost awareness around the Paralympics, especially in the leadup to LA28, Katie Bynum, the organization’s chief of strategy and growth, told Marketing Brew.

“The overall coverage and conversation is growing, and with that, brand interest is growing, too,” Bynum said. “It’s only going to grow more as a result of hosting the LA games here in four short years.”

Team up: Part of the USOPC’s plan to promote the Paralympics involves pairing it closely with the Olympics—and encouraging sponsors to do the same. Team USA’s brand platform includes both Olympic and Paralympic athletes, and aims to “drive awareness and more understanding of the Paralympics,” Jess Park, chief of brand and fan engagement at the USOPC, told Marketing Brew in April.

Some brands took similar approaches to their marketing around the games.

• Team USA partner Reese’s featured Olympic and Paralympic athletes in its Paris 2024 campaign, and worldwide sponsor Samsung gave every Olympic and Paralympic athlete a special-edition phone to capture “victory selfies” from the podium.
• Nike continued its “Winning Isn’t For Everyone” Olympics campaign with “Winning is Winning,” which spotlights Paralympic athletes. During the Paralympics, Nike and the USOPC also announced a one-year career program for athletes focused on disability inclusion.

Continue reading here.—AM

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Google doesn’t just have one monopoly within ad tech—it has a hold on the entire supply chain.

That was the argument Justice Department attorney Julia Tarver Wood made Monday during opening statements in what could be the antitrust (and ad tech) trial of the decade, which kicked off this week in a federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia.

“One monopoly is bad enough, but a trifecta of monopolies is what we have here,” Wood said.

Marketing Brew got a seat on the packed press bench for the first day of the historic trial to hear opening arguments from both sides and the perspective of publishers, ad-tech executives, and advertisers about Google’s influence on the ecosystem—as well as their explanations of core concepts of advertising to Judge Leonie M. Brinkema, who is presiding over the trial.

There were lawyers in crisp suits and reporters who were not, and all managed to survive the day without cell phones or laptops close at hand, as this particular courthouse bans most devices outright.

The arguments: Tarver Wood argued that Google, “not just a noun, but a verb,” has monopolized specific parts of the ad market, harming both publishers and advertisers in the process. Weedy topics like header bidding and ad servers aside, this is “a real market affecting real people,” she said, emphasizing that Google controls 87% of the US ad-selling market.

Karen Dunn, Google’s lead lawyer (who’s also been busy lately preparing Vice President Kamala Harris for tonight’s presidential debate), opened by pointing out how competitive the ecosystem is, and that Google fights for dollars against competitors “millisecond by millisecond,” she said. She also argued that real-time bidding was as revolutionary as AI is today. (We’ll let the proverbial jury decide how persuasive that argument is.)

And both legal teams tried to drill down the definition of “open web display advertising,” with Google’s team claiming that the DOJ’s definition has too many carve-outs, like whether it includes mobile app advertising or native ads.

Continue reading here, and catch another trial update in tomorrow’s newsletter.—RB

Each week, we spotlight Marketing Brew readers in our Coworking series. If you’d like to be featured, introduce yourself here.

Rebecca Biestman is CMO of Guild, an education benefit management company. Prior to joining Guild, she was CMO of Reputation.com and has served in marketing roles at software companies including Dialpad and RMS.

What’s your favorite ad campaign? I think a lot about the “Intel Inside” campaign. They took a technical hardware decision that used to only sit with B2B buyers and a category that frankly only technical people were familiar with and successfully grew mass awareness to create a new consumer quality narrative. One little sticker became the reason you knew the computer you were buying at your local electronics store was quality. Even though their piece of the computer wasn’t visible to consumers, Intel made themselves a key component of the purchase cycle in a way that was just genius. I think marketers can really learn from this campaign. Don’t assume that you can’t take a complicated idea and gain mindshare from a large audience. We can and should take something that wouldn’t normally be seen or understood by the masses and help them to see why it matters to their lives.

One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile: At Guild events and beyond, I’m always the first one to warm up the dance floor. While I may identify as an extroverted introvert, I love a dance party and will dial up the extrovert part of my heart and get other people out there.

Continue reading here.

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Mergers and acquisitions, company partnerships, and more.

• Chase became the first jersey-patch sponsor of WNBA expansion team the Golden State Valkyries.
• Eli Lilly announced a partnership with Caitlin Clark.
• Roku re-upped its content deal with the NFL.
• PayPal tapped Will Ferrell to star in its biggest-ever marketing campaign.

The creator economy is at an inflection point. Skeptical brand marketers now have no choice but to embrace creator content. Meanwhile, top creators are moving beyond brand deals, building thriving businesses independently.

EMARKETER’s new roundup highlights the trends marketers need to know shaping this rapidly growing category. Access the roundup.