Dating apps have stumbled like a marathoner cramping up at Mile 22. Match Group, the parent company of dating apps like Tinder and Hinge, has reported a decline in paying users for seven consecutive quarters as of its Q2 earnings call in July.

Where are singles finding matches these days? Among other venues, singles’ running clubs and run clubs in general are exploding in popularity. As these clubs have grown, both endemic and non-endemic brands have pursued partnerships with them as a way to target specific demographics and broaden their marketing and branding.

Not a sprint: Sneaker and sportswear brand Saucony has partnered with several run clubs, including Black Girls RUN!, Black Men Run, and No Bad Days, Jordan Yob, brand marketing director at Saucony, told Marketing Brew.

“You can’t go a day without seeing a couple of the run crews in Brooklyn,” Yob said, noting the increasing popularity of run clubs in the US, and particularly in New York City.

• At some of these meetups, outside of providing T-shirts or refreshments, Yob said, Saucony has provided shoes for runners to try on, and even created custom shoes in partnership with some run clubs. (The company declined to share how much of its marketing budget goes toward these types of partnerships.)

“A lot of times, run communities have their favorite shoes that they may already be running in,” Yob said. “It is an opportunity, when we do these events with run crews, to have them maybe try on a product that they’re not used to wearing.”

Continue reading here.—JS

What sports fan hasn’t dreamed of owning their own team?

Outside of fantasy sports, it’s largely a fantasy for most, including athletes and team and league employees, who may be prohibited from investing directly into the franchises they work for. But Morgan Stanley came up with a way to make it possible for some of its wealth management clients to find other ways to support their favorite teams.

The financial services company recently rolled out the Parametric Custom Core Sports Leagues Strategy, a portfolio of holdings made up of publicly traded companies that sponsor specific sports properties, according to Sandra Richards, head of Morgan Stanley’s global sports and entertainment division.

Richards said the company is aiming to target sports-centric clients and potentially bring in new ones, all while raising Morgan Stanley’s profile in the sports space.

“If you think about someone who’s a fan of the game, you want to do more than just wear the jersey,” she said. “You want to do more than just go to the game or watch on TV.”

Keep reading here.—AM

The Simpsons has been on TV for 36 seasons, and later this year, it’s breaking into a brand-new genre.

On December 9, Homer Simpson and the gang will appear during The Simpsons Funday Football, a real-time animated NFL Monday Night Football game on Disney+ and ESPN+. The event follows last year’s Toy Story Funday Football, the company’s first-ever animated alternate NFL broadcast set in Toy Story character Andy’s room that brought in three Sports Emmys.

This year’s animated game will take place in the Simpsons’ hometown of Springfield at the fictional Atoms Stadium, with Bart Simpson joining the Cincinnati Bengals on the field, and Homer siding with the Dallas Cowboys. Meanwhile, Marge and Lisa Simpson will interview players during the game, while other characters will appear throughout the telecast.

Like with Toy Story Funday Football, the real players will square off at a real football stadium and appear as themselves on the traditional telecast while also appearing in animated form on the alternate telecast, with plays and interactions happening on-field shown in real time on-screen.

Gametime decision: ESPN’s previous iteration of Funday Football, its first fully animated NFL telecast, represented an inventive addition to the growing trend of media companies looking to alternate telecasts to attract different audiences and create more ad inventory around lucrative sports programming.

• The Toy Story telecast, which featured a game between the Atlanta Falcons and Jacksonville Jaguars last October, ended up being the biggest live event to-date on Disney+, according to the company.

Continue reading here.—JS

Executive moves across the industry.

• Netflix tapped Nicolle Pangis, formerly CEO of the TV advertising company Ampersand, to serve as VP of advertising.
• ESPN hired Jo Fox, a former Comcast NBCU exec, as SVP of marketing.
• PwC hired former Verizon exec Kristin McHugh as chief marketing and communications officer for the US and Mexico.