This story is the latest in our series on women leaders in sports and sports marketing. Read the rest of the profiles here.

In a conference room at the headquarters of the National Women’s Soccer League on Madison Avenue one afternoon in late October, Julie Haddon, the league’s chief marketing and commercial officer, had just sat down for an interview when she had an idea for last weekend’s championship festivities. It couldn’t wait.

“Watch me work for one second,” she said, picking up her phone to make a call.

For Haddon, turning off-the-cuff ideas into reality is par for the course. She didn’t land marketing leadership roles at companies including PayPal, Twitter, eBay, SoFi, and the NFL without a little multitasking—as well as a lot of passion and some heavy lifting to boot.

She joined the NWSL as CMO in 2022, and in the two years since, the league expanded from 12 to 14 teams (with more set to join for the 2025 season), signed a four-year media rights deal worth a reported $240 million (its previous three-year deal was worth $4.5 million), and has seen regular-season attendance climb from just over 1 million to 2 million.

It’s a far cry from when Haddon watched her first live women’s soccer game at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, when fans, merchandise, and hype seemed scarce, and the women’s sports landscape looked much different than it does today.

“There was no depth, there was no breath, there was no accessibility to find [women’s soccer],” Haddon told Marketing Brew. “It was hard to experience like a fan…and I got obsessed with fixing that.”

Continue reading here.—AM

Sometimes a podcast’s vibe is perfect: the story is riveting, the delivery is on point, and the host feels like a lifelong best friend.

Turns out that feeling can contribute to why beauty brands are choosing the podcast space for their advertising, especially among Hispanic audiences, according to findings from Sonoro Global Media.

The media company and podcast network, which focuses on serving younger, multicultural consumers, found that audiences show curiosity on how their favorite hosts live their lives and want to know where they get “everything from a lipstick to Botox,” making it a potentially appealing place for brands in the beauty category, Joshua Weinstein, co-founder and CEO of Sonoro, told Marketing Brew.

“We’re finding that across the podcasting ecosystem, the relationship between the consumer and the host is one of extreme trust,” Weinstein said.

Tell me a story: While beauty products might seem like a category that would inherently benefit from a visual advertising medium, Weinstein said the relationship built with audiences and the overall time spent with podcasts are reasons that beauty brands are investing in the space.

“In podcasting, what you have in this era where people are so bombarded by information, bombarded by data, bombarded by messages from brands [is] the idea that someone is helping drive and unfold a story in an organic way,” Weinstein said. “I think consumers want that, young and old.”

Read more here.—JN

WNBA Rookie of the Year Caitlin Clark knows a thing or two about rookie moves.

But in a new co-branded ad from State Farm and ESPN, rookie moves are less of the 3-point variety and more about those embarrassing first-time mistakes—like, for instance, a young driver accidentally crashing a car through a garage door.

A spot where Clark is summoned to the scene of the incident is the latest addition to State Farm’s “The Right Kind of Magic” campaign, which started running last year with a series of ads that show celebrities appearing at minor calamities, or “insurable moments,” as State Farm Head of Marketing Alyson Griffin put it.

The spot, a collaboration between State Farm and Disney’s ESPN, marks Clark’s third appearance in the “Right Kind of Magic” campaign after she made her debut in a spot released around this time last year. Even though Clark’s rookie season in the W has come to a close, Griffin said she expects the Fever guard’s stellar reputation will help State Farm stand out to fans and boost brand metrics like awareness, consideration, preference, and purchasing intent.

“We don’t believe that Caitlin’s star power dims any less now that the season is over,” Griffin told Marketing Brew. “She’s still very relevant.”

In keeping with the format of the rest of the “Right Kind of Magic” ads, the newest spot includes Jake from State Farm, who’s summoned to the scene after Clark says the brand’s jingle. ESPN sideline reporter Cassidy Hubbarth also appears in the 30-second ad, which started running on the network late last month.

Continue reading here.—AM

Executive moves across the industry.

• Netflix advertising vet Jeremi Gorman was named a senior adviser at the sports platform Fanatics.
• Hearst Magazines, publisher of Elle and Cosmopolitan, has a new CMO: TikTok alum Sherri Chambers.
• Kohl’s hired Ashley Buchanan as its new CEO. He was formerly CEO at the arts and crafts retailer Michaels.