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

Basketball executive Kerry Tatlock’s title might say NBA, but her heart says WNBA.

A New York Liberty season ticket holder, Tatlock got her start in the sport working for the W and is now EVP of global marketing partnerships and media at the NBA, a job that spans the W, G League, NBA 2K League, and USA Basketball. She’s spent almost two decades in the league office, and said witnessing the growth of the W firsthand has been among her proudest moments.

“I was a fan of basketball and a fan of sports, generally, but it was really the women’s game and the women’s side of the sport that drew me, and so it was very natural for me to start at the WNBA,” Tatlock told Marketing Brew. “Once I was here, I was given the opportunity to work across all leagues…I did want to impact and continue to work on behalf of the women’s game, but I felt like maybe moving into this seat and position and group would help me make the biggest impact.”

Three years into her role as EVP, Tatlock is now largely focused on fostering relationships with league-wide partners around the world while also cultivating a positive culture on her team closer to home.

Continue reading here.—AM

Here’s a fast fact: 63% of Gen Z and 61.5% of millennial social media users followed or engaged with health influencers on social, according to a 2023 eMarketer survey.

These influencers aren’t necessarily the dancing teenyboppers that might come to mind. They’re people of all ages posting about a variety of health conditions and diseases, in some cases accruing large followings of users seeking information from seemingly credible or relatable sources.

Agencies have taken notice, and a number of them debuted new healthcare marketing offerings this year, including several centered on influencer marketing, to help brands navigate the evolving landscape.

“We live in that review culture, so we’re seeking validation constantly for our health choices,” Ansley Williams, Ogilvy’s head of influencer marketing in North America, who helps run its Global Health Influence offering that debuted in April.

Strength in numbers: For some agencies within holding companies, creating new healthcare offerings has been useful in helping to break down barriers between sister agencies to build stronger services for clients.

• That’s the case with WPP’s Burson, which in May debuted Trufluence x HCP (which stands for healthcare professional). The offering utilizes Decipher Health, a cognitive AI audience modeling tool that can measure the potential impact of different kinds of content on audiences interested in topics like oncology, diabetes, and sexual health.

Trufluence x HCP can use the tool to evaluate the credibility of content or how likely it is to inspire engagement, and the agency says it does not collect personally identifiable information and uses HIPAA-compliant tools. Since Decipher Health is a part of WPP’s cross-agency operating system, WPP Open, it “allows us to collaborate across the WPP family,” Vicky Lewko, global head of digital health at Burson, said.

Read more here.—JS

The advertising industry defied expectations in 2024, but don’t expect 2025 to be as rosy, according to industry analyst Brian Wieser.

Earlier this month, Wieser, a former GroupM economic analyst who now authors the Madison and Wall newsletter, published his quarterly forecast of industry growth, finding that US ad revenue grew roughly 9% this year, nearly 1.8% higher than he previously forecast.

However, he’s already tamped down his expectations for the new year, calling for growth of 4.5%. That’s well below the forecast given by his former employer, which is projecting growth of about 7% in 2025. It’s also lower than his previous forecast of 5.3% growth in 2025.

“I’m trying to be as apolitical as possible and trying to not apply wishful thinking to how things might work out,” Wieser told Marketing Brew. Though markets have lately been “willfully optimistic,” it’s “hard to reconcile that with what seems more likely to occur,” he added.

Why assume the role of Madison Avenue’s Grinch? If there is a jolt in M&A activity in the new year, a more concentrated industry might not be inclined to spend as much on advertising, Wieser wrote. Furthermore, he added, President-elect Trump’s proposed tariffs would “almost certainly have direct negative consequences on advertising, especially among the cross-border drop-shipping importers based in China” if they go into effect.

And if proposed restrictions on pharma advertising become reality, that could also tamp down those budgets.

Continue reading here.—RB

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