Sports Marketing Upfronts

About

Based on the demand from the Brand Innovators community, we have launched the Sports Marketing Upfronts. Its mission is to bring together marketing executives from Fortune 500 and other leading brands to learn and share how they are leveraging the sports and entertainment properties they support to ensure meaningful ROI and drive the value of their sponsorships across the entire enterprise in today’s changing landscape. In addition to having a proper peer to peer platform where they can come together as buyers, brand marketers are looking to us to facilitate a more highly curated marketplace. To support this community request, Brand Innovators will produce a robust lineup of physical and virtual events designed to connect brands with all major sports leagues and teams across North America.  Scroll below to see our event calendar.  

Committee

The Brand Innovators Sports Marketing Upfronts Committee includes some of the most highly respected and influential brand side executives in the industry. Collectively, these prominent professionals actively manage billions of dollars in sponsorship investment and they are responsible for some of the most successful and sustainable partnerships in sports and entertainment today. The Committee will guide our programming to ensure it addresses exactly what they and their fellow brand side peers want to hear and learn the most while also advising on how to best facilitate the marketplace as an effective platform for information to pass between both buyers and sellers.

Events

In 2021, Brand Innovators, in partnership with major sports properties, will produce six Sports Marketing Upfronts events, virtual and/or physical, to be scheduled across the sports calendar.

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Past Events

November 30, 2021

November

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Brand Innovators Sports Marketing Upfronts: Baseball

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Video On Demand

November 4, 2021

November

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5

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2021

Brand Innovators Sports Marketing Upfronts: Motorsports

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Video On Demand

October 7, 2021

October

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2021

Brand Innovators Sports Marketing Upfronts: Hockey

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Video On Demand

August 11, 2021

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Brand Innovators Sports Marketing Upfronts: Basketball

Featured Speakers:

  • Adrienne O’Keeffe, AVP, Consumer Products & Gaming Partnerships, NBA
  • Alfie Brody, Vice President, Head of Global Sports Marketing - NBA, PGA, WWE, 2K Sports
  • Amanda Lamb, Global Marketing Director: Team Sports & Digital Products, Wilson Sporting Goods
  • Andrea Wilson, Director, Sponsorships & Experiential Marketing, AT&T
  • Bethany Donaphin, Head of WNBA League Operations, WNBA
  • Caty Tedman, Head of Partnerships, Dapper Labs
  • Christy Hedgpeth, Chief Operating Officer, WNBA‍
  • Courtney Larson, Head of Ruffles Brand Marketing, PepsiCo
  • Dan Fleetwood, Vice President - Global Sponsorships, SAP
  • Earl Watson, Former NBA Player, Assistant Coach, Toronto Raptors
  • Elizabeth Williams, Atlanta Dream Center/Forward, WNBA
  • Erica Smith, Senior Marketing Manager, Pepsi Sports Team (NBA and WNBA Lead), PepsiCo
  • Justin Toman, Head of Sports Marketing, PepsiCo
  • Kate Jhaveri, Chief Marketing Officer, NBA
  • Kate Johnson, Director and Head of Global Sports & Entertainment Marketing Partnerships, Content and Media, Google
  • Lance Evans, Senior Vice President, Sports & Entertainment, MGM Resorts International
  • Lawrence Montgomery, Executive Director - National Advertising, Kaiser Permanente
  • Lisa Woodward, Director, Sponsorships, Anheuser-Busch InBev
  • Matt Barnes, Former NBA Player, TV Personality, Podcast Host of ALL THE SMOKE
  • Matthew Coleman, Director of Media, Sponsorships and Digital Marketing, State Farm
  • Matt Davis, Head of US Sports Marketing, Anheuser-Busch InBev
  • Patrick Cassidy, Global Director of Consumer Marketing & Athlete Activation, New Balance
  • Rahsaan Johnson, Managing Director of Sponsorships & Inclusive Partnerships, United Airlines
  • Raymond Doyle, Vice President of Digital Media & Brand, BETMGM
  • Sarah Crennan, Vice President, Head of Content, Yahoo Sports
  • Scott Kaufman-Ross, Senior Vice President, Head of Gaming & New Business Ventures, NBA
  • Stephanie Maes, Director of Sports Partnerships, MGM Resorts International
  • Trey Evans, Director of Sports Marketing, Under Armour
  • Yuron White, Vice President of Global Lifestyle & Basketball, New Balance
Learn More
Video On Demand

May 14, 2021

May

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Brand Innovators Sports Marketing Upfronts: Soccer

Featured Speakers:

  • Alan Rothenberg, Chairman, Premier Partnerships
  • Andrea Brimmer, Chief Marketing & PR Officer, Ally
  • Bridget Sponsky, Executive Director - Brand, Sports & Sponsorship Marketing, Ally
  • Dana Dar, Director of Strategic Business Development, Intel Sports, Intel
  • Esperanza Teasdale, Vice President & General Manager, PepsiCo
  • Jill Cress, Vice President, Consumer Marketing, Paypal
  • Jim McCoy, Associate Vice President, Sports Marketing, Nationwide
  • Kerry Scalora, Director – Sports Marketing, Michelob Ultra, Anheuser-Busch
  • Kevin Strunk, Senior Manager, Marketing - FIFA, EA Sports, Electronic Arts (EA)
  • Kieran Foley, Head of Partnerships, Brand, and Strategy, Danone
  • Lisa Baird, Commissioner, National Women's Soccer League (NWSL)
  • Mariela Estrella, Senior Marketing Manager - Hispanic Business Unit, PepsiCo
  • Marissa Weseloh, Director of Sponsorships, Verizon
  • Matt Davis, Head of Sports Marketing, Anheuser-Busch
  • Sarah Guzman, Marketing Lead, Hispanic Business Unit, PepsiCo
  • Sara Toussaint, Vice President, Sports Marketing, Wells Fargo
  • Shawna Burtscher, Director, Experiential Marketing, Audi of America
  • Cristian Nyari, Head of Commercial Content, DAZN
  • Dana Dar, Director of Strategic Business Development, Intel Sports, Intel
Learn More
Video On Demand

February 4, 2021

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2021

Brand Innovators Sports Marketing Upfronts, during Super Bowl Week in partnership with the NFL

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Video On Demand

November 12, 2020

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2020

Brand Innovators Sports Marketing Upfronts - Inaugural Edition

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Video On Demand

Contact

For information on joining the Sports Marketing Upfronts community via a professional team membership or series sponsorship, please contact: Sports Marketing Upfronts, Todd Parker, Sr. Advisor,  todd@brand-innovators.com, 203-247-2273.