Sport has stopped being just a sponsorship channel and has slowly but surely become the operating system for culture. Leagues, brands and athletes can all win if they treat every fan touchpoint as part of an always‑on, integrated experience, rather than a row of logos on shirts or around a pitch.
Alex Zeevalkink
Thanks to AI we’re moving to one-to-one advertising. The catch is, it only works if you can produce and iterate enough distinct creative for the machines to find the right ad for the right person at the right moment. Creative is no longer a cost centre, it’s now the growth engine.
Contributor
Hannah Bowler dives into Mattel’s slow, deliberate shift from selling toys to building franchises – and asks its head of licensing and partnerships, Ruth Henriquez, about the decision of betting on fans, fast collabs and decades of nostalgia to make the model stick.
Hannah Bowler
Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Music Watch on YouTube Welcome back to the Brandmakers podcast, where Hannah is joined by Ruth Henriquez who is head of licensing and partnerships at Mattel overseeing the IP for brands like Barbie, Hot Wheels, Uno and Masters of the Universe. In Mattel’s post-Barbie movie era, the company is shifting from a product-led business model to an IP-led one. At a time when advertisers are all finding ways to be ‘entertaining’ Mattel’s strategy is worth paying
Hannah Bowler
The signals beneath the noise. We track slow culture, emerging scenes, and values shifts shaping how people live, work, play – and what that means for the products, media, and experiences they choose next.
Sport has stopped being just a sponsorship channel and has slowly but surely become the operating system for culture. Leagues, brands and athletes can all win if they treat every fan touchpoint as part of an always‑on, integrated experience, rather than a row of logos on shirts or around a pitch.
Alex Zeevalkink
Hannah Bowler dives into Mattel’s slow, deliberate shift from selling toys to building franchises – and asks its head of licensing and partnerships, Ruth Henriquez, about the decision of betting on fans, fast collabs and decades of nostalgia to make the model stick.
Hannah Bowler
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Everyone’s chasing social “trends”, but the word has become shorthand for fads when it was meant for something deeper and more strategic. Industry insiders say it’s time to retire the term altogether, rethink the language we use and refocus on the underlying shifts that actually shape audiences.
Hannah Bowler
A cozy island game where nothing much happens has quietly become a masterclass in building worlds people actually want to spend their time in. Here’s what brands can learn from games like Animal Crossing about designing calmer, more communal experiences offline.
Dean Rodgers
