Marketing Vanguard

The old sponsorship model was simple: buy the assets, activate around the big moment, and move on.

Jessica Goldstein thinks that model is already outdated.

Live from the Marketing Vanguard stage at Brandweek 2026, Jenny Rooney sits down with Jessica, the NWSL’s Vice President of Partnerships and Marketing Solutions, to unpack why modern sports partnerships need to behave more like platforms, built around athlete storytelling, fan behavior, consistent presence, and a role the audience can actually recognize.

Jessica Goldstein is Vice President of Partnerships and Marketing Solutions at the NWSL, where she leads partnership strategy and marketing solutions for the league. Her work here primarily focuses on combining both sides of that experience: helping partners build stronger roles inside the league while using athlete storytelling, cultural crossover, and long-term consistency to grow fandom around women’s soccer.

She has spent more than 20 years in sports, beginning at the NBA in production and entertainment before moving into brand marketing. spent more than 11 years agency-side, where much of her work focused on sponsorship strategy and building women’s sports platforms for major brands.

What You'll Learn:

• Why athlete storytelling can turn individual players into gateways to broader fandom
• Why traditional sponsorship asset lists no longer create enough value on their own
• How 360 partnership strategies can connect live moments, content, and fan behavior
• Why tentpoles need an always-on strategy around them to drive long-term value
• Why data should inform partnership strategy without pretending to make every decision for you
• How women’s sports can unlock categories and stories that traditional sports partnerships may not

This episode is part of a special vidcast series that was recorded live during Brandweek 2026 and presented in partnership with Tatari.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Audience targeting may have gotten easier, but getting people to truly care has not.

Live from the Marketing Vanguard stage at Brandweek 2026, Jenny Rooney sits down with Dan Moriarty, CMO of Chicago Fire FC, to unpack why the marketing pendulum is swinging back toward creative, what makes live sports such a powerful attention engine and why brands should think harder about the emotion behind what they sell.

Plus, the inside scoop on why he left the Chicago Bulls for a growth-stage MLS club and the difficult people decisions that have helped reshape his marketing organization.

Dan Moriarty is Chief Marketing Officer of Chicago Fire FC, where he leads marketing for Chicago’s Major League Soccer club.

Originally from England, Dan began his career agency-side before moving into brand roles at Hyatt. He later spent around eight years with the Chicago Bulls before joining Chicago Fire FC.

At the Fire, he has been part of a period of significant investment and change across the club, from its on-field ambitions and downtown presence to new facilities, fan experiences, and plans for a new stadium. His marketing perspective combines a digital-first background with an increasing conviction that, as targeting becomes easier, creative quality matters more than ever.

What You'll Learn:

• Why sports still commands attention in a world built around on-demand content
• Why Chicago Fire FC focuses on selling joy and passion rather than soccer itself
• How the club turned World Cup energy into an owned Chicago fan experience
• Why easier targeting makes stronger creative even more important
• Why buying reach is no longer a meaningful competitive advantage
• How Chicago Fire FC is restructuring its in-house creative operation
• Why avoiding underperformance can cost you your strongest people

This episode is part of a special vidcast series that was recorded live during Brandweek 2026 and presented in partnership with Tatari.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Brand or performance? That’s the wrong question for marketers to ask, according to Nick Fairbairn.

Live from the Marketing Vanguard stage at Brandweek 2026, Jenny Rooney sits down with Chime’s SVP of Growth to unpack why brand lift and direct-response accountability belong in the same system, why buying an AI tool does not amount to AI transformation and why scrappy creative may do more brand-building work than marketers want to admit.

Nick also gets into TV’s messy shift from linear to streaming, executive conversations around brand investment and why creators should perhaps be a part of every channel.

Nick Fairbairn is Senior Vice President of Growth at Chime, where he leads a broad growth organization spanning paid media, organic growth, go-to-market, lifecycle, product, engineering and onboarding.

His career started in media buying, including television and radio, before he moved into agency entrepreneurship and then brand-side marketing. Along the way, he’s worked at ProFlowers, helped build acquisition at Dollar Shave Club during the DTC era, led startup growth and later joined Chime to build its product marketing capabilities before moving into his current growth role.

What You'll Learn:

• Why AI adoption needs active leadership instead of waiting for teams to figure it out themselves
• Why buying another AI tool rarely changes how a marketing organization actually works
• How Nick measures TV with the rigor of a performance channel
• Why brand lift and direct-response accountability should sit in the same conversation
• How data can turn a defensive budget discussion into a stronger case for brand investment
• Why lower-production testimonial creative can still move brand equity and consideration
• Why Nick thinks creators should eventually become part of every marketing channel

This episode is part of a special vidcast series that was recorded live during Brandweek 2026 and presented in partnership with Tatari.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When every company starts looking like a tech company, a media company and an entertainment company at the same time, brand clarity becomes mission critical.

In this episode of Marketing Vanguard, host Jenny Rooney sits down with Grace Kao, CMO of Snap, to talk about what it takes to build a brand people actually understand and want to spend time with. Plus: a breakdown of Snap’s push toward chat, real-world connection and why marketers should be asking the question, “How do we actually add something?”

Grace Kao is Chief Marketing Officer of Snap, where she leads marketing across Snapchat and the company’s broader brand portfolio.

Her career began almost by accident after she stepped away from graduate school and joined BBDO as an executive assistant on the Apple account. From there, she built a career across agency and brand roles spanning PlayStation, Yahoo, Pandora, Instagram, Spotify, and Snap.

Across those chapters, Grace has consistently gravitated toward brands with strong identities, youth audiences, and clear points of view. At Snap, she is focused on keeping the brand rooted in friendship, creativity, and real connection while exploring new ways for brands, creators, and communities to participate on the platform.

What You'll Learn:

• Why brand clarity becomes more valuable as businesses stretch across categories
• How relationships and people can shape a career more than a perfect plan
• Why challenger brands and youth culture have more pull
• How Snapchat is moving beyond passive consumption toward active participation
• Why brand marketing has to match the creative standard of the community
• How chat, Maps, and IRL experiences can create new roles for brands
• Why unexpected partnerships can make audiences see a brand differently

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

CMOs are being asked to do something increasingly absurd: deliver more growth, with less budget, while marketing gets more complex and more expensive.

In this episode of Marketing Vanguard, host Jenny Rooney sits down with Jessica Apotheker, CMO of Boston Consulting Group, to unpack what it actually takes to survive and matter in the modern C-suite.

Jessica Apotheker is Chief Marketing Officer of Boston Consulting Group, where she leads the BCG brand while continuing to work directly with clients on marketing, digital transformation, and growth. Before joining BCG, Jessica worked in product marketing at L’Oréal.

Her approach is grounded in one principle: strategy only matters if it survives execution. Whether she is advising clients or leading BCG’s own marketing agenda, Jessica focuses on measurable impact, stronger capabilities, and making sure marketing earns its place as a growth driver.

What You'll Learn:

• Why granular execution is what turns strategy into actual impact
• How to think about marketing through orchestration, art, and science
• Why BCG increasingly sees itself as a force multiplier, not just a consultancy
• How the impact, asset, and muscle model creates measurable client value
• Why CFO and CIO relationships can determine whether a CMO succeeds
• What makes the CMO role uniquely vulnerable in the C-suite
• Why AI should be positioned as a growth lever, not just an efficiency play

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mary Yee, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Sony Interactive Entertainment, started her career in accounting, not marketing. And, yet here she is.

In this episode of Marketing Vanguard, host Jenny Rooney sits down with Mary to unpack how a career that moved from finance to Clorox to PlayStation to the CEO seat at Tatcha (and back to PlayStation) shaped her view of what great brand building actually requires.

Mary Yee is Senior Vice President of Marketing at Sony Interactive Entertainment, where she oversees the PlayStation brand globally across hardware, peripherals, network services, subscriptions, digital retail, and games.

Her career began in public accounting before she moved into brand marketing at Clorox. She later joined PlayStation during the PS4 era, helping build the brand through a major period of category growth and digital transformation. In 2021, she became CEO of Tatcha, where she helped expand the luxury skincare brand across channels and into 34 countries before returning to Sony Interactive Entertainment.

Across gaming, beauty, and CPG, Mary’s approach is rooted in the same core idea: understand the business, understand the consumer, and build brands around real human connection.

What You'll Learn:

• Why financial literacy can make marketers stronger brand builders
• How analytics and creativity should work together, not against each other
• How Tatcha used communities, creators, and retail to fuel growth
• Why Mary defines herself, first and foremost, as a brand builder
• How cross-media IP expands reach beyond a brand’s core audience
• Why PlayStation anchors products, games, and IP under one master brand
• How curiosity helps leaders move successfully across categories and roles

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What happens when consumers love the idea of your product but freeze when it is time to choose?

In this episode of Marketing Vanguard, host Jenny Rooney sits down with Andy Lopez, CMO of Behr Paint, to unpack how Behr is turning consumer friction into brand opportunity. Andy shares why “color paralysis” is one of the biggest pain points in the paint journey, how Behr uses insight to build confidence at the point of decision and why the strongest marketing ideas start by solving something real.

Sparks President and Chief Client Officer Melissa Levy also joins Jenny for a mid-episode sidebar discussion on trust, measurement, and the future of experiential marketing. Sponsored by Sparks.

Andy Lopez is Chief Marketing Officer of Behr Paint, where he leads an integrated marketing organization spanning brand, product marketing and commercialization. He began his career agency-side, including at Saatchi in Los Angeles working on Toyota, before moving to Behr more than nine years ago.

At Behr, Andy has expanded across brand marketing, product and broader marketing leadership, bringing together consumer insights, innovation and go-to-market strategy. His perspective is shaped by experience on both sides of the agency-brand relationship, as well as Behr’s long-standing exclusive partnership with Home Depot.

What You'll Learn:

• Why the best agency partners behave like extensions of the brand team
• What AI still cannot replace in strategic marketing relationships
• How to use AI to create capacity instead of simply cutting costs
• Why consumer confidence matters as much as consumer inspiration
• How Behr identifies and solves “color paralysis”
• How exclusive retail partnerships work when both brands plan together
• How Behr’s Color of the Year connects trend forecasting to actual consumer behavior

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What do agency leaders need right now? According to Ross Martin, maybe “a sanity check and a lobotomy.” Funny, yes. Also not entirely wrong.

In this special episode of Marketing Vanguard, host Jenny Rooney spotlights the launch of Adweek’s Agencies Vanguard program with three founding members: Jessica Henrichs, CEO of DonerColle Partners; Ross Martin, President of Known; and Chioma Aduba, President of Droga5. Together, they unpack why agency leadership has become one of the most complex jobs in business, why competitors need spaces for radical honesty, and why the future of agencies cannot be solved in isolation.

Jessica Henrichs is the CEO of DonerColle Partners and one of the founding members of Adweek’s Agencies Vanguard program. In this episode, she brings a clear perspective on adaptive leadership, the value of peer support and why agency leaders need to build belief through change rather than pretend they have every answer.

Ross Martin is the President of Known and a founding member of Agencies Vanguard. Known for his candid take on the agency industry, Ross brings a sharp view on the structural challenges facing agencies today, from outdated business models to the bigger question of what the industry wants to stand for next.

Chioma Aduba is the President of Droga5 and a founding member of Agencies Vanguard. In this conversation, she speaks to the value of transparency, cross-agency community and creating an industry that feels like it is in good hands for the next generation of creative talent.

What You'll Learn:

• Why agency leaders need perspective, not just certainty
• How leaders can build organizations that adapt through change
• Why agency executives need safe spaces for honest conversation
• How competitors can collaborate on shared industry challenges
• Why agency business models are facing structural pressure
• What diverse agency models can learn from one another
• Why the industry needs to decide what agencies should be known for next

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Some of the biggest opportunities for marketing leaders exist in industries where marketing has historically had the least influence. In this episode of Marketing Vanguard, host Jenny Rooney sits down with Danielle Wuschke Paige, Chief Marketing and Growth Officer at Nixon Peabody, to explore what it takes to modernize marketing in a complex, relationship-driven industry. Danielle shares how her B2B and agency background prepared her for legal marketing, why trust and content matter more than flashy creative, and how she is evolving the function through stronger business strategy, thought leadership, and AI adoption.

Danielle Wuschke Paige is the Chief Marketing and Growth Officer at Nixon Peabody, an Am Law 100 firm with offices across the United States and internationally. She leads the firm’s marketing and business development organization, with responsibility spanning brand strategy, communications, client engagement, strategic pursuits, digital, design, industry marketing, and practice growth.

Danielle began her career in technology sales before moving into strategic marketing and then spending more than 15 years in the agency world, including leadership roles at FleishmanHillard and MSL.

What You'll Learn:

• Why strong B2B marketing fundamentals can transfer across industries, even when the category itself is completely unfamiliar
• How to turn marketing into a more strategic business function by helping stakeholders understand its impact on firm performance, reputation, and growth
• Why legal marketing is content-first and how timely expertise can build trust with clients who want more guidance from their advisors
• How to balance a law firm’s overall brand with the individual reputations of attorneys whose personal credibility often drives business
• Why AI should enhance junior marketers rather than replace the foundational skills of writing, creative thinking, and communication

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What’s it going to take to build relevance in a brutal attention economy? In this episode of Marketing Vanguard, host Jennifer Rooney sits down with Jennifer Storms, Chief Marketing Officer of NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, to break it down. 

Jennifer traces her path from Olympic dreams to sports marketing to PepsiCo to NBCUniversal, sharing how NBCUniversal thinks about brand salience across NBC, Peacock, Bravo and NBC Sports, why the Olympics needed to be rebuilt as a year-round franchise and how Legendary February turned three separate live events into one unified cultural moment.

Jennifer Storms is Chief Marketing Officer of NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, where she leads brand strategy, integrated marketing, media and consumer engagement across NBC, Peacock, Bravo and NBC Sports. Her career spans the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, Turner Broadcasting, PepsiCo and NBCUniversal, giving her a rare perspective across sports, media, entertainment and consumer brands. At NBCUniversal, Jennifer focuses on building distinct brands, driving audience growth across platforms and turning major cultural moments into year-round franchises.

What You'll Learn:

• Why a strong career north star should allow for strategic zigzags
• How CPG experience shaped Jenny’s view of consumer behavior and brand building
• Why brand salience matters when consumers have endless content choices
• How NBCUniversal turns campaigns into year-round franchises
• Why creators and athletes should be treated as storytellers, not just reach vehicles
• How AI makes human storytelling and live experiences more valuable
• Why live sports should be planned before, during and after the moment

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.