Adspeak

The WNBA’s rapid rise from an overlooked league to a cultural and commercial powerhouse reflects more than just the growing popularity of women’s basketball. It signals a shift in how athletes build their brands, shape their narratives, and fight for the compensation and working conditions they deserve. Sustaining that momentum requires authentic storytelling, responsible media coverage, and a business model that allows players to share in the league’s success.

In this episode of Adspeak by ADWEEK, Mariah Rose, sports content creator, is joined by Lexie Brown, WNBA guard for the Seattle Storm, and together they explore the forces reshaping women’s basketball and the business of women’s sports. They discuss how social media and athlete-led content are transforming fan engagement, why collective bargaining negotiations are critical to fair compensation, and how offseason leagues are creating new opportunities for players.

They also examine the importance of health benefits, retirement security, and expanded roster spots, alongside the commercial potential of emerging markets. Throughout, they explain why authentic athlete storytelling and a growing fan base can help build a more sustainable future for women’s sports.

What You Will Learn:
How athlete-led storytelling is transforming women’s sports marketing
Why WNBA players want compensation tied to league revenue growth
How social media gives athletes greater control over their personal brands
Why rising stars can expand opportunities for the entire league
How offseason leagues support player development and financial stability
Why health benefits, pensions, and roster expansion matter to players
How untapped markets offer new growth opportunities for women’s basketball

About the Guests:
Lexie Brown is a professional basketball player for the Seattle Storm in the WNBA. In her eighth season, she brings firsthand experience to conversations about athlete branding, media representation, and the business of women’s sports. Through authentic social media content, vlogs, and her podcast Full Circle, Brown has helped connect fans with women’s basketball. She is also an advocate for fair compensation, improved player benefits, and better working conditions.

Mariah Rose is a sports content creator and media personality specializing in women’s sports, particularly the WNBA. Through social media and her podcast Full Circle, she helps audiences understand the players, storylines, and business dynamics shaping women’s basketball. Rose is an advocate for authentic storytelling, stronger media representation, and greater visibility for female athletes. Her work explores how personal branding, fan engagement, and sponsorship opportunities are transforming the commercial landscape of women’s sports.

Host and Guest Resources:
Lexie Brown on LinkedIn
Mariah Rose on LinkedIn
ADWEEK Website
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What does it take to reinvent a legacy brand without losing what made it iconic?

In this episode of Adspeak by ADWEEK, host Brittaney Keifer brings together four creative and marketing leaders to explore how established brands can move beyond outdated perceptions and build renewed cultural relevance. Amanda Earley, Jaime Robinson, Christy Hoskins, and Jessica Henrichs share lessons from rebranding La-Z-Boy and Brawny, including the importance of understanding a brand’s history, leaning into authentic strengths, and ensuring product innovation can support the promises made by a new identity.

The conversation examines how creative partnerships can unlock stronger ideas, why consumer and stakeholder involvement can help prevent backlash, and how social platforms provide a valuable space to test new directions before making bigger commitments. From evolving familiar brand characters to creating culturally relevant activations, the panel reveals how brands can make change feel natural rather than disruptive. For marketers navigating the challenges of refreshing a household name, this episode offers practical insights into balancing heritage, innovation, consumer trust, and creative risk.

What You Will Learn:
How to reposition a brand stuck in nostalgia by mining your own history
Why product innovation must precede any brand refresh
The "lean into your strengths" principle: La-Z-Boy's breakthrough
How to pressure-test beloved brand icons
Why earned, culturally-tapped activations should precede a full rebrand
How to future-proof against backlash by involving consumers
Why social media is the lowest-risk place to test how a legacy mascot or character should evolve before committing to broader campaigns

About the Guests:
Amanda Earley is a brand and business leader who specializes in building brands, teams, and growth strategies through a combination of consumer insight, data-driven decision-making, and creative thinking. As Brand Director at Brawny, she has led product innovation, commercialization, marketing campaigns, and business revitalization. Known for bringing people together around bold ideas, Amanda combines strategic vision with hands-on cross-functional leadership.

Jaime Robinson is an Emmy-winning entrepreneur and creative leader whose work has earned nearly 40 Cannes Lions, including multiple Grand Prix and Golds. She is a Co-Founder and former CCO of JOAN Creative, where the agency was recognized as one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies and earned Agency of the Year honors from Adweek and Campaign. A former ECD at Wieden+Kennedy New York and Pereira O’Dell, Jaime has also served on The One Club Board and as a Cannes and D&AD jury president.

Christy Hoskins is a transformational marketing leader, growth driver, and culture builder with more than 20 years of experience across market-leading CPG, consumer durables, and retail companies. Her expertise spans brand building, consumer-driven strategy, business planning, portfolio strategy, customer experience, innovation, P&L management, and advertising. Christy is passionate about leading with vision, building future-focused organizations, and developing strong, engaged teams grounded in purpose, continuous learning, and compassion.

Jessica Henrichs is CEO of DonerColle Partners, where she leads and helps brands navigate transformation, drive purposeful change, and accelerate growth. Since joining Colle McVoy in 2021, she has reshaped the agency’s model, invested in emerging capabilities, and built high-performing teams, earning recognition including the 2024 Adweek 50 and 2026 Campaign US Inspiring Women. Previously, Jessica spent more than a decade at Digitas, developing award-winning, data-powered creative strategies that earned over 100 honors, including a Cannes Lions Grand Prix for Data.

Host and Guest Resources:
Amanda Earley on LinkedIn
Jaime Robinson on LinkedIn
Christy Hoskins on LinkedIn
Jessica Henrichs on LinkedIn
ADWEEK Website
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Legacy retail brands have something that newer brands can only dream of: decades of recognition, emotional connection, and cultural history. But turning that heritage into modern relevance requires more than nostalgia. It takes clear positioning, product reinvention, bold creative decisions, and a strong partnership between marketing and leadership.

In this episode of Adspeak by ADWEEK, Marisa Thalberg, Executive Vice President and Chief Customer and Marketing Officer at Catalyst Brands, sits down with Ken Ohashi, Brand CEO of Brooks Brothers and Eddie Bauer to explore the strategies behind transforming iconic retail brands. They discuss how to reposition struggling businesses, uncover new opportunities by listening to real customer behavior, and balance heritage with the need to evolve. Ken and Marisa also explore Eddie Bauer's shift from technical outdoor gear to a lifestyle brand, the role of cultural influencers, and why small, trusted teams can make better creative decisions. Throughout, they share lessons on building authentic brands that turn skeptical customers into loyal ones.

What You Will Learn:
How to turn around a bankrupt heritage brand
Why creative decisions should avoid "committee thinking"
The "off the mountain" repositioning framework Eddie Bauer used
How to find hidden brand momentum by mining real customer behavior
Why talking "up to" middle-America consumers builds trust and authenticity
How strategic star power can be used as a cultural amplifier
The importance of building CEO-CMO trust early

About the Guests:
Marisa Thalberg is a globally recognized business strategist and brand-building innovator, known for inspiring teams to take brands to new heights of consumer resonance, cultural relevance, and business performance. A pioneer of digital, social, and eCommerce marketing, she has orchestrated blockbuster product launches, unexpected cultural moments, and moved with uncommon ease between industries like beauty and QSR, retail and CPG, brand and performance marketing, mass and prestige.

Ken Ohashi is Brand CEO of Brooks Brothers and Eddie Bauer, with more than 25 years of experience across fashion, consumer products, retail, and business development. He led Brooks Brothers through its acquisition and transformed the iconic brand to profitability in less than two years. Previously, Ohashi served as President of International and Global Retail at Authentic Brands Group, overseeing brand management, business development, and marketing across its international portfolio. He also held senior leadership roles at Aéropostale.

Host and Guest Resources:
Ken Ohashi on LinkedIn
Brooks Brothers Website
Marisa Thalberg on LinkedIn
Catalyst Brands Website
ADWEEK Website
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Halloween is no longer just a seasonal celebration. For brands, it can become a powerful cultural platform for building relevance, generating engagement, and creating long-term brand assets.

In this episode of Adspeak by ADWEEK, Rebecca Stewart sits down with Ibrahim Khan, Global Vice President of Marketing at Fanta, to explore how Fanta turned Halloween into a global brand moment and generated more than 7 billion impressions through fan-generated content without paid media spend.

The conversation explores how Fanta identified an opportunity to build ownership around Halloween, harnessed TikTok and community creativity, and partnered with Universal Pictures and Blumhouse to create collectible horror-themed cans. Ibrahim also explains how product design can become a storytelling platform, how to balance brand authenticity with licensed IP, and why giving audiences creative freedom can drive deeper engagement. He shares the long-term thinking behind turning a successful seasonal campaign into a recurring global franchise that builds anticipation and cultural relevance year after year.

What You'll Learn:
How to identify a "white space" holiday moment competitors have left unclaimed and build ownership around it
Why letting fans create content can generate more impressions than any paid campaign
The "constructive tension" principle for balancing a licensor's IP integrity with your own brand's authenticity
How to select characters or creative assets that flex across generations and 50+ global markets without losing relevance
Why product design itself (not just advertising) can become the most scalable storytelling platform a brand has
The long-game playbook for turning a single viral moment into a recurring, expectation-building annual tradition

About the Guest:
Ibrahim Khan leads global strategy and marketing for Fanta, bringing more than a decade of experience at Coca-Cola across diverse markets. Previously, he served as Senior Marketing Director for Sparkling Flavors in Greater China & Mongolia, overseeing Fanta, Sprite, and Schweppes. His career also includes leading marketing for Sprite in its largest global market, managing sparkling portfolios across ASEAN, and driving brand strategy for Coca-Cola and Fanta across Thailand, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Ibrahim specializes in global brand management, digital transformation, and creating consumer experiences that resonate across cultures.

Host and Guest Resources:
Ibrahim Khan on LinkedIn
Fanta Website
ADWEEK Website
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Mental health campaigns can do more than raise awareness. Done well, they can change behavior, challenge stigma, and help people take meaningful action.
In this episode of Adspeak by ADWEEK, host Audrey Kemp speaks with three communication leaders: Heidi Arthur, Chief Campaign and Program Officer at the Ad Council; Sherrie Mazur, Managing Director of Communications at the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation; and WNBA star Jordin Canada. They explore how the national “Love Your Mind” campaign was localized for Georgia through culturally relevant storytelling, trusted community voices, and authentic athlete advocacy.

The conversation examines why vulnerability can make athletes powerful messengers, how a “Brand Platform” approach keeps partnerships consistent, and how strategic media placements can reach audiences when they are most receptive. The guests also share why campaign success should be measured through behavior and resource-seeking, not vanity metrics. With awareness reaching 50% and resource-seeking increasing 49% in under five months, the episode offers a practical look at turning mental health messaging into action.

What You'll Learn:
How to localize a national campaign
Why leveraging athletes' influence, not just celebrity status, builds authentic credibility
The "Brand Platform" approach: treating a cause campaign like a product brand
How to choose high-traffic, high-dwell placements (like airports) to reach broad, diverse audiences
Why impact should be measured through actual behavior shifts and resource-seeking
How brands can avoid tokenism on mental health by partnering with clinical experts

About the Guests:
Heidi Arthur is Chief Campaign and Program Officer at the Ad Council, where she oversees national initiatives like Love Your Mind and transforms empathy into measurable action. With expertise in using communications to address critical social issues, she leads the Ad Council's mission to leverage donated media and cultural influence, particularly through sports and trusted athlete voices, to drive behavioral change.

Sherrie Mazur is Managing Director of Communications at the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, responsible for bringing national mental health initiatives to local communities with cultural relevance and measurable impact. Her work bridges philanthropy and grassroots activation by uniting diverse sports organizations and leveraging trusted local voices to destigmatize mental health conversations.

Jordin Canada is a guard for the Atlanta Dream (WNBA) and a vocal advocate for mental health destigmatization both on and off the court. As a featured voice in the Love Your Mind campaign, she shares her personal experience navigating pressure, vulnerability, and the importance of seeking support as a professional athlete.

Host and Guest Resources:
Heidi Arthur on LinkedIn
Ad Council Website
Sherrie Mazur on LinkedIn
AMBFF Website
Jordin Canada on Instagram
ADWEEK Website
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.