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A football icon depicting sports marketing

Sports Marketing

Alyssa Meyers

marketingbrew.com

Abercrombie & Fitch is one of the newest official partners of the NFL. There’s a sentence that, in 2010, you probably never thought you’d read.

 in the past 15 years, including a push into NFL merch that started in 2022 and has now led to Abercrombie being named as an official fashion partner of the league ahead of the start of the current season. According to CMO Carey Collins Krug, Abercrombie’s relationship with the NFL has progressed fairly naturally from the start, with fans, players, and the significant others of NFL players all showing interest in the brand over the years.

As an official partner, Collins Krug said she plans to leverage the sponsorship to promote the overarching brand and its products beyond the team merch to the league’s broad audience, focusing especially on meeting the needs of women football fans.

“It’s a little bit less about slapping a logo on a T-shirt, and it’s more about, ‘How do you get the full look?’” Collins Krug told Marketing Brew. “Particularly from a female perspective, so much of what is out there is with sparkles and pink, but we are actually treating females like the fans that they are. They want gear that is designed specifically for them.”

Abercrombie didn’t run straight into the end zone with its NFL merch. Three years ago, the company started selling products for just a few teams through a merchandising agreement with the league, according to Collins Krug, and after “incredible reception” from athletes and fans alike, Abercrombie eventually increased its NFL products to encompass all 32 teams while also leaning further into football in its marketing.

By 2024, Abercrombie was full-on rushing. The brand 

 with Christen Harper Goff, an actress and model who’s married to Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff, for a pregame styling event that was featured in the Netflix docuseries 

. On the heels of that activation, the league invited Abercrombie to host a pop-up shop at the 2025 Super Bowl, which was a resounding success, Collins Krug said.

“It was the No. 1 store for the day for us in the world,” she said.

After that, the NFL asked Abercrombie to be its first official fashion partner, and Collins Krug and her team said “of course,” she told us. For the retailer, the partnership with the league represents a new way to reach Gen Z and millennials.

“The NFL very much owns that weekend in terms of culture and sports,” Collins Krug said.

She also hopes the sponsorship will boost Abercrombie’s NFL merch business, as well as serve “as a halo for the entire brand.”. For the league, the partnership falls in line with a 

 to connect with that same demographic Abercrombie is aiming to reach, and especially women.

Part of Abercrombie’s work with the NFL is focused on partnering with athletes in the league for initiatives like the Abercrombie Style Concierge, a program that gives certain players access to the brand’s in-house stylists. San Francisco 49ers linebacker Fred Warner, New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye, Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Cooper DeJean, and Dallas Cowboys tight end Jake Ferguson are among the athletes already participating in the program.

Those athletes, along with several other players known for their fashion choices, were featured in a national campaign tied to the start of the sponsorship, which the company described as the “largest advertising investment the brand has made in the sports space.”

Collins Krug said her team hardly had to tackle athletes to get them to participate. “Since our launch, we have had multiple inbound requests for other players to be a part of this,” she said of the Style Concierge, adding that there have also been requests for significant others to get involved.

While Abercrombie’s business skews toward women, according to Collins Krug, the campaign is meant to appeal to “certainly the athletes and the players and their sphere of wives and girlfriends, but then also fans in general,” she said.

As the season progresses, “there are a number of beats that we’re very excited about,” Collins Krug said, including the brand’s partnership with the Cowboys, which she plans to tie in more significantly with the Style Concierge moving forward. And while the specifics are still in the works, she said Abercrombie will definitely have a presence at the Super Bowl again in 2026.

“We want to continue to build on this program and really the deep relationship that we have with the NFL,” Collins Krug said. “This is truly only the beginning.”

Christian McCaffrey, Tee Higgins, Amon-Ra St. Brown, and CeeDee Lamb star in Abercrombie's new NFL campaign. Credit: Abercrombie & Fitch Management Co.

How Abercrombie became the official fashion partner of the NFL 

The deal represents the brand’s first official sponsorship at the league level, and it’s “only the beginning” for the retailer’s ambitions in football, an exec said. 

 behind the players’ boxes at the US Open. Sitting courtside next to A-list celebrities at NBA games. Strolling the paddocks of Formula 1.

Some sports fans are willing to pay steep prices for experiences like these—provided sports orgs know how to speak their language, according to an August 

The consultancy surveyed 1,000 sports fans from the US who earn more than $200,000 annually on their own or who have household incomes of more than $300,000 and found it takes more than good stadium food to please the high-earning crowd.

 About one-third (34%) of high-income sports fans attend live sports events at least monthly, and they “demonstrate a strong willingness to invest in premium experiences,” PwC found.

The majority (60%) of affluent fans said they’d be willing to spend more than $250 for a special event like a playoff game.

1 in 5 high-income fans, or 20%, said they’d spend more than $1,000.

For events that offer “premium hospitality” like player meet and greets, 42% of high-income fans said they’d spend more than $250 to gain access, per the report, while 1 in 4 said they’d spend more than $500.

Young, affluent fans are particularly drawn to exclusive experiences, said Mike Keenan, head of PwC’s sports practice, who previously worked for the Cleveland Browns and for the NFL at the league level.

“They want to be able to do something that others are not able to do,” Keenan told Marketing Brew. “Think about it in terms of the social media world, just kind of documenting your life, like…‘I’m down on the field for a game,’ or ‘I’m meeting a player.’ It’s digital-first, unique content that they’re looking at, and they’re more likely to share all those experiences on social media.”

 Older affluent fans, aka those 45 and up, “prioritize comfort, reliability, and business networking” at games over extra likes on their next post, Keenan said, and the 25–44 demographic also sees the business case for premium sports experiences, according to the report.

Almost all (90%) of that age group said that “hospitality preferences are important when attending events with clients or business partners.”

Closer to three-quarters (70%) of the 55-and-up group said the same.

Those stats were somewhat surprising to Keenan at first, but considering younger generations’ desire to network or find something of a “social scene” at work, he said, the findings ultimately made sense to him. Almost one-third (31%) of men ages 25–34 and 23% of men ages 35–44 said networking and entertaining clients is a “key factor” in their decision to go to games, according to PwC.

Many high-income fans who are shelling out for tickets don’t stop there; they also want the merch to go along with the experience, and more than half of them purchase it at least a few times annually, PwC found. Hats are most popular among this group, followed by jerseys and other apparel.

Again, “exclusivity is a key motivator” for these purchases, according to the report, with 21% of high-earning fans ages 25–34 saying it’s “the most important factor” behind their decision. That lines up with a growing trend of limited-edition merch drops and collabs in the sports space, per PwC. Demand is especially growing for women’s sports merch, which has traditionally been 

 Though affluent fans are willing to spend on tickets, they’re also watching sports from home. Almost two-thirds (61%) of the high-income demo spend at least three hours a week watching sports on TV, with the NFL and college football topping the viewing list, according to the report.

But viewership drops off among younger men. The lion’s share (90%) of men ages 55 and up will watch at least half of a game, the survey found, a number that drops to 63% among men ages 18–24. And 70% of high-earning fans ages 25-34 reported checking social media while they watch.

Teams and leagues seem well aware of this behavior across fan demos, with many building out robust 

 in addition to their broadcast, streaming, and in-person experiences.

“Teams are going anywhere their fans are,” Keenan said, later adding that from social to venues, sports orgs “have to tailor offerings to make sure that there’s a baseline for all fans, but then give the ability for those that want to to pay to amplify their experience.”

Here’s what high-income sports fans look for on game days

PwC surveyed affluent sports fans about their sports habits, like spending on tickets and merch and scrolling social while streaming games. 

Invest in the best: what high-income sports fans look for on game days

When the US women’s national soccer team got its start in 1985, the players didn’t even have their own jerseys, as Michelle Akers, a member of the team and a FIFA Women’s Player of the Century, remembers it.

“We just came in with these men’s jerseys that we had to sew patches on, [that] didn’t have our names on [them],” she told Marketing Brew. “Our sweats were pink and white and blue.”

Ever since then, Akers said, it’s been a dream of hers to see the team in jerseys of their own. Now, the 17 players who made up the ’85 team have founded an LLC and partnered with sports memorabilia company The Realest to correct that, creating and selling the merch that didn’t exist when they first represented the US on the international pitch.

With demand for women’s sports merch growing and 

 to keep up, the ’85ers jerseys sold out in less than two weeks, according to The Realest Founder and CEO Scott Keeney, and he, Akers, and the rest of the team are now planning to do even more to help fill the market.

Keeney told Marketing Brew that he first met the team through Jaymee Messler, a sports exec who co-founded the Players’ Tribune as well as Storied Sports, the content studio that helped set up The 85ers LLC. Keeney said he “instantly clicked” with Akers, who told him the story of her team’s jerseys—or lack thereof. Keeney had the jerseys ready to go in a week, Akers said.

In addition to the jerseys, the merch collection also includes T-shirts, hats, and trading cards. The collection went up for sale online on Aug. 18, the same day the ’85ers were honored at a Seattle Reign NWSL game, and exactly 40 years after the first-ever USWNT game. The only other time the squad received recognition like that was at a Kansas City Current game two years before, Akers said, so the team was “very emotional.”

On game day, though, the team didn’t even have any merch to sell or give out in person; the prior weekend, they brought some to a panel event at Rough & Tumble, a women’s sports bar in Seattle, and it was all spoken for within five minutes, according to Akers.

“We were like, ‘Oh my gosh, we should have brought more,’” she said. “The demand, just in those few minutes, was incredible.”

Online, the jerseys and one of the T-shirt designs sold out in less than 10 days, according to Keeney. The online reactions, like DMs, comments, and press coverage, have also been encouraging, he added. While Keeney said he’s been interested in the women’s sports memorabilia market since he started The Realest, the reception to the ’85ers collection has been further proof of concept.

“The sales numbers speak for themselves,” he said, later adding that the first drop was something of a test to gauge the level of interest in the products. “We knew there would be, but it’s always great getting validation, because it enables us to just do more.”

Keeney is looking into making more of the jerseys and is planning to do more work with the ’85ers, he said. The team, which has already worked with Adidas on a podcast, intends to partner with more pioneering women athletes for similar lines, according to Akers.

The demand for the ’85ers collection not only speaks to the state of the women’s sports merch market, but also a more broad cultural embrace of all things 

 that’s been at play for the past few years. The power of nostalgia is especially strong in sports, Akers said, perhaps because fans like feeling connected to athletes—even those who aren’t competing anymore.

There’s also a certain level of exclusivity that comes with wearing a nostalgic jersey, especially one from a team that’s not as well known as it should be, Keeney said. “It’s kind of like you’re in a club,” if you own the ’85ers merch, he said.

Beyond sales, Kenney said the ’85ers merch has already led to some additional interest from athletes and brands in similar initiatives of their own.

“Sometimes other people need to see somebody else do it and have that success to then be like, ‘Oh, wow, we should do something with them, too,’” he said. “So hopefully we’re breaking more floodgates open.”

A photo composite of 85ers team merch: a black baseball cap, a jersey and a signed card. Credit: Illustration: Brittany Holloway-Brown, Photos: The Realest

The first USWNT didn’t have original kits. 40 years later, they changed that

The 17 members of the first US women’s national soccer team partnered with a sports memorabilia brand to create jerseys that sold out in days.

The NFL is back, and so are its many, many sponsors.

 the official bar and grill of the league ahead of the 2024 season, is looking to start football season strong. To do it, the restaurant chain is relying on key lessons—and coaches—from its rookie year and aiming to use the power of NFL fandom to drive restaurant traffic, according to John Peyton, Applebee’s president and CEO of its parent company, Dine Brands.

“Everyone loves the NFL,” Peyton told Marketing Brew. “At least in this country, it’s almost universally known and followed, so it’s a common language and a common bond. Despite where you live or how you live, everyone talks about the NFL. That’s been a great community-builder for us, both with our guests and our team members.”

We spoke with Peyton about what’s in store for the brand’s latest football campaign and how he and his marketing team plan to advance the work they did last season.

For its first campaign as an official NFL sponsor last year, Applebee’s ran a 

 of spots starring San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy, Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, and Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell.

This year, the player roster looks a little different. In an effort to appeal to an even wider range of NFL fans, Peyton’s team picked a rookie, Las Vegas Raiders running back Ashton Jeanty, as well as a veteran, Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud. The hope, Peyton said, is that Stroud is familiar even to casual fans, while Jeanty is well-known for a rookie among more serious fans who might also follow college football and the NFL draft.

While the players in this year’s campaign changed, the coach is staying the same. Campbell is back after starring in last year’s campaign, which was “really well received,” partially thanks to Campbell’s humor, Peyton said.

“We just love the way he leans into it, how much he truly enjoys himself, and that it just comes across in the spot,” Peyton said. “That energy, and that creativity, and his enthusiasm is what [made it] a no-brainer to roll him into Year 2.”

This fall, Applebee’s Ultimate Trio appetizer deal and 2 for $25 menu are front and center in the creative, which marks a bit of a shift from last season, when the campaign was more focused on conveying the “fun vibe at Applebee’s” restaurants, Peyton said. Applebee’s branding and logo will also be more clear in this season’s campaign, he said, a learning from last year that’s meant to help the brand stand out among other restaurant ads.

In another departure from last year’s approach, the campaign will leave behind the brand’s 

 content series, according to Peyton. The ads will also run for longer than they did last season, he added, evolving creatively over time but staying focused on humor and promoting the same offerings.

“Last year, we laid the groundwork for our association with the NFL,” Peyton said. “We introduced the story of a coach training up his team members to serve our guests. This year, with that well established, we’re getting really specific.”

While the campaign will continue to run on TV like it did last season, the platform focus will be “much more 360 than last year,” with more content like behind-the-scenes footage captured during the filming of the ad spots set to run on social and digital channels, Peyton said. There are plans to activate more at Applebee’s locations as well, including with NFL displays and decor, and by encouraging employees to rep their favorite teams.

By broadening the ways in which the brand activates its sponsorship, Peyton said he hopes the promotional effort will catch the eyes—and the stomachs—of as many NFL fans as possible.

“My 84-year-old mother never misses an Eagles game,” he said. “She’s going to experience the Eagles on television, and that’s why we’re there. My 24-year-old son watches the NFL on four different screens…and so we need to be on the apps. We need to be on the dot coms as well. The message is the same, but we’ve got to find our guests where they are because the NFL is consumed through so many different channels in so many different ways.”

Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell in Applebee's 2025 NFL ad

What Applebee’s learned after its first year as an official NFL sponsor

The restaurant chain is back for a second season with a campaign starring Lions head coach Dan Campbell, Raiders running back Ashton Jeanty, and Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud.

When the Formula 1 team McLaren won its first Constructors’ Championship in more than 25 years last season, it was the only team on the grid without a 

 sponsor. Halfway through the 2025 season, McLaren is firmly in the lead for the constructors’ again, but its naming rights are now spoken for.

Say hello to the McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 team—as of 2026, that is.

Raja Rajamannar, Mastercard’s chief marketing and communications officer, told Marketing Brew that while McLaren was the only team with naming rights available, he still had talks with a handful of other top teams before deciding on the partnership. The goal for the sponsorship, which is 

 the largest F1 title sponsorship and the biggest commercial deal yet for McLaren, is to drive brand awareness and affinity through unique activations, he said.

“We are now predominantly an experiential marketing organization, not an advertising-led organization,” Rajamannar told Marketing Brew. “Our approach is not just about flashing our brand, but bringing our brand to life through experiences that money cannot buy.”

About a year and a half ago, the Mastercard marketing team ran an analysis of its sponsorships and found a hole the size of F1, Rajamannar said, although it did have some motorsports experience. Mastercard sponsors the Goodwood Festival of Speed, a motorsports festival in England, during which Rajamannar said he noticed “the impact and the passion” of car racing.

That, combined with the growth of F1 following the rise of Netflix’s 

, got him studying the landscape, he said—which included binge-watching the docuseries.

F1 has become increasingly popular in the US in large part thanks to the show, and it’s growing specifically among women, who made up three-quarters of new fans as of a 

 released this summer by F1 and Motorsport Network. Women also account for about 75%–80% of all consumer spending, according to Rajamannar.

Those stats helped inform Rajamannar’s early conversations with F1 teams about sponsorship opportunities, but he told us he wasn’t interested in just any team. While some CMOs are 

 on teams before they have winning records, Rajamannar said he wanted to go with one of the best.

“We wanted to be associated with a better team than just put our brand on some car or the other,” he said.

McLaren stood out for a few other reasons, including the fact that the team seemed fan-focused and marketing-oriented, he said. Rajamannar also said he got along well with McLaren CEO Zak Brown, who has a marketing background, and liked that McLaren’s drivers, 25-year-old Lando Norris and 24-year-old Oscar Piastri, are fairly young and are both “extremely good,” he said—they’re currently battling for the World Drivers’ Championship.

While McLaren hadn’t won the constructors’ when Rajamannar and Brown started talking, the team had enough momentum for Mastercard to get on board, debuting as a principal sponsor during the Las Vegas Grand Prix last year.

“Since then, the experience has been brilliant for our customers,” Rajamannar said. “We said, ‘Wow, this has got actually a lot more potential than we originally even thought.’ We come up with one idea, McLaren comes up with two ideas.”

That potential is what led Rajamannar to ask Brown about the naming rights, he told us, and while McLaren hadn’t previously found a brand it wanted to include in its team name, Brown and the team agreed to bring Mastercard on.

The deal, which was announced in late August, is “very long-term,” Rajamannar said, though he declined to share the exact length of the arrangement. He also declined to comment on value, but said that given the team’s and drivers’ winning records this season, “it is not cheap.” Last week, The Athletic reported that the deal was worth somewhere “in the region of $100 million per season,” and that it would stretch through the 2030s.

In addition to naming rights, experiential opportunities for fans through an initiative called “Team Priceless” are a major part of the partnership, as well as Mastercard’s marketing in general. The majority of Rajamannar’s total marketing budget is allocated toward experiential activations, he said.

Earlier this summer, McLaren and Mastercard announced 15-year-old fan Olivia Lawson as the winner of their first “Junior Race Engineer” competition focused on inspiring next-generation motorsport fans and engineers; she spent a day at the McLaren Technology Centre ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. Mastercard also has plans to offer fans experiences like driver meet and greets, according to the company.

Between the naming rights and the fan experiences, Rajamannar said he’s aiming to achieve three different goals. First, he’s hoping the McLaren partnership will “make [Mastercard] more prominent, more relevant, and more lovable,” he said, which the Mastercard marketing team measures by tracking visibility of the brand on TV and elsewhere and through surveys. He’s also looking to drive revenue for the company, which he’ll measure by tracking card spend in markets where Mastercard activates the partnership, he said.

Lastly, Rajamannar said, the sponsorship is designed to give Mastercard a “sustainable competitive advantage” in the market, meaning “competition will find it very difficult to replicate.”

And while it’s not a key metric that Rajamannar said he plans to track, he is hoping that winning means added screentime for McLaren—and, subsequently, now Mastercard—on the next season of 

“If the team that we have chosen keeps winning more and more, then obviously it will show up more than the other brands in the show,” he said. “The show, it’s fun. It will be great to be more visible and obvious.”

Update 09/05/25: This story has been updated to clarify a stat.

Why Mastercard went after McLaren F1 naming rights

The current constructors’ champions will become the McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team in 2026 in an effort to bring the financial services brand “to life through experiences that money cannot buy,” an exec said.

A couple of years ago, B2B tech brand Neat had a pair of customers in the sports space: The NBA’s LA Clippers and Red Bull Racing, the

 team that’s home to four-time World Drivers’ Champion Max Verstappen. Now, Neat, which makes video conferencing devices, is much more than one of their tech providers—it’s a sponsor of both teams.

B2B brands are becoming plentiful in certain sports, especially ones that offer VIP-level experiences to business decision-makers. Unlike consumer-facing brands, Neat didn’t get into the sports game to generate mass awareness and sales, but instead to expose the brand to specific audiences, VP of Marketing Priscilla Barolo said. When execs recognize the brand name, it can make or break a sale, she said, and once the deal is done, sports sponsorships can be integral to maintaining those relationships.

“It’s B2B marketing, but those are still people,” Barolo told Marketing Brew. “Brand exposure is important, and particularly if you can get to those audiences where there’s more decision-makers in key markets like Los Angeles, it’s a good idea.”

Neat first signed on as the official video device of the Clippers last September, and followed up by announcing the Red Bull Racing partnership in November. The deals were inked about a year after Barolo, who previously worked in communications for Zoom, joined the company.

Barolo hadn’t been explicitly looking to tie up with basketball or F1 at the time, but the conversations started naturally over the course of doing business with the teams.

The sponsorships made sense in more ways than one: Red Bull Racing has an international fandom that matches Neat’s global customer base, as well as “once in a lifetime” race experiences, while Intuit Dome, the Clippers' home arena that shares ownership with the team, offered suite-level naming rights at its new, high-tech arena, representing a “shared ethos around…super advanced technology,” Barolo said.

“We knew from our experience, if the partnership is organic, if it’s a two-way street, if it’s multifaceted, that’s a lot more rewarding than going, ‘Okay, that team’s hot right now, slap a logo on them and go,’” Barolo said.

The sponsorships do involve Neat’s logo, though: It’s on the front of the Red Bull F1 cars and around the team’s garage, as well as throughout Intuit Dome, including on the court, tunnels, and the “Neat Suites.” That all is designed to contribute to in-person and broadcast brand exposure, according to Barolo.

During the brand’s first season with the Clippers, Neat was on TV about 1,000 times, and about 55,000 guests visited the Neat Suites, amounting to about $500,000 in equivalent advertising value, according to the company. Halfway through its first season as a Red Bull Racing sponsor, Neat has already seen about $6 million in equivalent ad value, Barolo said.

The hospitality element—and any subsequent sales pipeline—can be harder to measure than branding assets, but Barolo said it’s equally important as part of the deals. Neat has a box of its own at Intuit Dome, where Neat’s sales leaders can bring guests, whether that’s potential new companies they’re looking to court, fellow tech partners, or long-term clients. Neat also has access to the F1 Paddock Club through its Red Bull Racing sponsorship, though tickets are more limited than in the Neat Suites, Barolo said.

Largely, the invites are sent based on the input of Neat’s sales team. “They’re closest to the clients, and they know where this is going to make a difference and where it’s not,” Barolo said.

Perhaps since the F1 Paddock Club is so exclusive, Barolo said invites to that experience so far seem to be paying off, with “universally positive feedback” from clients and sales stats from the first half of the F1 season pointing in the right direction.

“You can’t always see brand ROI right away, but you can see, ‘Okay, well, who did we bring there?’ And then, ‘Has this made any difference in the deals?’” she said. “We’re in high seven figures in terms of the [sales] pipeline associated with the hospitality just this past season so far. That’s what I want to see.”

Still, Barolo isn’t putting all of her eggs—or her budget—in one basket. The two sports sponsorships represent just about one-fifth of Neat’s overall marketing budget, she told us. While she’s open to adding more sports deals, she said, she declined to share details about any specific teams or leagues she might be interested in.

“I am a big believer in not going all in on any given marketing,” Barolo said. “I really think a full-funnel, diverse marketing mix is important.”

Why would a B2B tech brand strike up a sports sponsorship?  

Neat, which makes video conferencing devices, is seeing returns from deals with  the LA Clippers and Red Bull Racing ranging from brand awareness to relationship-building in the suites, an exec said.

Ed Beadle admits that the marketing team at American Honda Motor Co. Inc. is competitive.

So when the VP of digital services and marketing and his team found out that the organizers of the LA28 Olympics and Paralympics were making venue naming rights available for the first time in Olympic history, they were motivated to make sure that the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, retained its name for the Games.

“The idea of somebody else owning it and then having to cover up our signage, that was one of those things,” Beadle told Marketing Brew. “We were like, ‘Ah, I don’t like that.’”

Honda eventually locked in the naming rights, and last month, Honda Center was announced as one of the first named venues for the event. While the naming rights aren’t the entire reason Honda became a sponsor of LA28 (its official sponsorship was announced prior to the Honda Center news), they were a significant part of the conversation, Beadle said.

“I wouldn’t call it the cake, but it’s icing,” he said. “The fact they let us do it—it’s incredible.”

We spoke to Beadle about Honda’s broader approach to the Games, from its plans for the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics next year through a Team USA partnership to the brand’s intentions to show up in LA during the 2028 Games beyond the Honda Center.

 in a LinkedIn post that he originally thought an Olympic sponsorship was “something of a long shot,” he told us that he felt it was his job to consider it seriously, anyway.

“I’m always thinking about the math, and when it comes to the expense of something of this scale, it’s big,” he said. “It’s not like I'm pitching a new ad campaign.”

As conversations progressed, it became increasingly clear that the sponsorship opportunity could make sense. Honda’s US operations were originally established in LA, and its headquarters are still in Southern California, making the location alone significant for the brand. The company’s slogan is also “The Power of Dreams,” and “there’s no better sport[ing event], period, that showcases individuals’ dreams” than the Olympics, he said.

Like Beadle, Honda’s CFO wanted “to see the math” before signing off on such a big deal, but Beadle said it wasn’t a hard sell.

“The Olympics is such an amazing heartstring puller,” he said. “Sometimes in marketing, you really have to explain, especially in this day and age, ‘What is this property? What does it do?’ But with the Olympics, everyone got it immediately.”

As a founding partner of the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games and the official automotive partner of Team USA, Honda will provide a fleet of accessible vehicles and other mobility products to the Games, and it will integrate into NBCUniversal’s coverage. Many of the other specifics of the activation are still in the works, according to Beadle, but the KPIs are already becoming clear.

Through the Olympics, Beadle said his team is looking to build on existing brand trust by “increasing the emotional appeal of Honda,” measuring emotional connections to the brand now, and then again after the LA Games. Individual Honda-owned brands like Acura have their own “sub-goals,” he said. His team is also already measuring stats like impressions and sentiment tied to the sponsorship.

American Honda is getting into the Olympic spirit well ahead of LA28, serving as the official premier technology and automotive partner of the USA Bobsled/Skeleton team for Milano Cortina and beyond.

Honda engineers are already working with the team on “engineering data, analysis, and [equipment] design,” and as part of the deal, the Acura logo will appear “on their sleds in both national and international competitions,” according to the company. Certain gear like enhanced helmets will be ready for use in time for the 2026 Games, but a fully redesigned vehicle likely won’t be ready until 2030, Beadle said. The rest of Honda’s marketing for Milano Cortina is focused on media buys rather than on-the-ground activations, he told us.

Come 2028, though, Honda brands will be involved in other Olympic sports, including volleyball. Honda Center will house Olympic volleyball, which Beadle chalked up to “luck of the draw,” since the sport is played for the full two-week duration of the Games and has been 

In addition to IRL marketing around LA28, Beadle said he’s “staffing up” on the social side to prepare to react quickly to viral moments that happen around the Olympics. Now more than ever, the Games have a reputation for creating somewhat unexpected stars (like Team USA athletes Ilona Maher and Stephen Nedoroscik, both of whom found Paris Olympic fame on social), and Beadle is hoping for the opportunity to form partnerships that feel natural if certain Olympic athletes who align with the Honda brand find themselves in the spotlight.

“Our key filter is authenticity, and not being reactionary,” he said, later adding that “it is gold” when celebrities like athletes are already fans of the brand.

From Left to Right: Janet Evans, LA28 Chief Athlete Officer; Casey Wasserman, LA28 Chairperson & President; Kazuhiro Takizawa, American Honda President & CEO; Sarah Hirshland, U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) CEO; Reynold Hoover, LA28 CEO; John Slusher, U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Properties (USOPP) CEO