This summer's soccer World Cup tournament will provide a rare opportunity for major advertisers looking to engage sports audiences over a month-long festival of footwork, free kicks and the occasional foul - all taking place in the U.S and Mexico. But Major League Soccer (MLS) has a bigger ambition: to convert U.S. viewers entertaining a passing interest in the World Cup into long-term soccer fans of Inter Miami, New York City FC or the Seattle Sounders.
Last year, the agency partnered with Spectrum Reach, Spectrum's advertising arm, to analyze show-level metadata and see which programmatic CTV placements were performing best across several of its campaigns. One of those campaigns was for a major food and beverage brand that wanted to build on the momentum of its Super Bowl advertising by securing spots in both men's and women's college basketball games during the tournament.
Programmatic media buying is expected to account for the majority of growth in the CTV market in 2026. This year alone, over 90% of CTV ad dollars were transacted through programmatic pipes. That data isn't surprising. Programmatic has solved a real problem by helping brands reach TV viewers with targeted precision at much lower costs. But precision isn't the same as presence.
Amazon's advertising unit on Wednesday introduced its roster of presenting sponsors for the opening season of Prime Video's NBA coverage, a clutch of top-tier sports spenders that includes the likes of AT&T, Mercedes-Benz and State Farm. As part of a series of signings that will help defray Amazon's annual $1.8 billion rights payment to the NBA, the online retailer/streamer has landed AT&T as the title sponsor of its new halftime show ( The Half).
"In a increasingly divided world, there are a few things that can bring people together, and sports is one of them," Gorman says in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. "Brands want to surround themselves with those moments that people are finding joy in."