“I’m lucky to work in an agency full of incredible women, and together with the wider network I’ve built over the years, they are one of the greatest assets I have.
“It’s easy to operate in isolation, forgetting that who you surround yourself with matters. Your network can be one of the biggest drivers for your success, from the support they give and advice, to the lessons you’ve learnt through them and their experiences.
“So while I’ve never had one “official” female mentor, I’ve got something I think is even more powerful, a group of exceptional women who’ve pushed me, challenged me, and shaped my career in ways I could never have done alone.
“Women like Zarah Al‑Kudcy, who I’ve known since university. Watching her climb, grow, and own her space has been a constant reminder that we can do this – that we belong here – and that we’re absolutely capable of more than we give ourselves credit for.
“And then there are the incredible women I had the privilege of hiring early on, Kim Broadbent and Charlie Hugill, who quickly showed me what excellence truly looks like.
“Their support has made more of a difference than they probably realise. Even now, as we all work in different organisations, I still turn to them for perspective when I need it most.
“This International Women’s Day, I’m reminded that as women, we can be each other’s greatest advocates and, sometimes, just by seeing another woman succeed, we can be inspired to follow in their footsteps.
“Peer support is everything, and I’m constantly inspired by the incredible women I’m lucky to be surrounded by.”
Following the recent Memphis Grizzlies and Orlando Magic games in Berlin and London, Tom Wild, Head of Strategy at Fuse, writes for Insider Sport on why these NBA games can become the blueprint for the league’s potential launch in 2027.
In January, the Memphis Grizzlies beat the Orlando Magic at the O2 Arena in London in what was a night full of glitz and glamour.
But this game was far more than an exhibition; it was a dress rehearsal for players, fans and brands for a new era of top-level basketball in Europe.
US leagues bring with them music, streetwear, food and influencer content. A blend of culture and sport that not only keeps the novice European audience entertained, but also creates a blend of culture and sport that leads to authentic long-term fandom.
US leagues, and the NBA in particular, are not visiting Europe on holiday, but house-hunting for a second home. As made clear with the recently discussed plans for NBA Europe, a 16-team competition, built around 10–12 permanent franchises with four spots awarded via sporting qualification, is targeted for as early as 2027.
From an investor and brand perspective, it’s a no-brainer. The current market is a sweet spot of being both large and under-monitised. Basketball has an estimated 270 million fans across Europe, yet it only captures a sliver of the continent’s sports economy. This is exactly why the NBA, clubs and rights holders are looking to push forward with plans in this hungry yet relatively untapped space.
Cultural programming
With this context, the Grizzlies’ victory in London becomes about far more than sporting excellence and ticket sales. It, like with the success of the NFL and MLB games in London, proves a basic proposition: young, culturally engaged European audiences will get on board with American products, provided they are presented with local authenticity and nuance.
What all the American leagues have done so well on their European visits is deftly turning matches into cultural programming. Half-time and tunnel moments now trend on social platforms where younger fans live, growing appreciation and awareness of the sport beyond the 48 minutes of gametime.
The success of this experiential-led approach provides a blueprint for the NBA’s investors and associated brands to achieve their plans for European expansion. Having said that, launching a new league is a step beyond hosting the odd game; Europe already has a strong sporting culture.
Tapping into Euro sporting culture
Basketball fans in Europe already have an established, albeit overcrowded, ecosystem full of domestic leagues, European competitions and national cups – backed by partisan local support.
Backers of NBA Europe have discussed working with these existing structures, but questions still remain about access, scheduling and whether top clubs will defect to a new model.
The talk of football clubs fielding teams in the league, with the NBA in talks with the likes of Real Madrid and Manchester City, may also require some selling. The multi-sport model is not a foreign concept to much of the continent, but in the UK, it may be greeted with some scepticism.
Fans may see this as being baited into following the league purely due to a team having the same badge and colours as their football club, representing another move away from the sport’s roots, and foreign investors slapping the badge on something to help it sell.
It also jeopardises the opportunity for existing UK basketball clubs. What good is an influx of money and attention to Manchester Basketball if they will just be suffocated by Manchester City’s shiny new team?
Luckily for the NBA, they don’t need to reinvent the wheel to ease these concerns.
Crafting a NBA Europe identity
Introducing merit-based access and collaboration with existing bodies will frame the new league as something that enhances the existing pyramid and traditions, rather than a coup from corporate powers to exploit what is already there. Once this is established, it’s just a matter of doubling down on the experiential approach that has got them this far.
This involves rights holders and brands avoiding cookie-cutter activities and instead investing in local creators, grassroots programmes, and season-long storytelling. Creating a distinct European feel to the league, rather than a copy and paste of the US version.
The level of investment in NBA Europe is reported to be in the hundreds of millions, enough to build state-of-the-art arenas and next-level fan experiences. Local, authentic, culturally relevant activations will be the best way for investors and brands to not only see measurable return and engagement, but also build long-standing trust from the fans.
Last month’s game in London showed for brands and investors that it’s a huge opportunity for major US sports leagues in Europe. It’s just a matter of realising that what works is leading with experience, authenticity and culture to build the sport in its local environment – rather than just slapping a logo on a court.
Tours are no longer one-night events. They’re year-round cultural ecosystems built on content, community and identity that extend beyond the arena.
Harry Styles’ 12-night Wembley residency was predicted to generate £1bn – with fans expected to spend an average of £981 each across travel, accommodation, hospitality and retail, overtaking the likes of Oasis and Taylor Swift fans (Source). By positioning the tour as a residency rather than a series of standalone shows, Harry created a destination-style event that tapped into fans’ deep emotional connection with him and intense fandom. Their willingness to invest went far beyond ticket purchases, instead buying into the sense of belonging and experience.
A growing number of fans don’t simply just show up in today’s touring landscape. Beyond the financial commitment, fans invest time, energy, and creativity into every aspect of the experience: they curate a perfect outfit; plan a travel itinerary; create social content; purchase merchandise; and often attend multiple shows on the same tour! Fans were anticipated to spend an average £102 on Harry Styles’ official tour merchandise, 9 in 10 were predicted to participate in a “fan trend” on the day and 63% planned to wear a Harry Styles-themed look. Through these rituals fans bought in to the full experience and signalled their identity as part of a wider fan community.
For brands, the opportunity is not simply to reach fans, but to enable fandom. The most effective partnerships move beyond visibility and into participation, creating experiences that feel native to existing fan behaviours. Tour sponsor Amex’s ‘We Belong Together Together’ campaign flew fans from around the world who couldn’t secure tickets to specific tour locations, allowing them to share the experience with someone special to them. It wasn’t just about access – it was about amplifying connection and rewarding fans’ loyalty.
Beauty brand Sol de Janeiro also tapped into the excitement surrounding the tour through their experiential pop-up and social-first content. They leveraged creator-led content and popular formats such as GRWM and Day in the Life’s, to authentically connect with audiences around the concert experience. Their activity captured the anticipation, energy and sense of occasion associated with attending a live show, encapsulating the self-expression and fan-behaviours associated with his tour.
Fans don’t just attend tours anymore – they create a world around them which lasts year-round, not just during tour dates. From driving economic impact at every touchpoint in their planning and live music experience, to creating culture online and offline, fandom has become an active force rather than a passive audience. For brands, success lies not in speaking to fans, but in fully joining the conversation and giving them something they can participate in. The more a brand helps fans create, connect and belong, the more meaningful its role becomes in the story they’re already telling.
Sources:
https://www.itv.com/news/granada/2026-05-19/fan-spending-on-harry-styles-wembley-gigs-set-to-top-1bn
https://www.hstyles.co.uk/wbtt/
https://www.instagram.com/p/DXpb4aXEcuq/utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
https://home.barclays/insights/2026/05/Harry-Styles-One-Billion-Spend/
The 2026 edition of the FIFA World Cup concluded last weekend, where Spain defeated Argentina 1-0 to claim their second men’s World Cup Title. Off the pitch, however, one man has made the tournament his own. Darren Jason Watkins Jr., better known as @IShowSpeed.
Speed is no stranger to the world of football. The Ronaldo obsessed 21-year-old American has played with the Sidemen at Wembley, attended the Ballon d’Or and has led chants for Al Nassr in the Saudi Pro League. He is everywhere. Phone attached to his wrist, reading comments and interacting with fans around the world, Speed delivers IRL streams, speaking to a camera that captures his reaction rather than the action itself.
In addition to streaming across YouTube and Twitch globally, Speed also partnered with FOX Sports to stream live matches for those who paid for Fox One on YouTube. While the Bundesliga in the UK and the NFL and NBA in the US have previously engaged streamers to supplement broadcasts for professional sport, this is the first time it has been done for a global event of this scale. And by all accounts, it seems to have been a success.
Fox Sports hasn’t released official numbers of how many people paid to watch the match on stream in the US, Speed’s strong numbers throughout the tournament highlight that that people want to engage in the content he is producing. 57 million people watched Speed stream the final, his most viewed stream ever (youtube.com). Also, the fact that FIFA invited him to perform at the closing ceremony wasn’t merely a nod to his streaming success, it’s an official endorsement that creators now occupy the same cultural space as traditional sports personalities.
Ultimately, this isn’t your granddad’s broadcast. His over the top reactions, immense highs and conversations directly to camera aren’t for everyone. But in a world of global sports broadcasting where presenters are increasingly out of touch with audiences, Speed offers something fresh. Dare I even say the ‘A’ word? He offers authenticity.
This unfiltered, (live)stream of consciousness is exactly what young people want, and with growing audiences, there will undoubtedly be more brands looking to cash in. While this offers more chances to buy media around the match, it also opens official sponsors up to a whole new audience through built-in awareness in the form of LEDs and new exciting ways to activate rights and engage potential new consumers outside of the FIFA ecosystem.
While this case study may rebut macro trends of changing viewing habits and young people no longer watching full matches, the root of this success can’t be understated. The most important lesson to be learned from FIFA’s experiment is audiences are tuning in for Speed first and football second. Many may not even be football fans. They are there for the energy, humour and sense of community that comes along with his personality and his type of content. Football is only the facilitating platform, rather than the destination.
Much like the Portuguese football team 20 years ago, bringing a 21-year-old with flair and personality has been a massive success, suggesting creator-led sports coverage has moved away from novelty to necessity. The next few years across both domestic and global events I’m sure we will see more of this type of experimentation in an attempt to bring in new audiences. However, like his idol Cristiano Ronaldo, there will almost certainly be people who come in and try to emulate this success only to fall short.
The FIFA World Cup has always been one of marketing’s biggest stages, and this year in the United States, Canada & Mexico, it is louder and more complex than ever. Commercial success has often been measured by the value of a sponsorship deal, the prominence of a logo placement or the number of impressions bought. But the rules have changed.
With the 2026 tournament kicking off last week, brands are competing in an entirely different attention economy. Official rights remain an important way for major brands to deploy their budgets and creative thinking, but they are no longer the only route to relevance. And how you show up in Mexico City can’t be the same as how you show up in Miami.
The FIFA World Cup identity itself reflects this challenge. For the first time, the tournament must combine three countries, sixteen host cities and multiple cultural influences under a single brand. The result is an identity system designed for flexibility, one that remains recognisable globally while feeling relevant locally. The adaptable and modular identity system combined with a customised colour palette and abstract patterns allow scale across the continent without losing coherence. It’s a reminder that good design is about creating systems that can flex to different audiences without losing recognition.
And the same conversations will have been had by brands looking to use the tournament as a platform. Ultimately, consistency matters, but relevance matters more. The FIFA World Cup can put brands in front of billions of people. What it can’t do is make people care – for example, according to YouGov in the UK just over 60 percent of fans intend to watch 9pm kick-offs, but just 13 percent will follow games after midnight.
Brands without official FIFA World Cup rights often have to push creative boundaries to tap into the excitement surrounding the tournament. With the pick of the bunch for me being John Lewis’ ‘His Name is a Shop’ , aimed at customers watching matches from home, highlighting common match-day ‘red cards’ fans will want to avoid.
However, some of the most memorable campaigns are those that maximise the value of official sponsorship rights through creativity. They span multiple channels, tap into relevant cultural conversations and get people talking. Official partner Lay’s has launched a range of locally flavoured crisps to connect with local audiences, something that consistently resonates, even across rival markets. This is backed up by a new global campaign, ‘The Most Epic Watch Party’ featuring a star-studded line up including David Beckham and Steve Carrell who surprise and delight fans in a local supermarket setting. It taps into a simple but powerful thought: imagine missing out on a moment like this without Lay’s. And American powerhouse AB InBev is celebrating 40 years as an official sponsor launching its ‘Let It Pour’ campaign and alongside it rolling out a huge limited edition collectable pack featuring 11 unique designs inspired by previous tournaments.
Why?
Because they understand that audiences respond to authenticity and creativity.
Through creator collaborations, live reactive content, culturally driven storytelling and viral media moments, brands can find meaningful ways to join the conversation around major sporting events.
For official sponsors, this approach can amplify the value of their rights and deepen engagement with fans. For non-sponsors, they offer opportunities to participate in the wider cultural moment. In both cases, success comes from understanding the audience and creating content that resonates.
The brands that win today are not necessarily those with the biggest budgets. They are the ones creating work people actively choose to engage with, share and discuss. Sponsorship can buy visibility but creativity earns the attention. And that’s often the difference between being seen and being remembered.
Formula 1 has ushered in a new era of the sport in 2026 with new teams, a new track and new regulations. With the season now underway, there’s plenty for fans and brands alike to keep an eye on. While the new additions have brought a reformed spectacle for the fans, they have also welcomed a new hunting ground for brands looking to stand out in what is the fastest-growing major sport in the world. Given we now have an unplanned break for just over a month until the Miami Grand Prix in early May, take some time to get up to speed with what to expect for the coming season…
New Teams on the Grid – Cadillac & Audi
In 2026, Formula 1 have welcomed two ‘new’ teams to the grid. The newly formed Cadillac F1 team have made their debut and the rebranded Revolut Audi F1 Team, marking a new era for the former Sauber organisation. Their entries signal a significant evolution in the sport’s competitive and commercial landscape, contributing to one of the most diverse team rosters F1 has ever seen.
Cadillac’s arrival is particularly notable, given Formula 1’s desire to crack the US market. Cadillac is backed by General Motors and signals huge intent from the American manufacturer to compete at the highest level of global motorsports. GM has committed a substantial investment to ensure the team’s long-term competitiveness, with plans already underway to introduce its own power unit in 2029. In the meantime, the Cadillac car is powered by a Ferrari power unit, allowing them to focus on establishing themselves on the grid. Driven by Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas, the new team brings a wealth of experience to the grid with their driver pairing. Based on the first three races, it’s clear Cadillac has a long way to go and a mountain of work to get stuck into, but for them it’s important to keep celebrating the little wins.
By contrast, Audi has instead opted for a combination of experience and youth with seasoned veteran Nico Hulkenberg and emerging talent Gabriel Bortoleto continuing with the team. Where they have made significant changes is off-track. The team have undergone a full operational transformation, including an overhaul of their commercial department. This shift is designed to align the team with Audi’s premium global brand identity and create a partner ecosystem that reflects their ambition to establish themselves not just as a competitive force, but as a commercially leading organisation within the sport. As a new team building their own engine for the first time, they’ve had a respectable start to the season with some points on the board already!
With 11 teams now competing, Formula 1 has hit a record number of commercial partnerships for the sport, exceeding 360 commercial relationships across the Paddock [1]. This growth reflects both the sports’ expanding global audience and its increasing appeal as a marketing platform. However, it creates one of the most crowded partnership environments in the sports industry. Brands looking to activate within this increasingly crowded landscape will need to work harder than ever to stand out. Authenticity, cultural relevance, and strategic creativity will be essential for cutting through the noise and ensuring meaningful engagements with fans and potential customers.
New Partners & Brands
As the eyes on the sport have multiplied enormously over the past few years, so too has the commercial activity in the space. Whether it’s partnering with an F1 team, Formula 1 itself, or with the race promoters, brands are chomping at the bit to show up in the F1 landscape. The rapid growth in team partners has been so drastic that many teams are reaching a saturation point, where satisfying all partners is becoming an enduring task. Some teams are resorting to finding very unique partner designations to help squeeze more logos onto their cars. The Williams F1 team, for example, recently announced a multi-year partnership with Anthropic as their ‘Official Thinking Partner’. As more brands show up in the F1 space, the need to innovate in authentic ways to stand out from the crowd has become the new challenge. Brands must harness the power of fan engagement and activate in unique ways to connect with their specific target audience within the wide-reaching F1 fanbase. F1 and team partners must utilise their rights on a more intentional level rather than approaching them as a tick box, otherwise they risk getting lost among a sea of smart and forward-thinking competitors.
The leading case study demonstrating the extraordinary growth in the F1 commercial landscape is the McLaren F1 Team. At the start of the 2018 season, the MCL33 driven by Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne rolled out of the garage with a car virtually bare of sponsors – only small logo placements for their five or so sponsors showed. Fast forward to 2026, and McLaren now supports a roster of 53 partners across a wide range of industries, from alcoholic beverages to global banking.
In tandem with the F1 partnership space booming, the broadcast environment has also seen considerable growth in the value of broadcast rights packages. The biggest news in this space came late last year, when Apple TV was announced as the Official U.S. Broadcaster of Formula 1 on a five-year agreement worth a reported $750 million ($150 million per year). This number significantly outbids the previous agreement between F1 and ESPN of $80 million per year. From a brand perspective, this considerable rise in media rights value highlights the huge opportunity to show up visually in front of the 800 million viewers across a season. Whether through trackside signage or broadcast rights, the opportunity for brand awareness is considerable – not to mention the additional peripheral visibility through digital channels and Netflix’s Drive to Survive.
Significant Regulation Changes in 2026
For the 2026 F1 season, you’ve probably noticed there are some changes. Specifically, we are now undergoing the most significant regulatory changes the sport has ever seen, with an overhaul across the aerodynamics, power units (engines), and on-track racing.
The cars firstly look a little different thanks to the aerodynamics changing from the nose all the way to the rear wing. The cars are slightly lighter and smaller with thinner tyres intended to improve racing and allow the cars to race wheel-to-wheel more easily. The power units have also become 50% combustion-powered and 50% electric-powered, meaning they are well and truly hybrid machines.
F1 have also implemented new racing ‘modes’ at the drivers’ disposal that they can harness throughout the race weekend. Specifically, Overtake Mode, Boost Mode, Straight Mode and Recharge Mode have all been implemented following the new regulations and the technical novelties they bring. If you’ve tuned in for the first few races or stayed across the developments, you will know that some drivers and fans are still undecided on the new modes and the impact on racing while others have enjoyed the more exciting on-track action.
With new regulations come new opportunities in the commercial space too. It’s common to see a shake-up of the competitive order, potentially bringing new teams into the fold that used to compete towards the back of the field. For brands, this presents an exciting opportunity to partner with high-performing teams at a relatively low cost. If we cast our minds back to 2009, a regulation change saw Brawn GP team leapfrog from 9th in the standings as Honda, to being the leader of the pack within a few months. As a new team, they had almost zero sponsors, resulting in a frantic rush to sign new deals on a race-by-race basis, with the most famous of these being Virgin. Based on the race results so far, it’s unlikely we’ll see a Brawn-style shake-up, but it’s worth keeping an eye on the new teams as they develop.
Reformed Race Calendar – Madrid Added In, Bahrain & Saudi Arabia Cancelled
Formula 1 is often described as a travelling circus, reaching five continents and more than 21 countries across its 24‑race calendar. Each season brings rumours of new destinations eager to join the lineup, and in 2026 the sport will debut an all‑new circuit in Madrid, Spain. The Spanish Grand Prix will move to the Madring, a purpose‑built venue currently under construction. With a capacity of 110,000, the race promoters promise a dynamic fan experience both on and off the track, featuring a technical layout and unique event offerings. This provides brands and partners with a brand-new environment to activate and reach both the Spanish and wider European audience – this time from an urban location. We’ll have to wait until September, and the lights go out, to see how the race measures up to the other iconic events across the F1 season.
One development we’ve seen this season is the cancellation of the Saudi Arabian and Bahrain Grands Prix due to the conflict in the region. As two of the four races in the Middle East, this reduces the calendar’s geographic diversity and has created considerable ramifications across the commercial landscape. With Saudi Arabia and Bahrain being two of the highest paying race promoters, F1 is reportedly losing out on over $100 million in host fees, with the total revenue impact reaching $200 million [2] once broadcasters, teams and commercial partners are factored in. Removing just two races from the calendar has caused major disruption to rights delivery for F1’s 26 Global and Official Partners, and F1 will have to re-allocate these rights to other races, or in other formats. It’s a reminder that global sports like F1 bring huge opportunity but also significant risk – and brands and rights holders must be ready to react when the unexpected happens.
The Bottom Line
F1’s landscape has matured beyond the point where mere presence delivers value. The introduction of new teams, regulatory changes and calendar adjustments create both complexity and opportunities for brands to navigate throughout the remainder of the 2026 season.
[1] https://sector.world/2026/02/what-the-grid-reveals-about-f1s-commercial-structure/
[2]https://www.sportspro.com/news/major-events/f1-middle-east-bahrain-qatar-saudi-arabia-march-2026/#:~:text=According%20to%20an%20analyst%20report,%2452%20million%20that%20Bahrain%20contributes.
The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina were a reminder of why the Games remain one of the few truly global cultural moments in sport. For a couple of weeks the world tunes in together, discovering new athletes and stories in real time. This year those moments travelled fast – from Ilia Malinin landing the first legal backflip in Olympic figure skating history to a USA men’s ice hockey player losing a tooth mid-game before scoring the winner minutes later. But the Olympics are never just about medals; Lindsey Vonn’s comeback attempt brought one of winter sport’s biggest names back to the stage. The USA women’s ice hockey team delivered the drama audiences crave, while US star Laila Edwards made history as the first Black woman to win gold in her sport. And even the human moments cut through – Norwegian biathlete Sturla Holm Lægreid using a bronze medal interview to publicly apologise to his ex-girlfriend, and Norway’s dominance continuing with a biathlon star reaching nine Olympic gold medals.
And it wasn’t just the athletes shaping the narrative. The presenters played a huge part too – all of them added something, but the standout voices for me were the two snowboard commentators squeezed together in their now iconic tin hut, keeping the energy high and helping audiences feel every moment. They brought a mix of expertise, humour and pure joy that made the men’s Big Air final (already being talked about as one of the best ever), feel even bigger.
With millions watching on TV and huge streaming numbers on the BBC, Milano Cortina made one thing clear – and the Paralympics will only build on it, the moments we remember aren’t just the medal wins. It’s the sportsmanship, the raw human moments and the unreal athleticism that pull global audiences into the same story and remind us why the Olympic and Paralympic Games still matter.
Last night’s Rooftop Session in partnership with Sofar Sounds was a vibrant celebration of rising talent, with powerful performances from Hamzaa and Nippa. When we were selecting artists for the show, it was particularly interesting to observe how today’s creator-driven culture has enabled grassroots talent to build their profiles around the causes they care about. And it’s particularly inspiring how both these artists channel their personal journeys and advocacy for mental health into music that empowers and connects. Alongside their fresh sounds, they’ve shown how today’s creator culture enables talents to build meaningful profiles rooted in authenticity and the causes they champion, from resilience, wellbeing and healing to community empowerment.
For brands, partnering with new artists offers a unique opportunity to tap into that energy. Beyond fresh creative perspectives, they bring cultural relevance, highly engaged audiences, and the agility to co-create meaningful campaigns. Collaborating with artists at this stage of their journey allows brands to foster loyalty, demonstrate support for up and coming talent, and stay close to the conversations shaping culture right now.
From bucket-list moments like the Super Bowl, the Barmy Army’s curated cricket itineraries, and the Instagram-worthy glamour of the US Open, travelling for sport has long been a key part of the fan experience. But over the past few years, we’ve seen a shift in how rights-holders and brands are reimagining the sports arena to align with a new generation of fan profiles.
Sports tourism now represents around 10% of the global travel industry and is forecast to grow by 16.43% annually a year through to 2032, making it one of the fastest-growing segments in travel. For brands, this growth unlocks fresh opportunities to engage fans by building culturally connected experiences that capture the excitement and immersion fans increasingly seek.
Several forces have converged to put sports tourism at the heart of modern travel:
With this backdrop, sports tourism can be grouped into three broad categories: major events, destination events, and active events. Each offers brands unique ways to engage fans.
Major events like the Olympics, FIFA World Cup or Champions League finals, attract mass international attendance and dominate cultural conversations. While the cost of official sponsorship can be prohibitive, the growth of sports tourism allows non-sponsor brands to still play a meaningful role in the fan journey.
Paris 2024 Olympics
The Paris Games was a watershed moment, with the opening ceremony being held outside the stadium for the first time in modern Olympic history. Without a traditional Olympic Park, events were staged across the city in temporary sites, blending sport with iconic landmarks. This inspired brands to activate creatively beyond official zones, and tailoring experiences to a tourist sensibility.
The shift from centralised exhibition spaces toward brand-led consumer touchpoints reflects a larger trend: activations are moving from being property-led to being brand-led, where creativity, cultural relevance, and innovation drive engagement.
Looking ahead to Milan 2026 and Los Angeles 2028, we can expect the city-sport integration to become even more pronounced. Each host city will serve as a canvas for creative expression, offering opportunities for brands to deploy their budgets in effective ways.
UEFA Champions League
European football is built on matchday traditions, from local pubs to ritualistic routes to the stadium. These behaviours are integral part of the fan tourism experience, creating moments brands can authentically tap into.
The learning here is that cultural impact now outweighs proximity to the field of play. Success comes from understanding how fans interact with a host city and creating moments of surprise, shareability, and belonging along the way.
As events like Milan 2026 and Los Angeles 2028 embrace citywide formats, brands that treat the city itself as a creative playground will gain an edge. If you think back to your own holidays, often the most memorable moments are those that add unexpected cultural or interpersonal layers to the trip.
In some cases, the location itself is inseparable from the sport. These destination events blend heritage, culture, and competition, giving brands a chance to become an unmissable part of the environment.
Roland Garros
No other calendar moment is representative of a destination event like the Grand Slams. The Australian Open (a.k.a. “Happy Slam”) is famous for its festival atmosphere, while Wimbledon and the US Open are increasingly being referred to as the “runways of tennis”, where sport and high fashion come together. Though it’s Roland Garros, hosted amongst the spectacle and history of Paris, that epitomizes the destination event. The competition seamlessly embodies Parisian elegance where tennis meets haute couture, gastronomy, and fashion.
Singapore Formula 1
Catering to a growing younger F1 fanbase, the Singapore Grand Prix is a citywide celebration that happens to have a night race running through it. With sold-out podiums where approximately half are not locals, the majority of fans aren’t inside the track complex. Hospitality is so high that occupancy rates for trackside properties regularly hit 90–100%, while brands compete to outdo one another with ultra-exclusive social experiences:
The premium positioning does risk excluding local fans, with affordability cited as the main barrier to attendance for Singaporeans. Still, the appetite for luxury sport-tourism experiences remains insatiable, creating fertile ground for brand creativity.
Destination events show how place and experience can merge into powerful storytelling, illustrating that fans increasingly value the cultural context surrounding sport whether that’s the food, fashion, music, and nightlife which make each destination iconic. The insight: to win in destination sport tourism, brands must design experiences that feel native to the location, seamlessly blending the brand DNA with the atmosphere and aspirations of fans.
The final category is the active event (a term borrowed from The National Geographic), where travel and physical activities merge. These range from marathons and triathlons to wellness retreats and “mara-cations” – holidays built around running or cycling challenges. In the post-pandemic era, fans are choosing to go beyond passive participation in sport; they’re travelling to get involved in activities themselves.
For brands, these events offer a chance to align with values of personal achievement, health, and community; powerful, emotive drivers that extend well beyond traditional sponsorship and underscoring a shift from watching sport to living it. Fans now travel to test themselves, to join communities, and to collect experiences that feel personally transformative. Whether through co-creating training programs, offering recovery experiences, or celebrating the journeys of everyday athletes, the most resonant brands will be those that empower fans to see themselves not as audiences, but as part of the action.
Sports tourism offers a powerful lens for reimagining how brands activate around a sport. It gives fans a unique way to experience a culture, a city, and a lifestyle. Those who succeed will think ‘beyond the whistle’, understanding that official rights aren’t the only route to relevance. They’ll tap into lifestyle and cultural identity, embedding themselves throughout the fan journey, and they’ll design for a more diverse audience that reflects the rise of women’s sport, shifting life priorities, and younger fans redefining what it means to be a sports tourist.
The world’s largest member-based racing event – the Melbourne Cup – took place last week and central to their new proposition is “festival vibe” (as per CEO Kylie Rogers). Taking a page from the Australian Open and Melbourne F1, both of which are known for their multi-passion extravaganza across music, food and fashion, this year’s horse race will feature DJ’s, curated small plates and a renewed drinks offering. It will be interesting to follow their revamp and whether they can align to the sensibilities of a younger crowd.
And with two major events scheduled for next year: Winter Olympics in Milan and the FIFA World Cup across USA, Mexico and Canada, 2026 is set to be another landmark year for sports tourism, where being culturally connected and seriously effective will separate the brands who truly connect with fans.
2026 will see the BRIT Awards leave London for the first time in the show’s history. Moving to Manchester’s Co-op Live, as part of a 2-year deal, this spotlights a city whose musical heritage has shaped generations and creates a foundation for authentic, Manchester-rooted brand storytelling and community impact. More than a change of venue, the move signals a bold new direction for the BRITs, breaking five decades of London tradition and reflecting a more diverse, decentralised UK music culture. It reinforces Manchester’s role as one of the country’s most influential music capitals, home to icons like Oasis, The 1975, and The Stone Roses – placing authenticity, creativity, and regional talent at the centre of the show’s identity.
Grounding the BRITs in a regionally significant location has the potential to drive stronger engagement and can bring deeper credibility, as showcasing a city’s creative roots help audiences feel seen, valued and part of the narrative. With existing local communities and fandoms, engagement is driven by organic participation, allowing content to feel authentic and shareable. This also enables the location to have genuine cultural weight as it mirrors cities like Los Angeles and Las Vegas that host major music and cultural shows because of their deep entertainment heritage.
The trophy, which is designed by a different cultural figure each year, has been designed by Manchester-born fashion designer Mathew Williamson, who was heavily influenced by the city’s iconic worker bee symbol and used amber-toned resin to represent “golden honey”. Also, Manchester’s own Noel Gallagher has been named the BRITs 2026 Songwriter of the Year, set to collect the award on home turf. Together, these hometown connections underscore the significance of bringing the ceremony to Manchester, celebrating the city not just as a host, but as an integral part of the BRITs’ story this year.
In the lead up to the show, a citywide cultural programme is taking place which includes: a BRITs Art Trail, showcasing North-West artists across Northern Quarter & Ancoats; a Microdot exhibition at Manchester Piccadilly Station, celebrating iconic British music artwork. Also, a series of community-focused initiatives, ranging from free tram travel for the awards’ ticketholders to front-of-stage pit access for Manchester university students. It also introduces the first BRITs Fringe / FRINGE LAB, in collaboration with music charity Brighter Sound and Manchester Music City, with workshops, talks, and talent development. This unlocks a powerful opportunity set for brands:
For brands, it’s not enough to sponsor the big televised moment and hope for a ripple effect. Brands need to build relationships with the communities, institutions and individuals who hold cultural authority at a local level. The most effective strategies connect national partnerships to grassroots ecosystems, creating credibility beyond the main stage.
Ultimately, the BRITs’ move to Manchester shows that location isn’t just geography, it’s strategy. It challenges us to rethink how placing culture close to the communities who shape it can unlock new levels of authenticity, participation and long-term brand value. We’re looking forward to seeing how this plays out, the results it generates, and how it continues to evolve next year for the 50th anniversary of the award which is also held in Manchester.
For years, the industry’s focus on music and culture has been dominated by London. Outside of the London bubble there has always been amazing talent and a regional spread of iconic events, championed by artists like The Beatles, Oasis, The Arctic Monkeys, JADE and Sam Fender, but London has remained the industry’s hub. However, there is a shift happening. From leading venues to globally recognised awards, the industry’s focus is expanding beyond the M25 and with it comes the opportunity for brands to reach an incredibly engaged and loyal audience.
The opening of Manchester’s Co-op Live arena in 2024 marked a significant shift in the UK’s live touring landscape. Not only is the nation’s largest indoor arena now outside the capital, but it attracts global artists like Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter, with Billie holding four nights of her European tour at the arena this year. This confidence in Northern cities is echoed by fellow music industry bodies. Following the success of the 2023 Eurovision being hosted in Liverpool and the MOBO awards regularly being hosted in cities across the nation (Sheffield in 2024 and Newcastle in 2025), two other prominent award bodies have moved away from London and found homes in the North. Today, the Mercury Prize makes its debut in Newcastle, and next year, the BRIT Awards is leaving the capital for the first time to be hosted in Manchester. This signals a clear intent from the music industry to champion Northern cities whose cultural heritage have been instrumental in shaping the UK music scene.
Brands should take note. The often-overlooked Northern audience have a thriving interest in live music and entertainment, and they are just as loyal and engaged as their Southern counterparts. Festivals like Kendal Calling in the Lake District regularly sell out before announcing their line-up, a true testament to fan loyalty and an anomaly considering the hardships currently faced by festivals with over 200 shows cancelled since Covid. Similarly, Manchester’s ‘The Warehouse Project’ is a well-established player in live music and remains a popular staple for ravers across the UK. Recognising this demand, AEG has recently announced a new day festival series in Leeds’ Roundhay Park and Cupra have expanded their European music platform into Manchester with ‘Cupra FM’ at their City Garage location. With 9 in 10 music fans agreeing that brands can enrich their live music experience, this presents a prime opportunity for brands to engage with super loyal fan bases on a national scale.
And with this fan loyalty comes significant economic importance. Consumer spend on live music is at a record high of £6.68bn annually, with Manchester and Glasgow being the top 2 cities after London for their total spend – Manchester accounting for 8.1% of all UK spend on live music and Glasgow 5.7% (LIVE Report 2024). So it’s not just cultural value, there’s tangible economic benefits that live music brings, and as a recent report from AEG shows, live music is in the top 3 spending priorities for fans. What does this mean for brands? Music and festival partnerships are one of the strongest platforms to consider when aligning yourself to fan passion points. Providing an opportunity to target consumers in an emotionally charged setting, where they are more loyal and receptive to experiences. This immense passion and loyalty can help future proof your strategy when activated authentically.
When brands develop their activation plans and sponsorship strategies, they should consider what regions of the UK can help them achieve their business objectives; for some this may mean a London-centric approach, but for others who want to reach a larger UK demographic, embracing the Northern audience is vital. This sentiment is echoed at Superstruct UK where their festival portfolio includes events from the South coast up to Cumbria and Sheffield, ‘Being based in London means you sometimes lean more towards London shows but that isn’t always the best approach to brand partnerships. If you consider shows across the UK and in the North you can reach a wider audience and hit your brand objectives.’ Nick Lound, Creative & Strategy Lead, Superstruct. In Fuse’s own work with Vodafone we have assisted in ensuring their portfolio is diversified with a spread of shows across the Lake District, Cornwall, London and Somerset.
The North of England’s rich musical history and legacy proves that live music and entertainment is part of its cultural identity. The industry has now opened their eyes to the immense audience demand, recognising that underserving such a passionate fanbase is no longer an option. Brands who want to reach highly engaged audiences on a national scale should follow suit and invest where the culture is widening its focus, to an audience that is primed and invested in new music experiences.
