Happy Wednesday, and welcome back to the 36th weekly edition of Broken Marketing by Anvara, where we discuss marketing that breaks.

For those of you who are new here, we’re Nick and Andrei, the co-founders of Anvara. We’ve included you here because one way or another, we’re connected. We’re happy to have you as a part of the Anvara family.

NFL loves money - no surprise there. But the way they’re handling their financial sponsorship category right now feels like watching someone OVERPACK a suitcase and just SIT on it to make everything fit.

For almost 20 years, Visa held all the major financial rights in a giant omnibus bundle - banking, credit cards, payment tech, everything. It was clean, simple, and honestly kind of boring.

But now that Visa’s deal is expiring, the NFL decided to break the whole category apart like a Lego set. Now they have 3 girlfriends.

The NFL went from one brand to three, like it was trying to juice the category for every last dollar.

And this is where things get messy… in a fun way.

PayPal isn’t just a payments company. It also owns Venmo, which is basically the default money app for anyone under 35. So now the NFL has to figure out how to position PayPal + Venmo next to AmEx - a brand that wants to stay premium, exclusive, and very “members only.”

They’re not exactly targeting the same fan. So now, there are some legit questions here:

At the same time, this move strengthens the NFL’s brand.
PayPal is younger, global, and digitally native - exactly the kind of partner that makes the league feel more connected to how fans actually pay and interact today.

The deal isn’t official yet, but it’s basically done - and when it drops, it’ll be one of the biggest introductions of a new category in NFL sponsorship history.

Unrivaled - the 3-on-3 women’s basketball league started by Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier - just renamed its Miami home Sephora Arena.

Yes. A beauty retailer now has naming rights to a sports venue.

If you’ve been following women’s sports, it actually tracks.

Last season, Sephora tested the waters with Unrivaled and immediately saw traction. They didn’t just slap a logo somewhere and call it a day - they actually built: a full Glam Room, a Glam Tunnel, a DJ booth, behind-the-scenes content spaces, and heavy social-first design touches.

Fans loved it. Players loved it. And it felt like a partnership built from actual cultural overlap, not a “brand alignment” deck.

So this year, Sephora went all the way for the naming rights and the full brand takeover - basically the whole thing.

What’s actually happening here is bigger than the deal itself:
Beauty and sports are blending in a way that feels extremely Gen Z and extremely overdue. And the fans consuming women’s sports don’t see those worlds as separate.

Sephora clearly sees women’s sports as a long-term identity play, and they’ve expanded into the WNBA, Athletes Unlimited Softball, and even fragrance deals with the Warriors.

And honestly, people are going to show up to Sephora Arena just to take pictures - which is exactly the whole point here!

🚗 Toyota x Haas F1 - Haas is teaming up with Toyota for 2026 and will be renamed TGR Haas F1 Team. This is Toyota’s biggest involvement in Formula 1 since leaving the sport in 2009, including major branding and deep technical integration.

🎾 W7F Women’s Soccer - The new seven-a-side women’s soccer competition continues gaining momentum with its $5M prize pool and global club lineup. With national broadcasts and strong sponsors like Invisalign and Ally, it’s one of the boldest new women’s sports launches of the year.

⚽ Choctaw Casinos x North Texas World Cup Host Committee - Dallas secured its second local sponsor for the 2026 World Cup, bringing in Choctaw Casinos & Resorts. Host cities must fund their own operations, so these deals matter - and Choctaw will activate heavily across fan festivals and community events.

Quote of the Week

“If you are pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it. And it is in your power to wipe out this judgment now.” - Marcus Aurelius