Happy New Year’s Eve, and welcome back to the 38th 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.

In January, Home Depot became the official home improvement sponsor across all 27 U.S. Soccer national teams.

The scale was the POINT. Rather than targeting a single tournament or team, Home Depot bought continuity - a year-round presence across every level of American soccer.

In February, the Super Bowl once again reminded the market who still owns mass attention.

With over $800 million in advertising revenue and record pricing per spot, Super Bowl LIX reaffirmed its position as the single most valuable moment in the media calendar. Even as audiences fragment, this remains the rare occasion when attention concentrates - and brands continue to pay accordingly.

Also in February, Ring signed the largest front-of-kit deal in NWSL history with the Portland Thorns. This was a big “we’re serious now” moment for women’s sports. Ring didn’t show up with a charity budget - it showed up with a commercial one.

The message was clear: women’s sports aren’t the future anymore. They’re the present, and the present has invoices.

In March, NBCUniversal locked in its control of Olympic media rights through 2036, quietly securing one of the most valuable commercial positions in global sport.

The Olympics remain the rare combination of mass audience, emotional storytelling, and brand safety - the holy trinity of modern advertising. This deal ensures NBCU will continue to be the narrator of global athletic triumph, heartbreak, and slow-motion flag-waving in the U.S. for many years to come.

In April, Gainbridge secured naming rights to the USL Super League, placing its name directly on the competition itself.

League naming rights are among the strongest signals of brand confidence, and this deal positioned Gainbridge not as a sponsor of the league, but as part of its identity - growing alongside it rather than chasing it.

In July, MLS and Walmart launched a league-wide partnership connecting America’s fastest-growing major league with America’s largest retailer.

It’s a deal built on complementary scale: MLS brings culture, Walmart brings distribution, and together they bring soccer to places it hasn’t fully reached yet.

In August, AEG and American Express expanded their long-running relationship into a sweeping global partnership covering more than 40 venues, festivals, tours, ticketing platforms, and sports assets.

This was a structural integration of AmEx into the live entertainment economy. The deal reflects how sponsorship is evolving from logo placement into infrastructure, embedding brands into how fans discover, access, and experience live events worldwide.

In September, American Express pulled off the rarest move in sports sponsorship: it took a category seat inside the NFL away from Visa.

Payment categories inside the NFL are tightly held, making this not just a sponsorship change but a strategic takeover. For AmEx, this was a play for perception as much as for reach - a bid to anchor itself at the center of everyday American spending by aligning with the country’s most powerful sports brand. The NFL’s weekly cultural dominance, unmatched trust, and national relevance gave AmEx a platform no other property could replicate.

In September, UW Health became the title sponsor of all University of Wisconsin women’s sports programs, creating a new model for how women’s athletics can be funded and branded.

The deal brought stability, visibility, and institutional backing to an area that has historically been underinvested, and it established a template others are likely to follow.

In December, Bank of America stepped into jersey sponsorship for the first time, signing with the Portland Timbers and marking a shift for one of the most conservative brand categories in sports. The move signaled that even the most risk-averse brands now recognize the emotional power and cultural relevance of sports as a marketing platform.

If BofA is comfortable putting its logo on a kit, everyone else is officially out of excuses.

Quote of the Week

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” - Wayne Gretzky