The annual ritual of awarding prizes to people who do their jobs well has come around again, and this year Adweek has turned its attention to the sport-adjacent precincts of Madison Avenue.

The trade publication has released its 2026 Sports Marketing MVP list, a compendium of executives, athletes and agency chieftains who have managed to connect brands with spectators in ways that can be documented with metrics. The honorees range from the chief commercial officer of The Athletic to a 19-year-old soccer player for Barcelona, suggesting that the definition of "marketer" has grown somewhat elastic in the streaming era.

(What they share, one suspects, is a publicist.)

Among the winners is Jo Fox, senior vice president of marketing at ESPN, who presided over the sports network's transition from legacy broadcaster to direct-to-consumer streamer — a shift that attracted three million sign-ups in its first three months. Ms. Fox also championed "BracketBrain," a campaign that parodied pharmaceutical advertising, which is either a commentary on the medicinal properties of March Madness or simply a good bit.

The list recognizes Kimberly Veale, who helped launch the WNBA's Portland Fire, securing 17,000 season-ticket deposits before the team had played a single game. Her launch campaign featured Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein of "Portlandia," a casting choice that suggests someone in the front office has absorbed the local sensibility.

Several holding company executives appear, including Martin Blich of WPP Media, who oversees something called the WPP Brand Sports Momentum Score. Mr. Blich is credited with shifting the conversation around women's sports "from whether brands should invest in the space to how they should show up." The phrasing is corporate, but the sentiment appears to be genuine.

Also honored is Ryan Lehr, co-chief creative officer at Deutsch LA, for his stewardship of Dr Pepper's "Fansville" campaign, now in its ninth season. The serialized commercials have helped Dr Pepper surpass Pepsi to become the second-best-selling soft drink in America — a sentence that would have seemed implausible in 1985.

The list, in total, includes 43 names, a number that suggests either a very deep talent pool or a very broad definition of indispensability.

Original story published in Adweek: "ADWEEK's Sports Marketing MVPs 2026: Bringing the Heat On and Off the Court"