Warner Bros. Discovery’s Marisa Crocker breaks down why sports are becoming more valuable in a fragmented media landscape, how programmatic is changing the way advertisers buy live events and why brands should be betting on women’s sports now.
Damian Fowler (00:00):
I'm Damian Fowler.
Ilyse Liffreing (00:01):
And I'm Ilyse Liffreing
Damian Fowler (00:02):
And welcome to The Big Impression.
Ilyse Liffreing (00:03):
This week we're joined by Marisa Crocker, Vice President of Partnerships and Strategy at Warner Brothers Discovery.
Damian Fowler (00:10):
There aren't many things left that millions of people still watch at the same time.
Ilyse Liffreing (00:14):
Elections nights, the Super Bowl, maybe the finale of a prestige drama, if you're lucky. And sports. Lots and lots of sports.
Damian Fowler (00:22):
Warner Brothers Discovery is expanding into college football this fall while continuing to build around properties like March, Madness, MLB, and NASCAR. Which
Ilyse Liffreing (00:30):
Means Marisa spends a lot of time thinking about something marketers care about more than ever. How do you capture attention in a world where everybody's watching something different?
Damian Fowler (00:39):
Because while media has become more fragmented, sports have somehow become more valuable.
Ilyse Liffreing (00:44):
So today we're talking about college football, March Madness, sports fans, and why live sports might just be the last great gathering place in media.
Damian Fowler (00:53):
So let's kick off. So Marisa, Warner Brothers discovery is entering college football for the first time this fall. And what's the reaction been from advertisers?
Marisa Crocker (01:02):
First
Damian Fowler (01:03):
Of all,
Marisa Crocker (01:03):
Thank you for having me. I'm very excited to be here. I think that live sports right now is the cultural conversation. It's everywhere you look. I'm from the New York metro area, so between World Cup, the Knicks, it's just part of every conversation. And fans are so excited and passionate and they're identifying with something positive going on right now. And our brands really want to be a part of that. It's electric. They want their messaging to be part of this engaged, attention-driven platform and execution. And WBD is certainly at the forefront of driving more and more engagement and exciting opportunities with our sports portfolio.
Damian Fowler (01:46):
What makes college football fans so valuable to advertisers? You touched on it right there.
Marisa Crocker (01:52):
Yeah. College football I think is a class of its own. So we've been airing the CFP the past few years on TNT. I think for college football specifically, it's part of people's identity. I'm from Central Pennsylvania, so college football, college sports there in general, it is the bloodline of the community. Friday night, that is where the town was. So people really identify with the schools that they follow. That passion is really relevant and exciting for brands to be around. I think for T&T Sports Portfolio in general, the demographics are just very impressive as well. We have the most concentrated men's viewership ages 13 to 34 than anywhere else. 73% of our social audience is under 35, which is incredible. And then we're really spanning more into female driven sports. We have over 136 million female viewers.
(02:53):
So it's really culminating as more of a modern sports fan story that brands want to be around. And then probably last, college football, it's one of the last appointment viewing live sports entities. So you can plan for the time, the day, the tailgates are real, the watch parties are real. And that's just very hard to replicate, I think in a lot of other sports properties.
Ilyse Liffreing (03:18):
Yeah. And I want to touch on that a little bit because it has really become one of the most successful sports properties in media. What lessons would you say you've taken from March Madness that you're bringing into college football this year?
Marisa Crocker (03:31):
Sure. It is our big anchor tentpole event and revenue driver for WBD of the year. So as soon as March Madness ends, we are planning for next year and we are doing rap reports and postmortems around all of the learnings. We view March Madness as a proving ground. It was really a testing infrastructure the past couple of years. WBD was certainly at the forefront of moving to enabling our inventory programmatically here. So we did this by shifting into a live DAI environment for HBO Max and Simulcast Endpoints, which at the time a few years ago was very risky. We had to measure the yield to make sure the demand was actually there. We proved that model works. We've seen incredible growth year over year just from 2025 to 2026. We've grown 174%, which is incredible. And it's really the stage and the scale that we're operating on is massive.
(04:29):
So from 2025 to 2026, not only did we see huge revenue growth, but it was the most watched tournament since 2015. It was the most watched opening rounds ever. So we have a massive scale here and we're constantly looking at it on how do we improve? Where do we measure? And where we've really been excited is just the diversity of demand that we've seen come through by opening up that barrier. So we saw 50 new advertisers come through programmatically this year, so the incrementality is really exciting.
Ilyse Liffreing (05:00):
Nice. Are there any particular advertising integrations that work best
Marisa Crocker (05:06):
In
Ilyse Liffreing (05:06):
An atmosphere such as live sports?
Marisa Crocker (05:09):
Authenticity always wins. So a brand integration that they can fully immerse themself in the event. And they're not just buying the inventory or a 30 second spot is really important. Making sure they understand the event. Being part of the social amplification is really important and it will help their brand recall. On the programmatic side in parallel, I think brands that are more leaned in and adept at taking the learnings that we are seeing and sharing back with them and being flexible on their end with their targeting, their pacing logic is really important because live inventory is a whole new beast in terms of buying. And we have found that the best practices that apply in a rotational video buy just do not apply in a live environment. The dynamics are completely different. So the brands that are kind of willing to learn on the fly, communicate consistently with us and take those learnings and apply them is going to win out here.
Damian Fowler (06:05):
Why is it that sports fans are often more accepting of advertising than audiences in other environments?
Marisa Crocker (06:12):
I think it's just kind of part of the social contract in live viewership. Consumers are used to a live broadcast experience. And so when you're shifting into streaming, it's really important to keep that very premium experience in a streaming environment for them. They know that there are going to be ads during the breaks and they are tuned in for it. I don't know many people who are getting up during the Knicks championship game final seconds to go get a snack. They're tuned in during the breaks. They're on social, joining in on the conversations, they're in betting. So trying to find a way to get your brand messaging woven in to those areas is really important.
Damian Fowler (06:50):
Obviously March Madness is an interesting phenomenon because it reaches diehard fans, as you mentioned, but it also reaches those people who maybe watch hoops once a year. How does it shape the way brands think about storytelling that range in the audience?
Marisa Crocker (07:08):
I mean, you really have the super fan and you have the more passive streaming fan. So I think when they're thinking about it, one, you're not just going to buy in, tip off. You need to kind of be part of all of the events leading up to the event itself and then all of the events following. I think for the premium diehard fans, it's important that your messaging is relevant. It's not intrusive. And you're going to see loyalty back from the fandom in sports to those brands who truly understand more about the event itself and they're not just buying into live moments. So being able to forecast around that and plan around that is really, really important. And then on the flip side of that, for a more passive streamer, I think being able to get an entryway, a hook in, and then having broad messaging is really important to keep them engaged.
(08:06):
So I guess layering their campaign tactics to be able to approach everyone. And then the learnings we've taken from the programmatic side around loosening up targeting restrictions and being able to buy into short bursts of live inventory is really important. Yeah.
Ilyse Liffreing (08:23):
How should marketers really be thinking about activating around the full fan experience and not just on digital?
Marisa Crocker (08:31):
For brands, I think it's just really important that they are everywhere that the fan is. And that is essentially social, that is linear streaming. So having a full year round sports approach or seasonal strategy is very important as opposed to buying a singular game or cherry picking individual games. And then there's a lot of best practices and lessons that we've learned from some of the bigger tent pole events that will help us enable the playbook for a more always on sports approach and more live event approach that we want to continue to repeat and scale and get more rigorous operational workflow around. So I think how WBD sees it is we are never dark when it comes to live sports. So we are tapping into always on evergreen full year calendar for our consumers. So that's from peak engagement in winter basketball with the tournament, moving into spring with Roland Garos and into MLB season and playoffs, moving into the fall with football Saturdays.
(09:46):
There is something for everyone. So a brand being able to tap into an audience journey across that full calendar year is going to resonate much more. And those fans cross cover across those sports.
Damian Fowler (10:00):
And five years ago, not even five years ago, Mark is talking about sports as reach. And of course it is that, but it's also sports as culture. And it's that last bastion where millions of people gather and experience something at the same time. How does that kind of impact your thinking around marketing the proposition to advertisers?
Marisa Crocker (10:27):
I mean, I think if we're talking about how we want to justify the engagement and the opportunity and the spend of sports, there's a few different areas that we're looking at. I think first of all, it's looking at outcomes. So this used to be more of a reach vehicle a few years ago, but we're looking more now at brand lift, downstream conversions, purchase intent. So being part of their full funnel is really important. I also think it's now an attention economy and attention and engagement are currency. So there is no other platform in the world than a more engaged, attention focused consumer is spending their time than around live sports. So we're trying to reframe the conversation a little bit on cost opportunity a little bit and really focusing on this is where you are going to find the most engagement that you are looking for.
(11:31):
And then the last point I think is probably just around working and deepening our partnerships closely with our SSPs and our DSPs who are very leaned into this area and sharing best practices on how buyers can restructure their campaign tactics for a live environment. So just kind of helping them approach how they're setting up their deals so that they can truly scale and capitalize on that momentum and those high concurrency events is really important and has resonated a lot with our brands and our partners.
Ilyse Liffreing (12:04):
I would like to talk about the upfronts a little bit because as you said, advertisers have to be always on now these days, especially with programmatic. And there's that opportunity there. Can you describe a little bit how maybe the buying opportunity has changed even with the upfronts?
Marisa Crocker (12:23):
Yes, for sure. It's been really interesting and exciting to watch from our vantage point. WBD was really a first mover here in terms of seeing upfront budgets shift into more biddable environments. We probably enabled this and leaned in with our whole co partners around three years ago, but at the time it was a very big deal. It was a big investment. These are large budget commitments that we had to make sure were prioritized, were executed, there was inventory for them that we could actually scale in a non-guaranteed way. So it's risky from the publisher side and there has to be that value exchange. But we wanted to be where our brands wanted to spend and simplify those access points for them. And fast forward to three years later, we have seen the most growth in our biddable PMPs with upfront budgets than any other area.
(13:21):
It's been really exciting and we've put a lot of operational rigor around that reporting. And we want to really translate that into live as well. I think in the future, we're going to see advertisers wanting to move into more biddable environments for live. We have seen significant growth alone in a lot of our tentpole sports events here, but when you really think about the opportunity and what this market is in the linear and streaming world and on the direct digital side, it is still just nowhere near what it could be on the programmatic side. So continuing to help unlock that scale
(13:59):
And working with our partners to help solution on how we just open up those access points more and more. And on the publisher side, working internally across our sales teams, our yield teams, making sure that this is a yield positive play. We're not disrupting any consumer experience. We're making sure we're not undercutting our direct sales offerings is all very important. And then there's the league partnerships as well. Those are hugely important to us, making sure we're following the same experience and restrictions that the leagues have between competitive separations, de-duplication, brand safety. So there's a lot that goes into it, but we have seen a lot of positive momentum here. And I think advertisers are only going to want to continue to lean into this experience. And we're giving them that ability to forecast against it and then the flexibility to buy in a biddable way that they want to.
Damian Fowler (14:57):
Do you think that perception from advertisers has changed in the last, say, 12, 18 months as streaming has proved itself to be a valuable environment for sports?
Marisa Crocker (15:08):
Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think it's still continuing testing the infrastructure. Can streaming be that same experience that live broadcast consumers are used to? And we've proven it can, but it's not all rainbows and butterflies for sure. There's slates sometimes we have to work with. Is there enough demand? Are we seeing challenges around honoring competitive separation and brand category restrictions? And there are times we have to move back to a linear pass through, but we are continuing to try to move our live sports portfolio into a fully DAI enabled stack and maybe even into live linear at some point because we see that that's really the frontier and that's where the future is for our brands.
Ilyse Liffreing (15:59):
What about when it comes to multiple sports and across multiple time slots? Because I know a lot of traditionally sports buying has been done like silos or with one event or two. So I'm curious how that has changed.
Marisa Crocker (16:15):
Yeah. I think this is where we have a unique position because I think there was a lot of talk when the NBA rights went away, but people underestimate a little bit just the breadth and the depth of the sports portfolio between not only March Madness Tournament, which is massive and very exciting, but there's NASCAR, Roland Garos, MLB. So our more mature and global properties like MLB, NHL, and our newer properties that we're leaning into with Unrival, Big East. There's just a lot there. And moving into the college sports area is really the next phase of that. So yeah, I don't think that there's really any downtime and that's exciting for our brands.
Damian Fowler (16:58):
So as we're looking ahead, are there any sort of emerging sports properties or audience trends that you're very excited about or anticipate moving the needle further?
Marisa Crocker (17:06):
Yeah. Yes. I mean, to double down on it, women's sports for sure. This is not just a trend. It's definitely a cultural shift in momentum that we're seeing here. So even with Roland Garos, it was one of the most watched tournaments since 2016. We've seen 94% growth there in the women's finals, which was really exciting. I think brands that are leaning in there now in three to five years are going to look very smart. I guess on the other side, an area that I'm watching and excited about is Agentic, which I know is the topic everywhere here on Cannes. But looking at how AI optimizations are going to change the live environment, buying strategy, structure, efficiency, just getting to market quicker is going to be very interesting. So that's an area that we're trying to lean into as well.
Ilyse Liffreing (17:59):
Very cool.
Marisa Crocker (18:00):
Yes.
Ilyse Liffreing (18:01):
Are there any, I guess. Maybe we shouldn't answer. I don't know. You talked a little bit about women's sports and the brands that are coming into the play there. Are there any particular brands that you're seeing emerge during this time? Are they geared towards women or are they all gender brands?
Marisa Crocker (18:26):
I mean, we definitely see brands that are leaning into female audience viewership specifically, yes. I mean, the engagement there is just incredible. So I think it depends on their audience tactics, but yes, for sure. We are looking at brands that are looking to buy more into the female sports portfolio.
Damian Fowler (18:46):
Very cool. All right. Well, we have some hot seat questions now for you to wrap this up. So to kick off, let's say, what's one thing brands consistently misunderstand about sports fans?
Marisa Crocker (19:01):
My husband would find this question hilarious as I refuse to watch a lot of sports with him. But I would say that sports fans are very savvy. So I would encourage brands to think about their messaging and their creative approach here. So anything intrusive, they are going to feel that. So when they know a lot about the event itself, when they are leaned into that experience, that will pay in dividends for them with fan loyalty.
Ilyse Liffreing (19:32):
Nice. If you could own the sponsorship rights to any sporting event in the world, what would it be?
Marisa Crocker (19:39):
I'm definitely biased, and I know that we've talked about this a lot, but it is truly the main sporting event I watch throughout the year, which is March Madness Tournament. It is the scale of the Super Bowl with engagement and just emotional curiosity and excitement that not a lot of other events can bring. The Cinderella stories are so exciting and our brands get so amped up being involved in the game. So having the event schedules and the matchups and the championship games, it's just such an exciting time of the year. So I'm incredibly honored that we get to work on that business.
Damian Fowler (20:18):
Nice answer. What's one media trend you're more bullish on than other people?
Marisa Crocker (20:25):
Yeah, I think live in general. We've been talking about live, live sports, live events, tentpole events for a long time, especially in the programmatic space. But I still think it's very much an untapped market. I think it can be viewed as more of a tension between sales channels instead of the complimentary nature that it really brings. We have certainly proven that the model works. The incrementality is really impressive there. So I think the more we can get the industry to lean into some of the challenges around QPS spikes and buying nature in live and come to solve those together, we're just going to be able to unlock a huge amount of opportunity.
Ilyse Liffreing (21:10):
Nice. How about one that you think might be over hyped?
Marisa Crocker (21:20):
I don't know. I don't know if I have an answer for that one. I think maybe not over hyped, but done far too much is audience targeting in general when it comes to live. It's a masterclass in multi-audience approach for live. I think a traditional programmatic buyer is used to tapping into a broad audience target here, setting a 24 hour flight, setting it and forgetting it and moving on and looking at results and optimization. That is just not how live inventory dynamics play out. So changing the mindset a little bit is very important here.