WPP Media said it is launching WPP Media Sports, a unified sports and gaming practice designed to help brands plan, activate, and measure sports marketing investments across live events, streaming, social, creators, gaming, and broader culture as fan behavior and commerce shift across platforms.
The company said live sports continues to provide one of the most reliable ways for brands to reach large, engaged audiences in real time, but argued that the methods fans use to watch, engage, and transact around sports have changed enough to require a more integrated operating model. WPP Media Sports will offer scalable sponsorships, integrations, and content, and is positioned as an evolution of WPP Media’s existing sports capabilities spanning media, partnerships, and activations.
WPP Media framed the launch around a move away from fragmented planning and disconnected measurement, aiming instead to connect media, partnerships, content, experiential, and analytics into a single practice that supports holistic sports strategy, precision activation, and ongoing optimization.
The group said the offering is underpinned by a connected, data-driven foundation that combines proprietary, partner, and marketplace data, and includes partnerships with GumGum and Relo Metrics to support real-time sponsorship measurement and contextual intelligence across platforms and moments.
WPP Media also pointed to its latest “This Year, Next Year” forecast, which projects global advertising revenue growth of 8.8% in 2025 to $1.14 trillion, driven by AI-enabled efficiency, new advertiser categories, and reinvestment of savings back into media. The company said sports sits at the center of that shift, citing live sports’ role in anchoring streaming growth, commanding premium attention, and delivering cultural relevance at scale.
The launch comes as the sports calendar accelerates, with WPP Media pointing to major events including Super Bowl LX, the Winter Olympics, and the lead-up to the FIFA World Cup 2026 as catalysts for brands seeking speed, intelligence, and integration in sports marketing execution.
KEY QUOTES:
“It’s one thing to be on a fan’s mind during the game, but it’s another thing to stay there after the final whistle. We focus on making every sports moment count — using data, insights, and tools to help brands turn fleeting attention into lasting engagement and real business impact.”
“For millennia, sports has united people and ignited passion across cultures and generations. Our role is to make sure that power translates into tangible growth, embedding sports strategically into broader marketing and growth plans, so every partnership contributes to measurable impact.”
Martin Blich, Executive Director and Head of U.S. Sports Investment & Partnership, WPP Media
“Sports delivers unmatched attention. The real challenge is converting it into results. That’s what we do at WPP Media — we bridge the excitement of the game with the rigor of data-driven marketing, ensuring passion translates into performance.”
Susan Schiekofer, U.S. Chief Media Officer, WPP Media
