{"id":2368530,"date":"2026-04-11T14:20:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T14:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2368530"},"modified":"2026-04-11T14:20:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T14:20:32","slug":"what-entertainment-brands-can-learn-from-the-wnba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/what-entertainment-brands-can-learn-from-the-wnba\/","title":{"rendered":"What Entertainment Brands Can Learn From the WNBA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"article-content\">\n<h2 class=\"article-subheader mb-5 text-[20px] md:text-[28px] font-medium font-karla text-museBlack\"> Give fans the full picture <\/h2>\n<div class=\"flex justify-between w-full article-meta mb-7\">\n<div id=\"article-publishing-details\" class=\"flex flex-col justify-between\">\n<div class=\"flex flex-row gap-4 text-museBlack text-[14px]\">\n<p>April 10, 2026<\/p>\n<p>7:00 am<\/p>\n<p>3 min read<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"flex flex-row items-center gap-2 a2a_kit a2a_default_style\">\n<p>Share:<\/p>\n<p> <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"a2a_button_linkedin\">  <\/a> <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"a2a_button_facebook\"> <img border=\"0\" alt=\"Facebook\" width=\"27\" height=\"27\" nitro-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/cdn-ilejeak.nitrocdn.com\/pbXXQLmyDjcgrRLJmHUZKSuYVWJRGGLq\/assets\/images\/optimized\/rev-623c403\/musebyclios.com\/wp-content\/themes\/timberland\/theme\/assets\/images\/share_facebook_solid.svg\" class=\"nitro-lazy\" decoding=\"async\" nitro-lazy-empty=\"\" id=\"NjAxOjE2OA==-1\" data-nitro-empty-id=\"NjAxOjE2OA==-1\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB2aWV3Qm94PSIwIDAgMjMgMjMiIHdpZHRoPSIyMyIgaGVpZ2h0PSIyMyIgeG1sbnM9Imh0dHA6Ly93d3cudzMub3JnLzIwMDAvc3ZnIj48L3N2Zz4=\"\/> <\/a> <\/div><\/div>\n<p> <template data-nitro-marker-id=\"2e7c7869ba4d61ad4f1117698b4d1438-1\"\/> <\/p>\n<div id=\"article-image\" class=\"w-full h-[450px] overflow-hidden\"> <img nitro-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/cdn-ilejeak.nitrocdn.com\/pbXXQLmyDjcgrRLJmHUZKSuYVWJRGGLq\/assets\/images\/optimized\/rev-623c403\/cdn.musebyclios.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/10143753\/WNBA.jpg\" class=\"object-cover w-full h-[450px] nitro-lazy\" decoding=\"async\" nitro-lazy-empty=\"\" id=\"NjA4OjEzMA==-1\" data-nitro-empty-id=\"NjA4OjEzMA==-1\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB2aWV3Qm94PSIwIDAgOTYwIDU3MCIgd2lkdGg9Ijk2MCIgaGVpZ2h0PSI1NzAiIHhtbG5zPSJodHRwOi8vd3d3LnczLm9yZy8yMDAwL3N2ZyI+PC9zdmc+\"\/> <\/div>\n<p>With 160,000 songs uploaded to Spotify daily and every label chasing the same No.1, entertainment brands are struggling to stand out. Ask someone what makes a Netflix original different from an Amazon or Apple original, and most wouldn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.warc.com\/en\/feed\/wnba-takes-top-spot-for-fastest-growing-brand-in-us--80b59652eb4546e3ab3e10e4e8c79fd3\">the WNBA was named the fastest-growing brand in the U.S.<\/a>, the first time a sports league had ever topped that list. It will expand from 13 to 18 teams by 2030. In partnering with one of those teams, we\u2019ve seen that growth come from a long-term focus that many entertainment brands are missing. While they\u2019re chasing the next hit show or No.1, the WNBA is asking how the league looks in five or 10 years and making decisions based on that calculation.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-boldblocks-youtube-block\">\n<p><button type=\"button\" class=\"yb-btn-play\"><span class=\"visually-hidden\">Play<\/span><\/button><\/p><figcaption class=\"yb-caption\">WNBA Season 30: \u2018Raising Goats\u2019<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>League first, hero second<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The traditional playbook in both sports and entertainment has always been the same: find your hero, build around them, hope people follow. Ronaldo, Messi, LeBron\u2014it typically orbits one person. The WNBA flipped that with <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=4zi64nhVjho\" title=\"\">\u201cWelcome to the W,\u201d<\/a> a brand platform that holds everything together above any single player or franchise. So, when one team wins the league wins, and when one player breaks through the whole thing grows. Its 2025 campaign, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.marketingbrew.com\/stories\/2025\/05\/16\/wnba-viewer-discretion-2025-campaign\" title=\"\">\u201cViewer Discretion,\u201d<\/a> builds on the same idea, selling the league as a whole, with the individual players as proof points.<\/p>\n<p>Through this strategy, the WNBA has also mastered the art of engaging fans beyond the game itself.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Give fans the full picture<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The challenge for most entertainment brands is they either lean all the way into the content or all the way into its stars, and neither builds a lasting relationship. Who\u2019s Netflix\u2019s talent? Who are the people behind an Apple original? People want to know who\u2019s behind the scenes making the thing. Formula 1 does this so well with Drive to Survive. Yet, most entertainment brands show the output without explaining the process. It\u2019s the same problem agencies have, this idea that you can let the work do the talking.<\/p>\n<p>The WNBA has taken the opposite approach, building an always-on rhythm of storytelling that keeps fans invested between games through behind-the-scenes, locker room and off-court content. When CMO Phil Cook joined from Nike five years ago, the league would go dormant after the finals. Now, that\u2019s completely changed, with fans treated to year-round engagement.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Let brand run the room<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When we worked with Atlantic Records on \u201cMusic to Movements\u201d ahead of their 70th anniversary, the label had been stuck in that short-term cycle: did we get the No.1? But the artists building real, lasting businesses\u2014people like Fred again.. and Charli XCX\u2014weren\u2019t topping charts, they were building fandom. What kept coming through in our research was that Atlantic was at its best when it was building movements, not chasing moments.<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/explorers-club.studio\/works\/atlantic-records-identity\/\" title=\"\">\u201cMusic to Movements\u201d <\/a>became something they used in internal meetings, in new artist conversations, and in how they re-signed Ed Sheeran. The question became \u201cwhat movement are we creating?\u201d brand as something that runs the decisions. The WNBA operates with that same logic, and that\u2019s the piece most entertainment brands are missing. Brand stays at the layer of the campaign or the design system, when it should be shaping how you show up on social, how you run press, or how you brief a partnership.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, the question is whether people will still care about what you\u2019ve built in 20 years. The WNBA understood that from the start, and it\u2019s the reason they\u2019re growing while so many entertainment brands are still measuring success one release at a time.<\/p>\n<div class=\"aioseo-author-bio-compact\">\n<div class=\"aioseo-author-bio-compact-left\"> <img alt=\"author avatar\" nitro-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/cdn-ilejeak.nitrocdn.com\/pbXXQLmyDjcgrRLJmHUZKSuYVWJRGGLq\/assets\/desktop\/optimized\/rev-623c403\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5841d7da8b6c7d486226c9358f93fc5a.0bf99923fa2e92a0005d97a30f7de2c81fc66aec545dfdaf0d8c14d6c646a329\" class=\"aioseo-author-bio-compact-image nitro-lazy\" decoding=\"async\" nitro-lazy-empty=\"\" id=\"NzA5OjIwMA==-1\" data-nitro-empty-id=\"NzA5OjIwMA==-1\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB2aWV3Qm94PSIwIDAgMzAwIDMwMCIgd2lkdGg9IjMwMCIgaGVpZ2h0PSIzMDAiIHhtbG5zPSJodHRwOi8vd3d3LnczLm9yZy8yMDAwL3N2ZyI+PC9zdmc+\"\/> <\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-author\">\n<div class=\"wrapper mx-auto max-w-[1210px] py-10\">\n<div class=\"flex flex-row flex-wrap w-full gap-5 sm:flex-nowrap\">\n<div class=\"!w-[150px] sm:w-auto !h-[175px] sm:h-full aspect-square overflow-hidden\"> <img alt=\"Author Photo\" nitro-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/cdn-ilejeak.nitrocdn.com\/pbXXQLmyDjcgrRLJmHUZKSuYVWJRGGLq\/assets\/images\/optimized\/rev-623c403\/cdn.musebyclios.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/10143322\/AyoFagbemi_500x500.jpeg\" class=\"object-cover w-full h-full nitro-lazy\" decoding=\"async\" nitro-lazy-empty=\"\" id=\"NzU5OjE2MA==-1\" data-nitro-empty-id=\"NzU5OjE2MA==-1\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB2aWV3Qm94PSIwIDAgNTAwIDUwMCIgd2lkdGg9IjUwMCIgaGVpZ2h0PSI1MDAiIHhtbG5zPSJodHRwOi8vd3d3LnczLm9yZy8yMDAwL3N2ZyI+PC9zdmc+\"\/> <\/div>\n<div class=\"flex flex-col gap-1\"> <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/musebyclios.com\/author_profile\/ayo-fagbemi\/\" class=\"text-[26px] font-volkhov !text-museRoyalBlue\"> Ayo Fagbemi <\/a>  <\/p>\n<div class=\"text-[14px] !prose\">\n<p>Ayo Fagbemi is cofounder &amp; strategy director of Explorers Club.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source musebyclios.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Give fans the full picture April 10, 2026 7:00 am 3 min read Share: With 160,000 songs uploaded to Spotify daily and every label chasing the same No.1, entertainment brands are struggling to stand out. Ask someone what makes a Netflix original different from an Amazon or Apple original, and most wouldn\u2019t know. Meanwhile, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2368531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2368530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/What-Entertainment-Brands-Can-Learn-From-the-WNBA.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2368530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2368530"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2368530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2368532,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2368530\/revisions\/2368532"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2368531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2368530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2368530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2368530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}