SBJ Marketing: Longtime Chicago marketer changes Windy City teams

We’ve seen various economic impact estimates regarding the 11 World Cup host cities in the U.S. Generally, we’ve learned to disregard them long ago as less than factual. However, there is one certainty: FIFA’s finest are absolutely fueling the sports PR industry like nothing before. How do you spell relief?

Words of Wisdom: “Hockey is where we live, where we can best meet and overcome pain, wrong and death. Life is just a place where we spend time between games.”— Hockey Hall of Fame coach Fred Shero

Free agents in sports only seldom move within the same city, but such is the case with longtime Cubs marketer Alex Seyferth (a member of SBJ’s 2026 Forty Under 40 class), CRO for the Blackhawks. Seyferth has been with the Cubs for 13 years, most recently as SVP/corporate partnerships. He’s also worked for Marquee 60, the agency owned by the Ricketts family holding company that also owns the Cubs, and the Eagles before that.

“Of course, this is a somewhat bittersweet, but really, it’s too good an opportunity to say no to,” Seyferth said.

It’s a similar situation to when Seyferth started at the Cubs, with an accompanying real estate project. Blackhawks and Bulls ownership are teaming on the 1901 Project, a planned $7 billion mixed-use development on 55 acres of parking lots around the United Center.

A replacement for Seyferth at the Cubs has not been named.

Startup agency Echelon has been named the first sponsorship agency for Major League Volleyball, which is experiencing a growth spurt, along with the rest of women’s volleyball.

The three-year-old league, which will expand to 12 teams when its new season starts in January, has just three endemic sponsors: Franklin, REN Athletics and Spalding. Echelon will orchestrate its commercial assets for the first time, having done valuation and strategy, and will soon take them to market.

“We’re a complete whiteboard there. Pro volleyball players are very into health, wellness and fashion — the sort of people that brands want,” said Jaime Weston, the former NFL marketer who was brought on as the league’s first commissioner in March.

Meanwhile, WME’s Karen Brodkin and Hillary Mandel are seeking new media distribution for MLV, which has been on CBS, CBS Sports Network, Roku and Vice TV.

The growth in women’s volleyball, especially collegiate, is making many wonder if the 2028 L.A. Olympics will do for the sport what the 1996 Atlanta Olympics did for women’s basketball. The WNBA launched in 1997 on the heels of the U.S. women’s basketball team winning gold in Atlanta.

“We’re all saying volleyball will be the breakout sport [at LA28],” Weston said, “but it has to be our springboard, not our ceiling.”

Between now and then, the leading question is if there’s enough room for multiple women’s pro volleyball leagues, with MLV and LOVB Pro, along with Athletes Unlimited’s Pro Volleyball offering.

“To a degree, it signals interest that everyone is going after this space now,” Weston said, “but we plan on being the major league standing at the end.”

We’re told that Baseball Hall of Famer David Ortiz’s recent endorsement hookup with Ethos is the beginning of an expanding investment into sports by the 10-year-old digital life insurance brand.

The new three-spot national TV and digital campaign awareness campaign from Austin, Texas creative Tilted Chair highlights Ortiz’s personal story of family loss.

Former NFL QB turned on-air talent Boomer Esiason previously pitched for Ethos, along with political commentator Mike Slater and Whitney Allen, widow of a slain police officer.

Alex Radetsky’s Radegen Sports Management handles marketing for Ortiz.

Former Nike VP and Global Olympic Creative Director Ken Black has joined On Board Experiential (OBE) as creative-in-residence. Black was at Nike for 25 years and most recently was global chief creative and innovation officer at GMR Marketing.

Garmai Momolu is joining talent rep firm The Familie as VP/client services. She spent the last six years at Klutch Sports as senior manager of client services.

• My latest Insiders column looks at how Marshawn Lynch has become an improbable pitchman in his post-NFL career, someone who’s as close to the anti-Peyton Manning or Tom Brady as you’re going to find in endorsement circles.
• Omnicom, the holding company with the most sports/experiential agencies after its acquisition of Interpublic Group six months ago, rolled out Acxiom Fan Graph, a “sports marketing intelligence” platform designed to “uncover actionable insights into what drives fan engagement.”
• Adidas, Puma and Nike all delivered pink cleats for the World Cup. SBJ’s Joe Lemire dives into how the product cycle to learn how the trio ended up with boots of similar colors but differing performance profiles.
• The Wizards made AJ Dybantsa the No. 1 overall pick in Tuesday night’s NBA Draft, and he already had two intertwined deals with Nike, with a video released Wednesday narrated by Wale, a D.C. rapper, writes SBJ’s Tom Friend. Nike will also help him develop his “Starboy” moniker into a brand, with Dybantsa owning the IP.
• Oklahoma State signed a three-year deal with the Osage Nation that will feature an Osage jersey patch added for all OSU athletics teams beginning this fall, making it the first Big 12 school to sell such a sponsorship, reports SBJ’s Ben Portnoy.
• Soccer agency Name & Number launched a dedicated sponsorship consulting practice led by former MKTG executive David Kemp, writes SBJ’s Alex Silverman.
• The Evolution Championship Series, the largest fighting-game circuit in esports, signed a multiyear deal with Visa for global events through early 2028, notes SBJ’s Jason Wilson.