Connecting Sport and Brand
A Conversation with Celeste Hubbard-Breen
Celeste Hubbard-Breen has spent the last decade in leadership positions at creative shops, including Hecho Studios, Los York, 72andSunny, Mother, and Chemistry. Her client service and relationship development expertise for studios has led relationships with brands like Microsoft, Google, Target, Starbucks, Netflix, Lexus, Sonic, Chevrolet, and more.
Hubbard-Breen is the Founder and CEO of The Factor Studios, which specializes in sport and brand partnerships, providing content, experiential, and creative services to athletes, leagues, teams, and brands interested in activating passionate fan bases through their association with the sport.
The Continuum sat down with Celeste recently to discuss her career, her new company, and the growing recognition of female sports and athletes.
You have had an interesting career. Can you please tell us about it?
I was always very much into creative things. I wasn’t necessarily a great artist, though I could write a little bit, but I just knew I wanted to work in creative environments someday. I also graduated with a degree in finance, so I had a certain amount of business acumen. When I discovered that advertising was a profession, it kind of melded both of those worlds together.
I spent most of my career working in agencies around the country—from Detroit to Los Angeles to Atlanta, where I live now. I really enjoy getting to dig into business problems, which is why I’ve mostly been on the account management side of things. I like gaining a deep understanding of a client’s needs and business objectives and then translating that into a creative brief that brings solutions to the table.
Something in my spirit really enjoys seeing the growth of a business and the impact it has on a brand. One of the big influences on my career was my first stint at 72andSunny. In the four years that I was there, the agency was coming up from its early years, growing, and really starting to make a significant impact on the industry. I had the opportunity to work on brands like Starbucks and Target and to see how the agency’s founders took the company through that journey of expansion.
I left 72 for a while but came back into the fold a few years ago when they asked me to run Hecho, their production studio. Most recently—and I really do mean recently; we’ve been official for just two months—I started my own company called The Factor Studios.
Yes, please tell us about The Factor Studios. What is it, what was your inspiration for starting it, and what's your purpose?
It really goes back to my past. I’ve always had a strong passion for sports. I was an athlete all of my life, even as a child, and I played field hockey in college. Sports have always influenced my work ethic, my discipline, and my ability to take knocks and keep it moving.
One of the things that's closest to my heart in this space right now is bringing brands into female-specific sports-oriented opportunities. We all know that there's inequality in the world, of course, and a lot of attention is being paid to the inequality between female and male athletes. This inequality is not being adequately addressed by the leagues, but many times it is being answered by brands and their investment in female athletes. I think the world is finally starting to pay attention to female athletes and how powerful an investment it can be because fans of female sports are some of the most loyal fans out there.
Over my career, I have worked with many brands that were looking to tap into the fandom that surrounds sports and athletes, and I realized that the parties are often not speaking the same language. Anyone who has worked in an ad agency knows that sometimes creatives and account executives don’t speak the same language, and this is similar. I have often found myself playing a liaison role between athletes and brands to help ensure everyone’s goals are aligned.
That’s really the role that Factor Studios is taking on with brands who want to tap into passionate fan bases—whether they exist around particular athletes or particular sports—bridging the gap between the two disciplines to find the aligned objectives. In this era where athletes are their own brands and carry a lot of responsibility as influencers, it’s not just about showing up and performing on the court. It's also about having businesses, personal brands, and entities off the court as well. I want to help both brands and athletes navigate this landscape and grow within it.
“Some of the most active audiences are young women, and there is data showing that investment in sport is good business.”
We know the studio is very new, but what are some of the projects you’ve worked on so far?
Before I launched The Factor Studios, I worked with WNBA player and legend Candace Parker on the production of one of the first player-hosted events during WNBA All Star Weekend. I worked with Candace and her team to produce an event that was specifically designed to honor the All-Stars themselves. We partnered with two of Candace’s longtime brand partners, Meta and Adidas, in the execution of the event, finding unique opportunities to highlight Candace’s signature Adidas sneakers and seamlessly integrate Meta’s launch of Reels on Instagram. Without Adidas and Meta’s sponsorship, this event would not have been possible.
At this year’s WNBA All Star Weekend—as some of the first real work of The Factor—I executed three events in three days. Candace held an event again; Adidas was still a partner but this time, we also worked with Google. Sheryl Swoopes, another legend of the WNBA, brought me on to help her with a brunch honoring past and present players in the league sponsored by Milk. And I also worked on an event with Togethxr, a media entity co-founded by Alex Morgan (soccer), Chloe Kim (snowboarding), Simone Manuel (swimming), and Sue Bird (basketball) to elevate exposure and media presence for women and women's sports.
You were also part of Stagwell’s Sports Beach at this year’s Cannes Lions Festival. Can you tell us about what this was and how it came about?
Yes, some of this predates The Factor as well. The story goes—and it is the truth—that one evening during Cannes-Lion 2022, Glenn Cole, Co-Founder of 72andSunny, and Damian Journey, the Chief Growth Officer, were walking around and reminiscing about the older days of
Cannes and how they used to be more off-the-cuff moments like pickup soccer games on the beach. They missed the spontaneity and the opportunity for random, casual connections. They felt that Stagwell (72’s holding company) could fill this gap in 2023 and have a more impactful presence at the festival
I was part of the team from the beginning; we really wanted to offer a space for beneficial conversations and real connections. We started by exploring the athletes we’d want to bring in and the types of conversations and activations that we'd want to have.
Some of the first athletes we brought on included heavily decorated Olympic track and field star Allyson Felix and tennis player Maria Sharapova, who won five majors during her 20-year career. This gave the event legitimacy, and soon, more athletes signed on, including DK Metcalf (NFL Star), Sheryl Swoopes (WNBA), Sue Bird (WNBA), Carmelo Anthony (NBA), Annika Sorenstam (LPGA), Matt Leinhart (NFL), and Saquon Barkley (NFL). We also got a lot of participation from brands inside and outside the traditional sports world, like Nike, United Airlines, Bala Bangles, Wilson Sports, Yeti, Amazon, and Pepsico.
One of the really interesting things that happened once we got to Cannes was that the athletes weren’t just coming and going. They didn’t leave immediately after their panel but ended up hanging out at the beach all week. Somehow, we had created this space that felt welcoming and low-pressure. It felt almost like a fancy locker room where everyone could be themselves but still bump into someone and have an important conversation about their own work and how they might partner and collaborate in the future. There was definitely some magic to it.
“It’s like so many other social impact actions; you have to be real in your commitment.”
Did you have a favorite presentation or a favorite moment at Sports Beach?
I thought the whole thing was great, but I will say the most highly attended event didn’t feature an athlete at all. Damien Journey hosted this awesome conversation between legendary filmmaker Spike Lee and Shannon Watkins who is the CMO of Nike’s Brand Jordan. They talked about the impact that Spike’s films and his commercial directorial work had on sports culture and really delved into his early work with Nike, Brand Jordan, and Michael Jordan himself. Spike took Q&A from guests and gave young creators advice on what he would do. At one point, he even offered his personal contact information to an up-and-coming creator to take a meeting with him.
It was just that kind of space that was informative and engaging, yet intimate and chill enough that you could literally get a meeting with Spike Lee out of it.
We’ve seen a lot more about women’s sports recently, especially with the Women's World Cup this summer. Having worked with female athletes for years, what do you want to see and what do you think they want to see going forward?
At the very minimum, women are asking for equality, equal opportunity, equal pay, and to be respected for all of the effort and work they put in. I see the future for women in sports as extremely bright and big. I have daughters, as well as young female cousins who are all student-athletes in college right now. Just the fact that they now have the opportunity to continue playing somewhere professionally is amazing, and it’s something that didn’t exist a decade or two ago. I'm only seeing that continue to grow, and I think the next generation of women will have opportunities to continue their passion for sports behind the scenes as well whether they become a broadcaster, a producer, or someone who works at a brand and serves as liaison to athletes.
Some of the most active audiences are young women, and there is data showing that investment in sports is good business. You will find that fans of female athletes and female teams are more committed, they’re more loyal to the players, and they’re more loyal specifically to the brands that they see present and investing in these women athletes.
To close, what are some things that brands can do to work best with female athletes, in addition to hiring your new company, of course?
It’s like so many other social impact actions; you have to be real in your commitment. Brands can't just put a rainbow on something or turn their logo pink once in a while and pretend that’s support. They have to put their money and their initiatives behind it in truly authentic ways. That doesn't mean throwing a party or an event at the final for the women's NCAA championship; it means developing scholarships that help women athletes through college or investing in the continued growth of professional female sports teams and leagues. It really has to start internally at a brand so that that long-term commitment is there.
August 29, 2023
