Author: MH3

The most inspiring lesson I took from the 20026 Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity was the emphasis by brands on celebrating local champions and tackling local challenges. 

Perhaps it was the tariffs. Perhaps it was the annexation threats. Perhaps it’s the bullying. Perhaps it was none of the above. Whatever it was, brands that may have had eyes on the global stage in the past have come to realize that the villages their consumers belong to are where they should focus.

The timing is right. 

Consumers are fed up with countries and politicians throwing their weight around. They are annoyed by false accusations that they are not contributing to the world and by threats of punishment for not complying. In my country, we are tired of the 51st state BS, the refusal to conduct proper trade negotiations, the insults to our politicians, and the pettiness of not opening up a vital bridge that we paid for, in the belief it is somehow providing a winning hand, is out of hand. 

In Canada, we had many brands who went elbows up in 2025. Maple Leaf Foods created a campaign encouraging consumers to “Look for the Leaf” when shopping, whether it’s the Maple Leaf on their product or a Canadian leaf on Champmans ice cream or Neal Brothers snacks.

In Kenya, where US Aid cuts are prevalent, Too Good created the “Paid Sick Leave for Cows” campaign to ensure that farmers receive compensation when pulling their cows from milking duty to receive the antibiotics they sorely needed to prevent contamination of their products.

My favourite campaign counterpunch is Tecate’s “Welcome Home Paisano.” This campaign saw the brand partner with FUNDES, a workforce reintegration organization, to provide retention and job opportunities for people deported from the USA. They created roles in the Tecate Six convenience store chain, developing future managers and operators to support their fellow citizens’ return to their home country. 

It is not just governments who were on the receiving end of brand blowback. Columbia took on an entire universe of fact-deniers with its Expedition Impossible campaign. In an effort to quiet the flat earth falsehood spreaders, they offered the entire company, yes, the whole corporation, to anyone who was able to find the end of the earth. While the flat-earthers were enraged, which only helped the campaign spread, you have to applaud a brand that won’t stand for unhealthy nonsense. 

Some local brands made their play less political, but still highly communal. Consider Heineken in Ireland, with their “Pub that Refused to Die ” message. Leveraging its hospitality expertise and spreading an encouraging word to communities that have lost their pubs, the beer brand has seen five closed pubs re-opened under local community group ownership. Their loss of 25% of their pubs in Ireland has had a devastating impact on keeping their communities whole, making this recovery campaign a village-saver. 

As someone who believes in the expression “It takes a Village,” I appreciated the message from Cannes jurist Rafael Pitanguy, Deputy Global Chief Creative Officer at VML, “If you want to talk to the world, speak to a village.”

I am wondering who else has read Justice by Michael J. Sandel?

My immediate reaction upon completing the book, was wow I must read that again. Not because I loved it so much, though I did, but simply since I really am not sure I understood it. Which is more of a compliment to the author than it is a criticism of the reader. Being me.

The book was impossible to put down because the part I loved about it was the call to the world to spend more time thinking through our approach to rules, laws, policies, and general approach to governance. I found inspiration in every page, including those I did not understand. There is no question that if people on all three sides of the aisle, which in my mind features the two sides who both believe they are right and the third, unpopulated side that is actually right, we would have a world that is more humane, decent, and sustainable.

Now the other reason that it may have been hard for me to put down was because I was trying to figure out what I did not fully understand. There are so may amazing concepts in the book where I have some earlier knowledge, sometimes incorrect, that as I was absorbing so much new thinking the book kept creating new cravings inside of me to understand more.

Let me give you a simple example. Before I read Justice I would have described utilitarianism as a very fundamental concept in society, and approach to life, that provide basic living standards for people. I would have imagined it as being the lowest common denominator or standard for people to be provided. The basics. The minimum. The expected.

While many of you may have known all along that the concept of utilitarianism is about maximizing the most benefit for the most people, which clearly, I did not, Sandel’s explanations and critiques illuminated the concept for me, and kept me awake. It made me realize that utilitarianism could weaponized to provide for the masses while a small number of people, in some cases just one would pay the price for others.

The many examples and cases studies that he then uses to show the flaw in the definition, and the concept bring the idea into my vision as a potentially evil concept. The behind-the-scenes decision making process in the case of exploding cars. Experiments around pain for pay. Justifying torture. The value of a human life. Many more.

The founder of utilitarianism, Jeremy Bentham, believed in his doctrine and himself so much that his pre-death instructions included having his body embalmed and that society should meet once a year to discuss his teachings, and ensure that his body was present for the debates. As Sandel writes, even in planning for his death Bentham arrogantly believed in what he thought would provide the greatest good for the greatest numbers.

Going back to my opening question, I am curious to find out who has read this book in the hopes they will help shape my rereading of it by sharing their findings as to what aspects of the book I should redouble my focus on. As well I am intrigued to know how the book is going to shape their future interactions with politicians, partners, and workplace leaders.

June will mark my last days on the Foundation Board of the country’s largest mental health teaching hospital.   

The Foundation, which supports the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, is a force for change, dedicated to raising awareness and funds to build a new hospital, hire talented new medical practitioners, and reduce the stigma around mental health. 

My route to this Board started in 2019, onstage, when I opened a keynote with a single image: an alarm clock, its numbers ticking somewhere just after 2:00 in the morning. 

I asked the room one question: What kept you awake last night? It wasn’t a consulting briefing question; it was a question born out of reflection on the fact that people in my world had recently been lost to me by dying by suicide. An industry legend. A volunteer football coach. A former business partner.  

It was time to ask why 

Shortly after that keynote, a CAMH executive in attendance asked if I would consider joining the fundraising effort for their new hospital.  

It was an easy yes. 

Around 450 million people across the globe live with mental illness, making it the leading cause of disability worldwide. CAMH reports over 2,300 global research collaborations spanning 193 countries. CAMH led the launch of Canada’s 9-8-8 Suicide Crisis Helpline, recorded over 16,000 emergency department visits, and treated more than 40,000 patients. 

Like many experiences in life, my time on the Foundation Board was influenced by the people. Warrior-like people such as Sarah Chamberlin, Dan O’Shaughnessy, Sandi Treliving, and Meghann O’Hara Fraser. Those dedicated to society above self, such as Cam Fowler, Dr. Juveria Zaheer, Dr. Aristotle Voineskos, and those providing steady hands at the leadership till, including Valerie Pringle, Gina Daya, Maureen Dodig, and Alain Mootoo. I also got to know the amazing Dr. David Goldbloom, and I highly recommend his book, How Can I Help?, an invaluable primer inside the mental health tsunami the world is facing.  

My move away from the Board will not mark the end of my advocacy for the cause. My next opportunity to contribute is now on my doorstep, as we will soon be announcing a unique partnership with the Great Outdoors Comedy Festival as the Mental Health Partner for SponsorshipX. 

All the credit for this idea belongs to Mike Anderson, the founder of Trixstar Live, whose tagline, “Events with Purpose,” is part of his DNA.  

Mike first conceived of something “big and grandiose, like a comedy Coachella” back in 2018. That vision was deepened when he lost his mother and found therapy in comedy while processing his grief. “If I didn’t laugh, I’d cry,” he has said. 

The festival was built on a desire to “safely bring people together again and also support the community we call home,” with proceeds directed toward local organizations and community partners. From its inaugural Edmonton edition through its expansion across Canada, the Great Outdoors Comedy Festival has always been about more than laughs. It has been about connection. About belonging. About showing up for each other. 

This is a partnership I’m proud to be part of. It is also backed by science.  

Laughter triggers the release of dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins, the brain’s own pharmaceutical cabinet. It reduces cortisol, the hormone your body floods you with when you are scared, overworked, or grieving. It is anti-inflammatory. It lowers blood pressure. The physical act of laughing exercises your diaphragm and cardiovascular system, which researchers liken to a short burst of aerobic activity. 

The mental effects are even more interesting to me. A good joke requires your brain to hold two conflicting ideas at once and resolve the tension between them. That cognitive act, combined with the emotional release, functions like a nervous system reset. It pulls you into the present moment. It interrupts the loop. 

And then there is the social dimension. Shared laughter is one of the most powerful bonding mechanisms among human beings. It builds trust. It dissolves hierarchy. It says: we are in this together, and for a moment, we are okay in a world that increasingly feels designed to isolate us, to fragment us into anxiety and algorithms, and to make a moment matter more than we can measure. 

Comedy, done right, is not just escapism. It is resilience. It is a way of saying that the darkness does not get the final word. 

We are living through a period of profound precarity. Economically. Socially. Emotionally. The structures people have relied on, institutions, communities, and social contracts, are under enormous strain. 

In this environment, I believe we have both an opportunity and an obligation to build partnerships that deliver more than commercial returns. The best sponsorships are those that improve the world while also making business sense. 

As you build your next partnership, think about what the Great Outdoors Comedy Festival is creating, and imagine how your resources can provide a lifeline for those in need.  

MH3 

If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, please reach out. In Canada, you can contact CAMH directly at [camh.ca](https://www.camh.ca) or call or text the 9-8-8 Suicide Crisis Helpline (available 24/7). Globally, the World Health Organization maintains a directory of crisis resources at [who.int/mental_health](https://www.who.int/mental_health/en/). The International Association for Suicide Prevention at [iasp.info](https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/) lists crisis centres in over 50 countries.  

You are not alone in this. 

They Say It’s Our (32nd) Birthday!

With apologies to Jerome McCarthy, over the past few years, I have taken my own approach to the 4Ps to guide how we run our ventures. 

My version is Passion, People, Profit, and Purpose. Depending on the circumstances, the audience, and what I had for breakfast, I use these words in an inconsistent pattern of variation. That is to say, I keep the words the same but adjust the descriptors to fit the vibe. 

Today I want to use these words as four candles on our 32nd Birthday cake for T1. Yes, Trojan Sports Marketing, Trojan Sports & Event Marketing, TrojanOne, T1, or whatever you care to call my OG venture, is a bona fide millennial, achieving independence on May 16, 1994. 

It was a Monday, and I love Mondays. Still do. I almost called my new podcast (spoiler alert, I have a new pod coming). Thank God It’s Monday. I didn’t because people who don’t like work as much as I do may not want to support the pod, and a podcast with a religious reference is not at all my intention. 

Regardless of what day you read this, I want to celebrate our Black-owned, women-led, always independent agency with a 4Ps toast. 

Let’s start with PASSION. Building a business has never been my passion. Being in an industry I love is. I love all the people, clients, competitors, suppliers, volunteers, brand ambassadors, and partners who are in this dynamic world of sponsorship, activation, XM, and building community. You are my passion, and your passion gets me out of bed every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday!

The PEOPLE of this industry are what make it fun, but the team at T1 is what makes it satisfying. Our LT have built a high-performance culture of people who win as one. Everyone at T1 Gets It, Wants it, and Does it. (EOS fans will have some déjà vu reading this.) Happy Birthday, Team.

In my first job at Glavin & Associates, I had Effem Foods (Mars) as my prime client. On the walls of their reception area were the Five Principles of Mars. One of my favourites was PROFIT. Mars believes that, as an enterprise, “we need profit to remain free” from shareholders and outside forces. I think that if every company in the world targeted just enough profit to remain free and independent, the world would be a better place. 

PURPOSE is personal even in a company. When I started T1, I wanted to push the boundaries of what sponsorship could deliver for a business, connect brands to community, and help my individual client win at her role. Thirty-two years, and that trio still rhymes with purposeful to me. 

No 32-year-old should have 32 candles on their cake. I think these four, representing PASSION, PEOPLE, PROFIT, and PURPOSE, do an amazing job of carrying the flame to illuminate what we have built over three-plus decades. 

Happy Birthday, T1. I love you.

Put Your Business Hat On!

I spent two and a half days at the 2026 Canadian Arts Summit, organized by Business/Arts and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. I was a panellist and by default, an avid attendee. I love immersing myself in conferences. One delegate asked me why I stuck around after my talk. I said to learn!

I came away with one conviction. The sector needs to stop waiting to be saved and start building businesses.

Operating costs for Canadian arts organizations have risen 41% since 2019. Corporate sponsors are withdrawing. Government funding to the Canada Council has been cut and continues to decline. More than 70% of Canadian artists juggle multiple jobs. The social case for arts funding has been made brilliantly for decades. It has not moved the needle fast enough. The answer is not a better argument. It is a better business model.

Courtney Senior is a Toronto-based abstract artist who also works in technology marketing. Around 2014, she had more paintings than her condo could hold. She wrapped them in kraft paper, wrote “Hello, I’m an original abstract painting in need of a loving home. FREE ART #ArtandFound,” and left them on park benches. Her father died. She painted through the grief. His birthday was March 12th. In January 2021, she turned a personal practice into a coordinated global event. Her goal was 50 artists. The first International Art & Found Day drew 478 artists across 33 countries. By 2025: over 1,600 artists in 47 countries. No institutional backing. No grants. A hashtag, a website, and a human story.

Vinessa Redford picked up her first paintbrush in February 2021. Self-taught. Pandemic lockdown. Four years later: 324,000 Instagram followers. DeSerres brand ambassador. Teaching watercolour through the National Gallery of Canada’s Online Studio. Juried into Artist Project 2026. A national retail storefront campaign launching this spring. She did not wait for permission. She built an audience, documented her story, and made herself a compelling investment. (Full disclosure: Vinessa is my sister.)

Neither of these artists runs a major institution. Neither has a development team. Both speak fluent sponsorship, not because they studied it, but because they built something real and made it visible.

Canada’s live music sector contributed $10.92 billion to GDP in 2023 and created more than 101,000 jobs. Entrepreneurs, not grant writers, built those numbers. Mike Anderson launched the Great Outdoors Comedy Festival in Edmonton in 2021 as a COVID-safe outdoor show. By 2025, it had expanded to six cities across North America. Whitecap Entertainment in Charlottetown produces the Cavendish Beach Music Festival, draws 60,000 visitors annually, and launched the Sommo Festival, pairing live music with celebrity chefs on a second stage. Troy Vollhoffer grew up in Regina, worked as a stagehand at the Big Valley Jamboree, used a Pittsburgh Penguins signing bonus to build a production company, took over the struggling Craven festival in 2005, and scaled it into Country Thunder now seven festivals across North America, $22 to $23 million annually in talent spend, and a private equity investment in 2026. A Canadian from a small Saskatchewan town built a continental entertainment company. That is entrepreneurship.

The Confederation Centre of the Arts commissioned Tell Tale Harbour, an original Canadian musical co-written by Great Big Sea’s Alan Doyle. The 2022 world premiere became the top-selling show in the Charlottetown Festival’s history. After a Newfoundland tour and a full rework, the show is now heading to Toronto with co-producers David and Hannah Mirvish. A publicly supported arts institution created original IP, toured it regionally, and moved it into commercial production with Canada’s largest theatre producer. That is the model.

One of the delegates at the Summit grew up in a small town. She mentioned it in reference to the day’s conversation about why Canada equates hockey to its culture. We talked about the rink. Every small town in Canada has one. The community built it, maintains it, floods it in November, and fills the stands on Friday nights. Not because hockey is culture, though it is, but because of what the rink represents. The belief that someone from here could make it. The infrastructure justifies the investment because the pipeline is real. Azilda, Ontario, a small francophone community outside Sudbury, built a rink. That rink produced Randy Carlyle, Norris Trophy winner, Stanley Cup-winning coach, and one of the best defencemen of his generation.

Jesse Wente challenged delegates at the Summit to ask why a rink is considered more essentially Canadian than a gallery or a theatre. It is the right question. The rink is not just a building. A community declares that talent lives here, that it is worth developing, and that the return, even if only one kid in a generation makes it, justifies every hour of ice time and every dollar of maintenance. Arts organizations produce careers, exports, IP, tourism, and creative entrepreneurs at scale. But that argument has never been made as loudly or as consistently as the hockey argument.

Every town that built a rink was making a bet on its own people. The arts sector needs to make the same bet.

And back it with business plans.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Credit: Vist Pittsburgh

There is no question that, as business leaders, we use an overwhelming amount of sports analogies.

Is that because so many business leaders come to their roles after occupying similar positions in their playing career, even if it was their high school team? Maybe it is because the language we learned on the pitch or the court easily translates to the business setting. The lessons we learn about teamwork and preparation have obvious transferences. Of course, the fact that sports ultimately is about winning and for better or for worse, so is business, makes the connections obvious.

This week marks the start of NFL free agency, kicking off a crucial couple of months for teams to rebuild their rosters, assess their strengths and weaknesses, and plan for the 2026 season. Every team is out to learn how to replicate the Seattle Seahawks’ magical run to the Super Bowl. Add a veteran but oft-maligned quarterback? Shuttle a star receiver and former starting quarterback to other teams. Sign an eleven-year veteran who can complement an already solid defensive line. Open up space for your emerging wide receiver to become the top of the league at his position. Fill out the holes in your roster with a trio of fifth-round draft pick rookies who all contributed more than their draft ranking.

If you are waiting for my business analogy, here it is.

I think there is an interesting perspective between building a team, any team, and how a brand builds its roster of sponsorship marketing partners.

Like a sports team, a brand has a capped budget that must be deployed optimally to achieve the best results. Each brand, like a team, has a current roster of players in its portfolio and future commercial goals. Brand leaders are tasked with evaluating their current portfolio to determine its effectiveness.

Is what we are doing working? Will it work in the future? What about our competition? What are they doing that may prompt us to consider new approaches? Often, brands evolve to better match changing consumer needs, tastes, and preferences. Just as sports evolve and transform, so do consumer desires.

Once they understand their gaps, brand leaders begin to look at how to fill them. They assess properties they have not collaborated on and pitch new opportunities. Using data analysis, consumer engagement, referrals, and sometimes gut instincts, they consider adjusting their lineup. In the NFL, that process starts this week, whether through free agency or with an eye on the upcoming draft in Pittsburgh in late April.

What was once art is now science, but, as with choosing a great sponsorship partner, there is an element of unpredictability that puts so much pressure on these decisions. In marketing or football, you can never be sure how your strategies are truly going to work until you deploy. The same can be said for predicting a team’s success before the first whistle.

As you build your next roster of sponsor partners, think about each of your partners like a player. Who are the reliable veterans versus those who may have outlived their usefulness? Which partners are your opponents leveraging that you can outbid for? Or perhaps there is a hidden gem they are underutilizing? Take time to look at the emerging players you may find amazing value in by investing early and reaping the rewards.

I don’t play Fantasy Football, but I know those of you who do will get the point of this discussion.
 

What happens when labels meet logos? 

That’s what I set out to discover at the Milano Cortina Olympics. 

How would a city so renowned for the Duomo, its architecture and its style, meld with an event that is driven so mightily by commercial interests? 

Upon arrival in Milano, I had my answers. 

I was immediately drawn to clean white sponsor names glowing high above the streets. Winter sport pictograms etched in light against heritage facades. Turns out there’s a deep historical connection with lights and Milan. In the 1950’s, the city was in its neon era with major companies gaining exposure through the power of the glow. Landmarks such as the Galleria and Duomo followed suit with illuminated facades. 

Then Fashion Week followedsuit. Every September and February, Milan transforms into a city of white-lit installations, minimalist typography, and architectural glow. White light in Milan signals luxury, restraint, and confidence. It says, “We don’t need to shout.” 

They delightfully applied that approach to their Olympic sponsor signage. 

In a city that defines global design, they understood that delivering brand impact in this consistent manner would be tremendously beneficial in driving the equity transfer a partner seeks in sponsorship. The lights are beautiful. The placement enhances and doesn’t clutter. The colonnades and cornices enhance the impact, and overall, it is premium. 

Sensitive yet strong. That’s my top takeaway from MICO brand partnerships.

MH3

PS – I asked a few industry friends for their perspectives on MICO 26….enjoy. 

Matthew Lee-Logue

Co-Founder

The Greater

Toronto, Canada 

Corona was the standout sponsor by activating the brilliant basics. Versus Paris where venue rules limited beer sales and visibility, in MICO it was the opposite: they were everywhere. Brand ambassadors moved through crowds in head-to-toe corona colours, custom build outs were equal parts photo opp and functional bar, fan seating areas were draped with corona blankets to stay cozy, and even the small details spread from official sites to local bars where branded ski and snowboard racks were commonplace. Each day as the sun bounced off the snow onto their custom wood installations their “golden moments” platform perfectly came to life. Not wildly innovative, just relentlessly consistent—and it worked. You can’t win in sponsorship if you don’t break through, and you can’t improve fan consideration or conversion without first owning awareness. The Corona mix of dominance and exclusivity absolutely paid off.

Jordan Guard

Founder & Managing Director

Women’s Sports Alliance

London, UK – Remote

Being on the ground in Cortina this past week, the momentum behind women’s sport was impossible to miss. These are the most gender-balanced Winter Games in history, with women making up 47% of athletes, and you can feel that progress in the venues.

The female athletes drawing the strongest reactions were also building audiences in real time.

Eileen Gu earned around $23 million last year, almost entirely from endorsements built over four years of shaping a personal brand alongside her sporting career. Watching her compete up close, you can see exactly why sponsors invest. The narrative around her skiing, the preparation, the setbacks, the personality that comes through between runs, it all compounds commercially.

But she wasn’t alone. Federica Brignone’s double gold on home snow at 35, less than a year after serious injury, produced one of the defining crowd moments of the Games. Breezy Johnson’s downhill victory by just 0.04 seconds, four years after crashing on the same course, carried the same emotional pull.

Performance opens the door. The athletes who consistently build and share the human story alongside it are creating the depth of connection sponsors increasingly pay for.

Armaan Ahluwalia

Sports Commercial Strategy Consultant

London, UK

On the ground in Milan, what impressed me most was how Olympic partners used both city and venue environments to extend their reach. Brands like Omega and TCL had strong physical presence in central Milan, while in-venue integrations such as Corona’s fan cams created simple, repeatable engagement moments. The activations that stood out most were those tied to behaviour, inviting participation rather than relying on visibility alone. At a global event where scale guarantees impressions, the sponsors that blended storytelling, physical footprint, and fan interaction appeared best positioned to generate lasting brand impact beyond the Games.

I am risking massive trademark issues by adding the ROI acronym to the Roman numerals representing the 2026 Super Bowl.

Hopefully, the event’s patrons, who likely generated something in the neighbourhood of US$600 million for the Bay Area, will forgive me.

Whether you watched on TV, online, on social, inside Levi’s Stadium, or in a dive bar on 3rd Street as I did, you saw the big dollars at work. Touring San Francisco last week, you couldn’t move without seeing an Old Spice brand activation, a fleet of limos ushering VIPs, lineups for free consumer experiences, or guests flaunting multiple credentials from the many events they attended.

You also couldn’t avoid the endless fleet of Waymos. You know, the driverless taxis built on Jaguar vehicles, with more tech attached than a teenager’s bedroom. While I didn’t try one, there was no escaping them. They were the subject of countless photos, disbelieving gawks, and the occasional step back to the curb just in case. Given the number of first-timers I met, Waymo should be ecstatic, as this was the product demo weekend a brand can only dream of. Waymo won the ROI prize for the people mover.

One of the best parts of Super Bowl week is the passion of football fans. The game’s connection to Americans feels unwavering, and the international growth is phenomenal. I ran into two Canadians in San Francisco that I had randomly met years ago in Dublin for a Steelers–Vikings game. The excitement around future NFL international games (hello, Paris) and flag football in the LA28 Olympics is palpable. The league has done an impressive job building new platforms.

I would remind the league, host cities, and organizing committees not to forget the fans who can’t afford the VIP experiences during Super Bowl week. They are the ones paying the bills. As the platform continues to expand, accessible programming is critical. Keep the fire burning.

The Super Bowl is big business. So many official and unofficial partners show up to stage parties, events, meetings, and conferences. I attended several strong seminars, and one of my favourites focused on the behind-the-scenes work for major Super Bowl ads. Budweiser, Instacart, Pepsi, Toyota, Uber Eats, and Ritz shared their thinking and some key learnings. The most poignant takeaway: if you’re going to be in the Super Bowl, go big or stay home.

I also liked how brands such as Toyota and Michelob Ultra created campaigns that worked in the Super Bowl and across other major properties, including the Olympics. My favourites were Hellmann’s and “Meal Diamond,” both perfectly cast with Andy Samberg in the lead role. Unilever’s Jessica Grigoriou humbly acknowledged that while the team executed many elements well, including casting, they also benefited from cultural timing. The release of the film Song Sung Blue became part of the broader conversation, creating a zeitgeist-worthy setup for the campaign.

I have to hand it to the NFL for weaving purpose into as many aspects of the week as possible. The league’s CMO, Tim Ellis, spoke at the Sport Beach event about being an organization that opens its arms to everyone. That message came through clearly in the promotion of NFL Flag, celebrations of women in sport, and the staging of Culture Club. And then there was the Bad Bunny halftime show. Beyond being entertaining, it felt like what the world needed. The message of “Together we are America” and the closing reminder that “The only thing more powerful than hate is love” landed for many, and reflected a coordinated effort between the artist, the league, and the broadcast partners.

The ROI on LX was asombroso, in my view.

Thank-you, Benito. 

In these early days of February, I want to share an immense moment of gratitude. 

My thanks and utmost respect go to the enterprises, organizations, and companies that are actively and earnestly supporting Black History Month. 

In an era where DEI has become a four-letter word in some circles, I am indebted to the organizations that are helping repel this onslaught of ignorance. 

Ironically, if you add Belonging, DEI does indeed become a four-letter word: DEIB. 

I should be cautious, as this war on DEI is not a laughing matter. 

In some instances, it is quite literally a matter of people dying for or because of. Here in Canada, where I live, I felt a retreat in support midway through 2023, and it kept gaining steam throughout 2024. I am sure the reader would expect me to inform her that 2025 was bad and early 2026 will only worsen. 

Gratefully, and quite frankly, surprisingly, that has not been the case despite the powerful opposition that has attempted to quash equity-pursuing entities. As powerful as the powers that be have been, their muscle did not cause a crash, but rather created an opposing force of equal, if not greater, magnitude. Where one group has attacked with force and fury, the intended victims and potentially injured have responded with savvy and strategy. 

I know there must be some law of physics here if only I had the intelligence to remember it. It is happening, though, right in front of my eyes. And yours. 

As a founder of a small social impact organization, I can tell you that the support from corporations we are receiving today is highly reminiscent of 2021, when companies were at their peak of support after George Floyd’s murder in 2020 murder. 

The support is gratifying. The form in which it is coming is even more so. This wave of collaboration is not just financial. It is functional. It is foundational. It is transformational. 

Companies contributing to the fight are looking for outcomes, sustainable deliverables that will manifest systemic results. This advanced approach to community support is not only good for society, but also good for organizations such as ours. This new approach pushes us to improve how we operate, serve our communities, and prioritize. These are not challenges; these are opportunities to learn, improve, and support. 

No doubt readers will push back to inform me they are not experiencing the same. I have no doubt. Rest assured, my comments are not rounded in research, though they are grounded in my experience. 

After five years of striving, pushing, delivering, and building, I am sure part of our positive experience is that people who make decisions in organizations trust us enough to challenge us and also fund us. This is not an exclusive position; there are many other impact groups in the same privileged strata. 

Those who aren’t there yet should keep the faith. Do what they do best. Believe in themselves and in these they meet. Listen closely to the noise the ground makes as you walk on it. It will tell you whether this is the path to follow. 

Have you been caught up in the prediction market craze? If you haven’t yet, I predict you will be. I feel so confident that you will consider visiting a platform that I am going to buy an 80¢ contract. 

You may ask yourself, did the author just place an 80-cent bet? Technically no. Emotionally yes. 

An 80¢ contract on a prediction market indicates the odds that I expect for something to happen. Those odds could be on an election outcome, an album release date, a daily temperature high, or a sporting event outcome. On the opposite side of my 80 cents is someone with a 20¢ contract. If my prediction comes true, I win their 20 cents. If my prediction goes their way, they win my 80 cents. Hence, you can see that highly anticipated outcomes pay less than highly improbable outcomes. The only way for me to get paid is for someone on the other side of my prediction to be willing to take the opposite stance. The platform doesn’t fund either of our payouts; they focus entirely on facilitating the contract and taking a cut of the payout. 

Still, you may read this and push back, saying it just feels like betting to you. In a way, it is. In another way, it isn’t. 

The prediction market platforms won a major lawsuit in late 2024, arguing that, given the market dynamics and contractual nature of what they sell, prediction markets are just like the stock market. Now their activities have the approval of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). You have buyers and sellers who are willing to invest their money based on their expectations of an outcome. For a company, it is usually its ability to generate profits, pay dividends, drive innovation, or acquire assets such as customers and patents that will make it an attractive acquisition target at some point. 

The prediction market is a twist on this. The entities that are driving the payouts don’t receive any direct financial benefit from the contracts being exchanged. Unlike stock, which provides liquidity for a company to pursue its objectives, the subjects of prediction contracts are, like a sports team, the markers for the contract payout. But when you are making money on predicting the weather, who are you to pay? 

Still, it feels like betting, gambling, and gaming to me. Not surprisingly, some 80% of the action on prediction markets is around sports events. With the Super Bowl, the undisputed peak betting event of the year, approaching, you will see this percentage spike. This muckiness is causing all sorts of angst. 

Legitimate sports betting sites, regulatory bodies, and rights holders are feeling betrayed. They invested enormous sums of money, time, and energy, along with significant marketing, to participate in the legitimate betting market. Jurisdictions that feel they have control over betting are now being usurped by other bodies. Entities that have generated revenue streams from legitimate betting activities now feel their revenues will be threatened. 

Worst of all, prediction markets appear rife with insider trading, with bizarre bets placed just hours before military interventions, the passage of political bills, album releases, and more. I mean, if you know what time a tree is going to fall in the forest, and you can buy a contract to make money on that occurrence, isn’t that insider trading? How is this any different from knowing when a major company has an announcement to make before the public does? 

The intriguing aspect of prediction markets to me is the consumer behaviour at play. I am not the only one. Major news outlets such as CNN and CNBC have partnered with market-leading platforms, including Kashi. Polymarket and Coinbase have enabled crypto-based participation. Consumers on these platforms don’t just buy contracts; they vocalize their positions, argue for their perspectives, and research as many sources as possible to gain an edge. 

Perhaps in a twisted way, prediction markets could be the saviour that traditional journalism is searching for. If traditional outlets can provide more reliable information than less vetted sources, consumers who are winning and losing in prediction markets will be financially motivated to engage more consistently on these platforms. Perhaps, by osmosis, they will migrate from topics tied to their buying and selling to absorb less event-based content. 

There is also a pretty cool activation opportunity for brands looking to create new buzz around product launches, limited-edition products, format changes, revealing spokespeople, personnel changes, plant location announcements, and more. Gambling made the NFL what it is today. Long before it was legal in multiple markets, betting odds on games were among the most consumed content on sports pages. Fantasy football gave the sport an unimaginable jolt that no marketer could have predicted. Football is clearly being prioritized in prediction markets; take a look at any of their home pages.

Yet this new outlet seems primed for so much more. I don’t know the psychological reason humans love to predict; however, I know we do. Stuck for a conversation starter at a business lunch, roll out the question of who will be our next mayor, pope, sports champion, weather system, or winning AI platform, and you will have no problem filling the void until coffee is served. You could even debate, if not predict, how many coffee versus matcha drinkers are at the table.

Concerns about problem gambling will apply to prediction markets the same way they do to rampant sports betting. They should. Howvere there is a unique layer here that needs to be studied and dissected as consumers once again exhibit powerful behaviours driven by their passion and desire to earn a quick buck.

If I encourage you to check out a platform, you may be rightfully concerned that I have taken a position that you will. Rest assured, I haven’t, so go for it; there is a lot to take in.