Annette Parker had been a runner her whole life. Then, during her sophomore year of college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she suffered an injury to her left knee that spelled the end of her competitive running career.

When she was feeling particularly down on her luck, her mom suggested she take some golf lessons—a suggestion that foreshadowed her near two-decade career in golf. “I asked her, ‘Why?’” Parker told Marketing Brew. “‘It’s boring,’ is what I said.”

Parker didn’t immediately take her mom’s advice, but the following year, when Parker was serving as the athletic director at a camp in Missouri and had to staff its driving range, she figured she might as well learn the ropes.

“Golf came as an interruption,” she said, “and I was open enough to pivot.”

Parker has now spent more than 15 years in the golf business, and at the start of this year, she took on the role of head of marketing at Eastside Golf, a golf apparel and accessories brand that’s part of a broader push to modernize a sport that hasn’t always been the most accessible.

“I was very intentional about going after golf once I made an assessment of the industry, because I didn’t see anyone who looked like me, and I was like, ‘I can’t be the only one who loves it like this, and if I am, then I should try to get more people to love it,’” she said. “The space was so white, so male-dominated. They were overdue for some change.”

Continue reading here.—AM

The venture-capital world seems to be betting big on generative AI creative tools, and it wants adland to buy in, too.

A number of buzzy AI-related startups have gotten financial backing from major VC firms. However, with an influx of tools that claim to make ad creation easier, some agencies are approaching them with caution.

“On the one hand, we have a lot of enthusiasm, and our creatives are always very excited to try out these new tools,” Michael Horn, global head of AI at Omnicom Advertising Group, said. “Then we have a lot of responsibilities from an ethical, regulatory, and privacy perspective.”

Dot the I’s and cross the T’s: While startups may be buzzy, performing due diligence is key, Horn said. For context, Omnicom already has agreements in place with what he called “hyperscalers” like OpenAI and Google, he said, “and we have indemnification agreements with those companies.” Tools from those companies are made available across the agency, and it’s already put out work for clients like McDonald’s and Nike created with the use of AI.

Read more here.—JS

Each week, we spotlight Marketing Brew readers in our Coworking series. If you’d like to be featured, introduce yourself here.

Avery Akkineni is chief marketing officer at VaynerX. She was previously president of Vayner3, a VaynerX consultancy, and she worked at VaynerMedia, where she established the agency’s capabilities in the Asia Pacific region.

Favorite project you’ve worked on? One that will always stand out is launching our APAC presence in 2019, initially in Singapore and subsequently in Bangkok, Tokyo, and Sydney. It was a whirlwind few years, and I’m so proud of the amazing culture, fantastic client roster, and culture-driving work we launched during those first few years. From global Olympics campaigns to winning Agency of the Year, it was a critical role for me and for VaynerMedia’s global expansion.

What’s your favorite ad campaign? My favorite marketing moment is Barbie’s movie launch. I love everything about it. It didn’t feel like a campaign; it felt like a cultural takeover. The mix of strategic partnerships, unexpected collaborations, and user-generated content brilliance turned marketing into entertainment and made the internet the media plan.

One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile: I share a lot on LinkedIn, but one thing I don’t often share professionally is my renovation passion projects. On any given long weekend, I’m usually working on an interiors project—my favorite creative outlet that has nothing to do with the advertising world!

Continue reading here.

Mergers and acquisitions, company partnerships, and more.

• Skydance Media and Paramount officially completed their merger valued at $8.4 billion after the companies made a number of government concessions.
• Just Women’s Sports and the NWSL extended a media deal allowing for the digital media outlet to continue distributing game highlights.
• Netflix signed a multi-year first-look deal with Archewell Productions, the media arm of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle; the deal is structured more loosely than a prior deal between the companies.
• Electrolit, a sports drink brand, inked a partnership deal with three-time Grand Slam champion Aryna Sabalenka.