Dua Lipa may have recently gotten married, but Callum Turner isn’t her only partner in life.

This spring, coffee brand Nespresso announced the pop star as its newest global brand ambassador, a role that had previously been exclusive to actor George Clooney, who has been working with the brand since 2006.

Nespresso launched its “Vertuo World” campaign with Lipa in April, and since then, she’s hosted a Nespresso event at the Cannes Film Festival and helped the brand market a pickle-infused iced coffee inspired by her viral Diet Coke concoction with pickle and jalapeño juice.

The Lipa-fronted campaign marks a 30%–40% increase in brand campaign spend and is one of Nespresso’s largest investments to date. The effort has so far put the brand on the map in ways that even its team didn’t expect, with record landing-page views from new prospects, Jessica Padula, VP of marketing at Nespresso, told us.

“We haven’t had that type of launch moment of a new brand ambassador ever, right? Not really since George,” she told us. “Getting those eyeballs translated to traffic onsite was a really big focus for us, and we’ve seen some big successes there.”

As Nespresso seeks to boost its cultural cachet, it’s also celebrating its 40-year history, giving the brand an opportunity to celebrate its past while also forging ahead into the future. We spoke with Padula about how its multipronged ambassador strategy is aimed at achieving both goals.

Continue reading here.—KH

Raheem Taylor-Parkes stepped away from pro soccer in 2021 after missing out on the MLS draft two years in a row. The decision ultimately launched his career in soccer—in front of the camera, that is.

He now hosts the podcast The Late Run with Chad Ochocinco, serves as a talent coordinator for soccer media company Footballco, and has racked up over 22,000 followers on Instagram and almost 14,000 on TikTok with his own soccer content, fulfilling his childhood dream in a different way than he imagined.

“Growing up playing soccer my whole entire life, I wanted to make soccer be the biggest sport in America,” Taylor-Parkes told Marketing Brew. “Seeing the NFL, the NBA, how influential [they are] to the culture of America—whether it’s music, whether it’s fashion—seeing all these other aspects that sports tie into, I really want soccer to have that mainstream impact.”

Taylor-Parkes isn’t the only one flooding the zone with soccer content ahead of the World Cup. With excitement for the sport reaching a fever pitch in the US, international soccer organizations, brands, and platforms are looking to creator players and fans beyond the national team rosters in an effort to drive lasting soccer fandom.

“The most important thing is to have people that organically are speaking about soccer [in the US], and living the passion,” Adrian Segovia, EVP and head of content and distribution for LaLiga North America, told us. “Sometimes for me, it’s not super important the fanbase that they have. It’s more important that these are real Real Madrid fans, or real Barcelona fans.”

Read more here.—AM

AI tools like ChatGPT are changing how people shop, and ads on a retailers’ sites can matter less when shoppers bounce between platforms. That, in turn, changes the way retail executives view retail media.

Sherry Smith, president for retail media at adtech network Criteo, told Retail Brew we’re in a transition phase for retail media. AI should not be seen as an external threat, she said, but testing and learning with different types of ad formats that can support conversational commerce is important.

“It’s really the year that retail media is really growing up,” Smith said. “In fact, we believe 2026 is going to be remembered as the year that retail media does grow up and goes from growth at all cost to measurable outcomes. There’s greater scrutiny around measurable outcomes and accountability.”

One tool to address that scrutiny is Page Intelligence, which uses AI to optimize product pages so retailers and brands can see ad impressions and sales together, not separately, Smith said. Last year, Criteo started testing Page Intelligence and has recently started tests with retailers, according to the company.

Smith spoke with Retail Brew about the state of retail media, growing scrutiny around ad measurement, and the company’s relationship with AI platforms.

Continue reading on Retail Brew.—VC

101 crosswords from the team behind your favorite email. Built for quick breaks, screen-free mornings, and the brain that appreciated our puns enough to buy the book.