Weekly Roundup – August 4th, 2026
Roundup Links
Notre Dame announces jersey patch deal with SoFi worth $18M-20M per year: Source
"When it comes to college football’s foray into corporate sponsorship logo patches, Notre Dame is following the herd — and might be setting a new standard.
On Tuesday, athletic director Pete Bevacqua announced a partnership with SoFi to put patches bearing the financial services company’s logo on Notre Dame jerseys, including the school’s football uniforms.
The move will bring the school $18 million to $20 million annually, according to a source briefed on the deal but not able to speak publicly about its details. It came hours after Ohio State announced a jersey patch partnership with Chase Bank worth $17 million, supplanting the Buckeyes as the largest known agreement of its kind in college sports."
Our Take: This SoFI–Notre Dame deal is effectively breaking the illusion that a given college football team has any true connection to the university it putatively represents beyond the shared colors on the jerseys and the logos on the helmets. What you will have among the elite college football programs is a collection of semi-professional teams with massive, loyal regional audiences that are linked to the university largely by name. College football is a heavily commercialized sport. It is not an NGO run for the good of the participants. The athletes themselves, especially at the bigger schools, will receive a financial windfall. The schools themselves will receive one as well. But the continued growth and commercialization of college football, especially in the age of NIL, points toward more independently run operations that are increasingly distinct from the universities they represent.
Brands Must Cede Control In Their World-Building Era
"Brands are trading in their traditional campaign tentpoles for a new creative playbook: world-building.
That pivot played out on the international stage last month during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, where companies like McDonald’s and Nike built immersive, expansive brand worlds instead of hinging their efforts around a single blockbuster ad.
For its biggest-ever World Cup campaign and largest marketing effort of the year, spanning more than 110 countries, McDonald’s moved “from polished ads to creating an ecosystem [that spans] creators, fans, and experiences,” global chief marketing officer Morgan Flatley told ADWEEK."
Our Take: This is an interesting evolution in advertising that all media companies should be following closely. Brands are increasingly adding stables of (sometimes 1,000s) of influencers to their marketing campaigns (look for labels like micro influencing, influencer agencies and brands like Obviously, Cohley, GOAT and more). Agencies are popping up to be one-stop-shops for these influencers, stealing the lunch of both linear and digital media platforms for major brand campaigns.
FIFA Scraps Controversial Plan to Sell Commercial Rights to Private Investors
"FIFA President Gianni Infantino on Friday abandoned his controversial plan to sell part of the World Cup’s commercial rights to private investors in the face of global outrage—barely 72 hours after the proposal was first leaked.
“Having listened carefully to all the views,” Infantino said, “it has become clear that the project has created divisions of a nature that, regardless of the level of support, are no longer in the interest of the objective set out in the first place.”"
Our Take: The world's soccer federations responded to Mr. Infantino's push to privatize elements of FIFA competitions by more or less saying: "This is way too American. No thanks." Infantino was America-maxxing too close to the sun, and he will probably not be FIFA's president for very much longer.
CD Sales Growth Outpaced Vinyl in the First Half of 2026
"For the better part of the last decade, vinyl has been the face of music’s physical revival. But according to Luminate’s 2026 Midyear Report, another format is quietly making an even bigger comeback: the compact disc.
During the first half of 2026, CD sales surged 16% to 16.3 million units, soundly outpacing vinyl’s comparatively modest 2.4% growth. While BTS’ blockbuster album ARIRANG played a major role in the increase, Luminate found the resurgence extends well beyond K-pop. Even after removing BTS and the broader K-pop catalog from the equation, CD sales still climbed 6.7% year over year."
The report also points to a broader boom in physical music. Total US physical album sales: LPs, CDs, and cassettes rose 7.8% through the first half of the year, reaching 38.2 million units.
One explanation may be changing listening habits among younger fans. According to the report, 60% of Gen Z listeners now say they most often listen to music from the 1990s or earlier, a huge increase from 18% in 2021. Whether driven by nostalgia, discovery via streaming, or a wanting to own a tangible piece of an artist’s work, younger audiences appear to be embracing physical formats."
Our Take: I personally have bought a bunch of CDs recently because: A. They sound good B. It’s a more coherent listening experience than flitting around on streaming services C. The literal process of my listening to a CD is not being actively scrutinized by data collection bots and algos D. It’s a richer experience to listen to an album in full E. I want to impress upon my young daughter a handful of artists I find to be ‘seminal’ in order to shape her tastes (Self absorbed? Maybe.) and having physical media creates stronger sense impressions than if I were to fire up something on Apple Music.
