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Why one podcast network is doubling down on women’s sports.

It’s Monday, and the end of an era at CBS. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, a top-rated and award-winning late-night program, has been cancelled and will not be replaced once it wraps in May 2026. Colbert announced the news days after he criticized parent company Paramount for a controversial legal settlement with President Donald Trump.

In today’s edition:

—Alyssa Meyers, Jennimai Nguyen, Jasmine Sheena

SPORTS MARKETING

House of Maher podcast

Wave Sports & Entertainment, House of Maher

Wave Sports & Entertainment is reaching new heights in podcasting, and not just with Jason and Travis Kelce’s hit show.

The digital content company behind shows like the Kelce brothers’ New Heights (which was acquired by Wondery for $100 million, but which Wave still produces) and Carmelo Anthony’s 7PM in Brooklyn has been riding a wave of interest in sports podcasts. But, like a handful of other companies in the past year or so, the Wave team realized there was some white space to be filled: podcasts by and for women’s sports communities.

That’s not just because of the growing interest in women’s sports among fans—women were already tuning in to Wave’s existing talk shows in a noticeable way.

“What does this slate look like in [terms of] success as we continue to scale?” Tunde St. Matthew-Daniel, Wave’s EVP of original content, told Marketing Brew. “We knew for talk shows, the woman audience is there. We’d seen that on our existing shows as well, even the ones that were male-led.”

Since last fall, Wave, which was recently named one of Time’s most influential companies of 2025, rolled out three new shows—Not Gonna Lie with Kylie Kelce, WNBA star Cameron Brink’s Straight to Cam, and House of Maher featuring Olympic rugby star Ilona Maher and her sisters. All three saw near-immediate advertiser interest: Each show had seven figures in brand deals before any of the content went live, Ryan Jann, head of strategy and revenue, told Marketing Brew.

Continue reading here.—AM

Presented By Amazon Ads

DATA

Beyonce wears a rhinestoned denim outfit with her hands on her hips in an ad for Levi's called "Pool Hall"

Screenshot via Levi’s/YouTube

If an ad is going to interrupt someone’s hours-long binge of their favorite TV show, it better be worth their time.

Lucky for Levi’s, Noom, and Red Lobster, their ads were just that, at least according to EDO, which found in a report that the brands produced some of the most effective TV ads of 2025 so far.

To evaluate effectiveness, the measurement platform looked at national spots that aired across convergent TV in 15 categories and ranked them by strongest consumer engagement in online activity like branded search and site visits. EDO says that kind of engagement is proven to predict future sales—and seemingly, might make the media spend, which hit an estimated $22 billion in the first six months of the year, all worth it.

Here’s a closer look at what made these spots the most effective TV marketing plays, according to EDO.

To the rodeo: As Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour hit stadiums across the world, fans have shown up in their best Levi’s jeans, as instructed by Queen Bey in both her hit song and official collab with the denim brand itself. “Pool Hall,” an ad that put a new twist on an iconic 1991 advertisement from the brand, pulled in 113 million impressions and a 373% engagement rate over 93 total airings in the apparel category, meaning that the ad was seen as being that percentage more effective at driving consumer engagement compared to the category average.

That score landed Levi’s the No. 1 spot in the apparel category, EDO found.

Read more here.—JN

TV & STREAMING

a large red N from the Netflix logo outside of an office building

Patrick T. Fallon/Getty Images

Fresh off of 120 Emmy nominations, Netflix beat analyst expectations and reported second-quarter revenue of $11.08 billion, up 16%.

In the United States and Canada, revenue grew 15% year over year, the company reported in its quarterly earnings on Thursday, despite broader macroeconomic uncertainty. Netflix also upped its full-year revenue guidance to around $45 billion.

This is Netflix’s second earnings report since it stopped reporting subscriber numbers except in the case of significant milestones, and this quarter, it did not provide any updates to its subscriber count.

“Things all look stable,” co-CEO Greg Peters said on an earnings call Thursday. “Big picture, entertainment in general and Netflix specific[ally] have been historically pretty resilient in tougher economic times.”

Supersize me: Netflix’s ads tier, which the company said during its upfront had 94 million monthly active users, continues its build-out, and its “US upfront is nearly complete,” according to a company shareholder letter. Overall, the company expects ad revenue to “roughly double” this year, CFO Spencer Neumann said on the call.

The streamer’s ad-tech offerings are also continuing to roll out. Peters confirmed on the call that its in-house platform, Netflix Ads Suite, is now fully available in all countries that offer an ad tier. To offer increased options for ad buyers, Netflix also inked a deal with Yahoo DSP last month.

Continue reading here.—JS

Together With Claravine

FRENCH PRESS

French Press image

Morning Brew

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren’t those.

Money moves: How agencies can take advantage of a “surprising new lead generator”: AI chatbots like ChatGPT.

Brick by brick: A primer on brand website builders.

Link hack: Understanding the LinkedIn algorithm in 2025.

Film fandom: Picture your all-time favorite movie—the one you can quote perfectly. Brands can leverage movie fandom long after crowds leave the theater. We partnered with Amazon Ads to learn how. Read on.*

*A message from our sponsor.

EVENTS

Barbra Sainsurin, Global CMO of Anthropologie Group, in a promotional image for the Marketing Brew Summit in September 2025

Morning Brew

Barbra Sainsurin isn’t just selling clothes—she’s designing experiences. As global CMO of Anthropologie Group, she’s rethinking what customers want and how they want it. Get her take on building brand loyalty and making marketing magic in the ever-evolving world of retail at the Marketing Brew Summit on September 10.

IN AND OUT

football play illustrations on billboards on buildings

Francis Scialabba

Executive moves across the industry.

  • VideoAmp named Executive Chairman Peter Liguori as its CEO, part of a handful of executive changes.
  • Meta promoted longtime exec Connor Hayes to head of Threads starting in September, per Axios.
  • Reddit CMO Roxy Young is leaving the company at the end of August.
  • Netflix ads measurement strategy VP, Julie DeTraglia, has left the company, Adweek reported.

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