AW PLAYMAKER AWARDS Q&A
AW Playmaker Award: EA’s Troy Smith
As part of the AWPlaymaker Awards, AW360 spoke with Troy Smith, North American Athlete Marketing Lead at EA, about the evolving role of athletes as creators.
AW Playmaker Award: Molly Battin, CMO of the Year
For Molly Battin, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at The Home Depot and CMO of the Year at the Advertising Week Playmaker Awards, the most powerful brand partnerships go far beyond logos and celebrity endorsements.
AW Playmaker Agency Award: WPP Media Sports & Entertainment
As part of Advertising Week New York’s AWPlaymaker Awards series, we caught up with the Sports and Entertainment team at WPP Media to explore how creators are redefining fan engagement, why authenticity remains essential to successful brand partnerships, and how marketers can measure cultural impact beyond traditional engagement metrics.
SELECT SESSIONS FROM THE STAGE
The Privacy Payoff: What 11,000 Consumers Want Marketers to Know
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The Power of the Transaction
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The Next Era of Financial Media Networks
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The Entertainment Revolution: Why Brands Need to Think Beyond the Screen
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More Than the Game: Earning a Place in the Fan Conversation
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Growing Brands Without Getting in the Customer’s Way
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Field to Fandom: Where Storytelling Meets Performance
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Brands That Move People: What It Actually Takes
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Beyond Reach: Making Attention Count in Streaming TV
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Add to Cart, Add to Culture: The Full-Funnel Commerce Evolution
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FROM THE SALESFORCE PODCAST STUDIO
Would You Share It If You Didn’t Work Here? Featuring Ty Stafford of Hello Party
When the Customer Sends an Agent with Abhay Singhal of InMobi & InMobi Advertising
What Will the Next Advertising Dollar Deliver? Featuring Jake LaDuke and Khushboo Beniwal of Databricks
What the Dashboard Can’t Tell You About People Featuring Kerel Cooper of MarketCast
Stop Pitching and Start Building Featuring Laurel Burton of Instrument
People Still Buy From People Featuring Madeline Schofield of Salesforce
One YouTube, Too Many Strategies with Leah Malone of Pixability
Measuring Beyond the First Sale Featuring Jerome Shimizu of ABCS Insights
Lexi Novak of Betches Media on Why Audience Connection Beats Content Creation
Giving Shoppers a Say Featuring Will Cohen of Downtime
Give People Something Worth Talking About with Pauline Oudin from Gradient Experience
Earning a Place in the Group Chat Featuring Victoria Hoyle of The Social Element
Customer-Led Products with Intentional Leadership Featuring Emeka Okafor Jr. of Dropbox
UNCOMMON THINKING – FROM THE STAGES OF AWNY 2026
The Privacy Payoff: What 11,000 Consumers Want Marketers to Know
The Power of the Transaction
The Other Side of the Screen: Brand-Building through Premium Content
The Next Era of Financial Media Networks
The Next Era of Commerce Media: How Tractor Supply Is Building for What’s Ahead
The Entertainment Evolution: What Today’s Audiences Want Next
More Than the Game: Building Brand Connections Across Sports Culture
Field to Fandom: Where Storytelling Meets Performance
Brands That Move People: What It Actually Takes
Add to Cart, Add to Culture: The Full-Funnel Commerce Evolution
PARTNER CONTENT
Multimodal AI: The Future of High-Performance Ad Targeting
The next era of targeting belongs to AI systems that see the whole picture — and to the leaders who know how to orchestrate them.
If Everything Is Shoppable, Become Unstoppable: Brand and Commerce That Converts
Christi Geary, Head of AMP Agency (Advantage Marketing Partners), led a fast-paced discussion on thriving in today’s shoppable world—where brand love meets buyer behavior.
Creative that Lasts: Making the Most of Every Impression
Tina DeSarno, Chief IA Officer at MarketCast, kicked off the panel by setting the scene and describing the current issues marketers face.
Empowering Small Businesses Through Smarter Advertising
Lauren Johnson, Deputy Editor of Retail Media and Commerce of Adweek, led a panel on how PayPal is working to uplift small businesses.
In Experiential Marketing, is it Riskier to Include or Exclude Environmental Sustainability?
As marketers balance shifting technologies, fragmented audiences and tighter budgets, environmental impact can feel like one more demand on an already crowded brief. But it is also an area where thoughtful decisions can strengthen the experience rather than compromise it.
For Advertising Week Executives, Preparation Starts With Setting Priorities
Three executives describe how they organize their thinking ahead of Advertising Week New York, with the Kindle Scribe serving as a tool for notes, planning and revisions.
