Where to Next with Experiential Marketing

WHERE TO NEXT WITH EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING 

Once the fastest growing brand activation discipline, Experiential Marketing has been upended by the advent of COVID-19. Many marketers shifted their strategies in the immediate and short term but as the virus lingers and consumer confidence falters, what do brands do next?

Join us in a panel discussion featuring the biggest brands and the brightest minds as they share their thoughts on the future of the industry and share some highlights of their plans for 2021 and beyond. 

Panelists: (see executive bios below)
Michael Goldstein, VP, Head of Sponsorships - Mastercard
Christina Hull, Head of Experiential Marketing - Verizon
Jamey Sunshine, Head of Experiential Marketing Center of Excellence - Nestlé USA
Ronnie Yoked, Head of Experiential - Anheuser-Busch

Panel Hosts and moderators:
Dee Hall, Executive General Manager – Advantage Solutions
Cliff Rigano, Head of Culture, Lifestyle & Event Marketing - Jägermeister

Panelists

Michael Goldstein
VP, Head of Sponsorships 
Mastercard

In 2012, Michael joined Mastercard as a Vice President & Business Leader, Global Sponsorships. He has since been promoted to Vice President & Senior Business Leader and now is the head of sponsorships for North America.

In his global role, he managed Mastercard’s global golf and rugby platforms, which are highlighted by The Open Championship and Rugby World Cup partnerships. Currently, he focuses on all sponsorship activity across the U.S. and Canada – portfolio highlights include Major League Baseball, the Grammy Awards, PGA Tour and the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. He also recently received the honor of being named to Sport Business Journal’s list of Forty under 40 for 2019.

Prior to Mastercard, Michael was with LG Electronics, where he oversaw its NCAA corporate sponsorship across multiple business units, including all Men’s and Women’s Championships. He also managed co-marketing strategic partnerships in the gaming and entertainment space that were leveraged via retail promotions.

Before LG, Michael was with Octagon, where he consulted Fortune 100 companies, including Mastercard, on where and how to drive business via sponsorships in the sports and entertainment world. Earlier in his career, Michael worked in television production at ESPN on shows such as Baseball Tonight and SportsCenter.

He holds an M.B.A. and M.S. in Sport Management from UMass-Amherst and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Rochester. 

Christina Hull
Head of Experiential Marketing
Verizon

Christina leads Verizon’s experiential marketing across the brand, consumer and business organizations. She leads a team that creates and produces brand experiences, leveraging the most prestigious sports and entertainment properties and venues as well as at the tech industry's most powerful events, with a focus on scaling experiential fan and customer activation, ranging from physical, virtual and hybrid, while also promoting the concept that social responsibility is at the core of everything experiential.

Christina and her team transform fan experiences by placing the Verizon 5G network into the center of all activations, demonstrating to fans how the power of the network had impact on how we experience and consume entertainment and live events. Christina jumped into action when the pandemic hit, setting up a weekly virtual livestream series, Pay It Forward Live, which boasted live music, as well as game and esports events to raise awareness and funds for small businesses, and the post-Super Bowl "A Big Concert for Small Business," which drove millions of viewers and actions.

In a year of extreme production protocols, Christina and her team worked with some of the world’s biggest sports, entertainment, and gaming brands — such as the NFL, Walt Disney Co., IndyCar, Epic Games, Riot Games, and Twitch — to pull off virtual and hybrid experiential activations and breaking records with millions of fan engagements.

Her team remains focused in 2021 on bringing envy-inducing customer experiences with unprecedented access at NFL stadiums, the Super Bowl, private concerts, music festivals, NBA, MLS, and IndyCar.

Prior to Verizon, Christina spent her career within the sports and entertainment industry managing and leading sponsorship and experiential for AT&T and JP Morgan Chase. There, she developed creative platforms and activations that leveraged sponsorships investments, such as the U.S. Open, Olympics, Walt Disney Co., Madison Square Garden, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and many other music and entertainment properties and artists.


Jamey Sunshine
Head of Experiential Marketing Center of Excellence
Nestlé USA

Jamey Sunshine is the head of the Experiential Center of Excellence at Nestle USA. In this role, Jamey is responsible for overseeing a team that leads experiential strategies to drive growth for Nestle USA brands. This includes a dedicated field marketing team for the Nesquik and Chameleon Cold Brew brands, and integrated experiential programs for brands such as DiGiorno, Life Cuisine, Toll House and Sweet Earth. Jamey’s team also serves as sponsorship consultants for Nestle USA brands, guiding sponsorship strategy, property selection, and activation, including Stouffer’s sponsorship of Minor League Baseball, and Hot Pockets recently announced esports partnership with NRG. Jamey has been in the experiential and sports marketing space for over 20 years, with a mix between brand and agency experience. Prior to joining Nestle USA, Jamey was Managing Director of LeadDog Marketing Group (Sports consulting division), and before that, he led the Corporate Partnerships division in the U.S at Lagardere (sports agency), where he was responsible for managing partnership marketing across the company’s talent and events portfolio. Earlier in Jamey’s career, he was a Brand Manager with Red Bull North America, where he managed sports and culture marketing initiatives on the East Coast, including the development and execution of new event properties and field marketing activations. Jamey lives in Arlington, VA with his wife Abby and son Cooper.

Ronnie Yoked
Head of Experiential
Anheuser-Busch

Ronnie Yoked joined Anheuser-Busch with a knack for innovation and a love for experiences. In her previous role with Bud Light, she redefined their presence at festivals, by thoughtfully devising and implementing programs with her consumer top of mind. Ronnie unveiled Bud Light’s Dive Bar Sessions, where she created a space to showcase over 50 emerging artists across SXSW, Lolla, Panorama and more. As Head of Experiential for Michelob ULTRA, Ronnie was behind the first-ever sunset mass meditation for over 2,000 people at SXSW with The Big Quiet and Grammy-nominated Miguel and the evolution of the successful ULTRA Movement events that continue to evolve in the current environment. In her current role as Head of Experiential for all of AB, Ronnie brings her deep love of consumer-centered experiences and strategy to help define the future of what experiential marketing should be, ensuring AB will lead the way, as evident in the programs and work executed in the midst of a pandemic when the team shifted their real-life events to some of the most-watched livestreams like Bud Light Seltzer Sessions Presents NYE with Post Malone as headliner.