Minnesota Vikings CMO Seeks Athlete Mentality in Marketing

Optimism, resilience, and teamwork read like search terms for an inspirational sports movie, but try surviving a career in marketing without them. Opening the final and, by far, sportiest day of ADWEEK’s Brandweek event in Phoenix, Ariz., on Thursday, Minnesota Vikings evp and CMO Martin Nance used his career as a wide receiver in the National Football League to tout the pillars of “the athlete mindset” as they apply to the marketing industry. Having previously worked as a marketer with PepsiCo’s Gatorade, he also used Megan Rapinoe, Mike Singletary, Michael Jordan, Simone Biles, and others to show how that mindset helps fans and consumers invest themselves in brands and teams. “We always talk about this idea of fighting apathy … this notion that your team plays on a Sunday, and you kind of just shrug your shoulders. You're not really interested in the result, win or lose,” Nance said. “We want to make sure that if we win, you're celebrating, you're high-fiving with your friends and family. And if we lose, you feel it. You feel invested. You feel a bit disappointed.” Nance’s years of high school football in Maryland Heights, Missouri, led to him playing wide receiver with future Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger at Miami University in Ohio during the mid-2000s. Initially drafted by the Buffalo Bills in 2006, Nance spent time with the Minnesota Vikings and Pittsburgh Steelers—earning a Super Bowl ring with the latter in 2009. After football, Nance received his master's from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and a certificate in executive education from Harvard. He worked for the NFL in 2011 and then moved to Gatorade as its senior director of marketing and sports intelligence. In 2021, Nance was hired by the Vikings as chief marketing officer. Throughout that journey, he said, he found ways to make the portions of the athletic mentality that served him so well during his playing days have an impact for marketers. For instance: Teamwork Even athletes in individual sports thank the people around them—coaches, trainers, agents—when they win. Multifaceted marketing teams also have different individual specialists and functions, but need each other to succeed. “In sports, in business, in brand marketing, you can't win alone,” Nance said. “The most effective teams, whether on the field or in brand marketing, they're built on trust.” Resilience There’s a well-worn sports metaphor about getting knocked down and the value of picking yourself up again. But Nance noted marketing is filled with opportunities to take on hard project and embrace—and learn from—failure. “It's easy to fear failure… to get a bit frozen because there are challenges around each corner,” Nance said. “True resilience comes from welcoming those moments as opportunities for growth.” Optimism Marketers routinely face setbacks—campaigns that don't hit, product launches that stumble, self-doubt—but Nance compared working through those obstacles to recovering from athletic injuries and advised pushing for a positive outcome. He also suggested some perspective. “Just pause for a moment and appreciate the moment,” he said. “Appreciate the fact that we get to play, that we get to participate, that we get to sit in the seats that we get to sit in.”

Brandweek

Minnesota Vikings CMO Seeks Athlete Mentality in Marketing

Former NFL player Martin Nance opened the last day of Brandweek by asking colleagues to work together, be positive, and embrace failure

Jason Notte

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Jason Notte