72andSunny's Glenn Cole Goes Into How Athletes Become Creators

Content is always king, and in today’s media landscape that truth extends to athletes. Building on that idea was the focus of a featured presentation by 72andSunny Founder & Creative co-Chair Glenn Cole on Day 1 of the ’18 CAA World Congress of Sports. Cole revealed how his L.A.-based ad agency has handled the progression of helping athletes become creators, using an example from his own career of Deion Sanders, who wanted to use his superstardom to also push a potential hip-hop career. Another early example was David Beckham and the expansion of his personal brand. A current example Cole used to highlight the athlete-as-creator model is Rockets G James Harden and his deals with candy brand Trolli and Adidas. When a recent Harden-Adidas line was released, Trolli decided to make a candy version of a Harden shoe. Cole had five tips for working with creative people: ask questions; make stuff together; set creative constraints; feed the side hustle; and be an opener, not a closer.