Recap
On Wednesday, September 30, FCS New York was hosted at OUTFRONT for a CMO Spotlight interview with Michele Barlow, Managing Director, Head of Enterprise Marketing, Bank of America. Moderated by Nick Brien, Chief Executive Officer, OUTFRONT, the special Cocktails with Content event focused on Bank of America’s sprawling and massively successful campaign for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the brand’s long presence in sports marketing.
When the opportunity to partner with the World Cup presented itself, Bank of America’s CEO emphasized this had to be more than a great marketing campaign; it had to be a business opportunity. However, as with many financial services brands in sports, Bank of America faced the challenge of selling the intangible in a market shaped by the physical. Michele and her team identified achievement as a theme that ties in with Bank of America’s tagline “What would you like the power to do?” and resonates uniquely across the brand’s eight lines of business, each with distinct audiences.
Achievement as an overarching theme looked different across Bank of America’s campaign. What works for one audience won’t for another, and Michele and her team strategically tailored their strategy to fit the needs of the audience and what they could achieve with Bank of America’s products. For the consumer business, the messaging framed a World Cup-branded card as a tool to get things done in daily life. Marketing for small businesses looked like holding leadership events focused on taking advantage of the volume of opportunities entering the market during the global event. Targeting wealth, business banking, and markets was more than just hosting 7,000 clients during the World Cup. It was hosting client engagement events and tracking each prospect that attended to lead to business outcomes.
The World Cup campaign generated 53 billion global impressions, 73% of which came from non-paid media channels. Michele credited much of the burst in organic media to Bank of America’s Fan Bands activation in which World Cup attendees could make their own bracelets using customized beads and charms across all 11 host cities. The results were better than expected: over 30 million TikTok users engaged, commented on, or featured Fan Bands in their feeds. Michele shared that she was unsure of the activation initially but pursued the idea after her team expressed confidence in what the audience wanted.
Engagement is not the only measurement important to Bank of America. Community impact is crucial to the brand’s success and shapes what organizations Bank of America partners with. In conversations with U.S. Soccer on the impact Bank of America’s partnership could have, the organization emphasized increasing access to the sport. What resulted from those conversations was the initiative Soccer at Schools, a partnership between Bank of America, U.S. Soccer, and Soccer Forward to bring more soccer to schools across the U.S. by 2030. Since launching, new soccer programs have been introduced to five of the largest U.S. school districts.
In gratitude to Michele, the FCS donated $1,000 to Soccer Forward.
– Reported by Juliet McAlee, FCS Admin/Comms Coordinator
Ticket sales have closed. For inquiries, please contact FCS Administrative & Communications Coordinator, Juliet McAlee ([email protected]).
FCS New York is excited to kick off the fall event season with a CMO Spotlight event featuring Michele Barlow, Managing Director, Head of Enterprise Marketing, Bank of America. On Wednesday, September 30, we’ll be hosted by OUTFRONT at their midtown offices, where Michele will be interviewed by Nick Brien, CEO of OUTFRONT.
As the Official Bank of FIFA World Cup 2026, Bank of America spent the summer activating one of the biggest sports partnerships in the world — extending across advertising, fan experiences, community programs and its much-talked-about BofA Fan Bands, with more than 700,000 distributed in the tournament’s first two weeks.
Against that backdrop, our event will explore the opportunities and challenges of enterprise marketing today: building a distinctive brand, turning major partnerships into meaningful consumer engagement, connecting creativity with business strategy, and keeping a 69-million-client brand relevant across audiences and channels.
Bank of America has built its brand around a simple question: “What would you like the power to do?” This conversation will offer the FCS audience a fresh perspective on the power — and responsibility — that comes with stewarding a brand of such scale and reach.
In gratitude for Michele’s participation, the FCS will donate $1,000 to a children’s charity of her choice: Soccer at Schools, a national effort led by the Soccer Forward Foundation in partnership with Bank of America to bring soccer into more schools.
Seating is strictly limited. We encourage you to reserve your tickets early.
