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WNBA legend Sue Bird is teaming up with Giant Spoon’s Laura Correnti to change the way brands interact in the women’s sports world.
Correnti launched Deep Blue Sports + Entertainment in December with the mission of forming the leading agency of record in women’s sports, and the firm has now added Bird as chief strategy officer and its first partner, effective immediately.
Bird retired from professional basketball last year after a 20-year career with the WNBA’s Seattle Storm—but the appointment shows yet another way the league’s all-time assist leader is nowhere near done in the sports world. And with Deep Blue’s first vertical focused on women’s sports, adding Bird to its roster was massive for the company.
“As much as we’re bringing the whole swath of agency services … one thing that we were very cognizant of, that the marketplace is devoid of is having that athlete representation at the table from the onset,” Correnti told Adweek.
The new chief strategy officer will have an active role in the company, using her experience as a professional athlete and point guard to shape brand strategy, communications and partnerships in the women’s sports marketing space, as well as advocate for other athletes.
“I get to show up as myself [now],” said Bird of her post-pro-athlete career. “At the time I didn’t have that voice, and now I get to have that voice for others.”
Correnti and Bird first met at Cannes Lions in 2023, and several social conversations then developed into more serious plans over the course of a few months.
“There’s a lot about the world of media buying, how brands operate, how they move, who helps them do that that I don’t know,” Bird told Adweek. “In meeting Laura, I got a crash course and a true understanding of how [Deep Blue] can move the needle in the world of women’s sports, and that’s what I was most attracted to, just figuring out there was even another way.”
In addition to her sports savvy, Bird is also bringing her own business prowess to the role after co-founding media and lifestyle platform Togethxr and launching production company A Touch More with her fiancée Megan Rapinoe.
