MAM
Gracenote names Bill Condon as first head of advertising sales
MUMBAI: Nielsen-owned Gracenote has brought in seasoned adtech leader Bill Condon as its first-ever head of advertising sales, signalling a sharper push into the fast-moving world of connected TV advertising.
Condon will lead revenue growth across Gracenote’s expanding advertising business, with a clear mandate to scale adoption of content connect, the company’s CTV ad platform launched in December 2025.
In simple terms, content connect helps advertisers understand not just who is watching, but what they are watching. Built on Gracenote’s content ID graph and long-established TV metadata, the platform allows ads to be targeted at the programme level, while offering brand safety, transparency and smarter ways for publishers to package and sell their inventory.
For an industry grappling with fragmented streaming services and blurred audience signals, the promise is clarity. Advertisers get better context. Publishers get better monetisation. Viewers, ideally, get ads that make more sense.
Condon arrives with over 20 years of experience across both sides of the digital advertising table. Most recently, he was vice president of enterprise sales and partnerships at Xumo, where he played a key role in scaling free ad-supported streaming TV channels and unlocking revenue across major CTV platforms. His earlier stints include senior roles at Disney, Tremor Video, Yahoo, AOL and PointRoll.
Gracenote chief business officer Ryan Moore, said the appointment reflects the company’s growing momentum in advertising. He added that Condon’s track record in building and monetising CTV and Fast platforms makes him a natural fit to drive the commercial growth of content connect.
For Condon, the timing feels right. He believes CTV advertising has reached a point where scale and signal quality must evolve together, but visibility into the content surrounding ads has lagged behind.
Gracenote’s bet is that content intelligence, when made practical and actionable, can bring order to the streaming chaos. With Condon at the helm of ad sales, that bet just got a little louder and a lot more confident.
MAM
Lego brings Messi, Ronaldo, Mbappé, Vinicius together
Campaign clocks 314 million views ahead of FIFA World Cup 2026 buzz.
MUMBAI: Four legends, one frame and not a single tackle in sight. Lego has pulled off a crossover few thought possible, uniting Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappé and Vinícius Júnior in a single campaign ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026 only this time, they’re building dreams brick by brick.
Titled “Everyone wants a piece”, the campaign features the quartet assembling a Lego version of the World Cup trophy, before placing miniature versions of themselves atop it, a playful nod to football’s ultimate prize. Shared widely across social media, the ad carries a pointed disclaimer: it is not AI-generated, a subtle but telling signal in an era where even reality is often questioned.
The numbers tell their own story. The campaign has already crossed 314 million views on Instagram across the players’ accounts, with fans hailing it as a rare, almost nostalgic moment particularly for the reunion of Messi and Ronaldo, whose last shared campaign ahead of the 2022 World Cup became one of the platform’s most-liked posts.
Beyond the film, Lego is extending the play with exclusive, player-themed sets tied to each of the four stars, part of a broader football-led programme designed to ride the global momentum building towards 2026. The idea, as echoed by the players themselves, leans into the parallels between football and play experimentation, creativity, failure, and triumph.
Messi described the sets as a way to bring on-pitch moments into an imaginative, hands-on world, while Ronaldo called the transformation into a Lego figure a rare honour, blending sport with storytelling. Vinícius, meanwhile, struck a more personal note, recalling childhood moments of building with Lego and framing creativity as a universal language that transcends borders.
The timing is no accident. With the 2026 World Cup set to run from June 11 to July 19 across the United States, Canada and Mexico, and featuring an expanded 48-team format, global anticipation is already building. Argentina, led by Messi, will enter as defending champions, adding another layer of intrigue.
For Lego, the campaign does more than celebrate football, it taps into its mythology. Because when icons become figurines and rivalries turn into play, the beautiful game finds a new kind of pitch. one built, quite literally, by hand.
