SailGP

With marketing leadership experience spanning global brands, sports, technology and culture — from Visa and the New York Knicks to Aescape and SailGP — Becca Valle has built her career around turning brands into experiences people want to be part of. Across her career, she has seen firsthand how storytelling, cultural relevance and customer experiences can turn awareness into lasting loyalty.

Storytelling That Builds Stronger Emotional Connections

Brands that endure are those that create meaningful emotional connections with their audiences.

Great storytelling builds those connections through authenticity, humanity and shared values. Most importantly, it should help consumers see themselves as part of the brand.

At Visa, our 2016 Olympics campaign used athleteled storytelling to show how new payment technologies seamlessly fueled athletes’ journeys to the Rio Games, introducing innovation through human experiences.

At SailGP, user-generated content gave prospective fans an authentic, unfiltered view of experiencing high-speed racing for the first time. We also partnered with lifestyle creators to showcase race-day fashion, à la NBA “game day fits,” helping position SailGP beyond racing as a sports lifestyle brand.

Whether the storyteller is the brand, a customer or a creator, the principle is the same: make people feel something and give them a reason to see themselves in the story.

Culture That Shapes Brand Identities

Culture makes brands relevant, but cultural relevance has to be earned through authenticity.

At the New York Knicks, we knew our fans over-indexed on hip-hop, fashion and sneaker culture, which gave us permission to play meaningfully in those spaces. We collaborated with Travis Scott around his Astroworld Tour at Madison Square Garden, generating more than $1 million through a Knicks x Astroworld merchandise collaboration and retail pop-up.

“Long-term loyalty comes from consistently making people feel part of the brand, whether they’re inside the arena or not.”

Our partnership with Kith went even deeper. Founder Ronnie Fieg is a New Yorker and die-hard Knicks fan, making the collaboration as much about his authentic connection to the team as ours. We ultimately brought in New York hiphop icons Dipset to launch the collection through content and music, and jerseys sold out at MSG within 24 hours.

The lesson: The strongest brands don't chase culture; they earn the right to participate in it.

Balancing Brand Consistency with Cultural Relevance

Be committed to and rigid about what the brand stands for, yet flexible about how it comes to life.

A strong global brand needs a clear foundation. Its purpose, positioning, values and distinctive identity shouldn’t change market to market. But the way consumers experience that brand should reflect local culture, behaviors and passions.

That requires giving local teams and partners enough freedom to translate the brand rather than simply replicate it. The best global marketing creates recognizable consistency without cultural sameness. Consumers should know immediately what brand they’re engaging with, while still feeling like it was created with an understanding of them.

Turning Brand Stories into Customer Engagement and Loyalty

The story can't end with the marketing campaign. The experience has to deliver on the marketing promise.

Whether it’s a SailGP race, a Knicks game at Madison Square Garden or a global moment like the Olympics, unforgettable experiences turn brand storytelling into something people can participate in, remember and share.

Community is equally important. We knew many avid Knicks fans couldn’t regularly access Madison Square Garden, so we brought the Garden to them. Through our partnership with Dyckman Basketball and NYC Parks, we transformed Dyckman Opening Night with Knicks players, celebrities, giveaways and fan experiences inspired by a Knicks game at MSG.

Long-term loyalty comes from consistently making people feel part of the brand, whether they’re inside the arena or not.

Building Relevant Brands in Evolving Cultural Landscapes

Stay curious, stay engaged and hire people who are “cooler” than you.

I’m an always-on consumer of media, entertainment and emerging experiences. Inspiration can come from anywhere. It could be a Vogue article about how Beyoncé staffs her team, which helped inspire our approach to Knicks theme nights. While working at the wellness technology startup Aescape, I joined product waitlists and tried emerging experiences and technologies firsthand to understand how consumers were engaging with innovation.

Staying culturally relevant also means knowing when someone else understands a space better than you do. At the Knicks, I knew sneaker culture, fashion and music were integral to the brand, and I knew there were people who lived and breathed these worlds more than I did. So I hired them, empowered them and let them help make us trendsetters.

Great marketing leaders don’t need to be the coolest people in the room. They need the curiosity to recognize what’s next and the confidence to empower the people who do.