Global marketing

yeah, at Newcastle.

Bachelor's in Business Management, Master's in International Marketing.

Did you kind of like hack your way into uni though because you didn't have enough qualifications? You have done a very impressive amount of research.

It's really, really good.

Andrea Hovland led global strategy and marketing for a billion-dollar brand portfolio at Hasbro, was the VP of franchise strategy at Sony Pictures, and spent years at Disney before joining EA.

And now she runs global marketing across EA's entire portfolio as the SVP and GM covering EA Sports, FC, Madden NFL, college football, F1, UFC, NHL, my God, there's so many more, reaching hundreds of millions of fans worldwide.

She was named one of Adweek's most powerful women in sports, badass, is a former competitive soccer player and oversaw one of the boldest brand decisions in gaming history, walking away from the FIFA name after 30 years to launch EA Sports FC.

Andrea Hoechlin, welcome to Best Brands on Earth.

I was teaching at the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival, and I went...

I, I'd already done my main class, and I went to be a panelist on this panel called International Marketing.

Mm.

And I was like, "Well, I don't know much about international marketing, but, you know, I can say something.

I'll be a sidekick." [clears throat] So I get there, and I said, "Oh, who else is on the panel?" And they said, "Oh, it's just you, Joanne." [laughs] And I m- came up with this idea, and I said, "Why were the two films at the film festival yesterday so different? One was absolutely sold out, the other one, there were five people there." And we looked at the title.

We looked at the photograph.

Today on the show I have Naomi McMahon.

She's the EVP of Global Marketing and Partnerships at Universal Music Group.

Naomi leads one of the most sophisticated brand partnership operations in the music industry, delivering value across 40-plus markets and connecting iconic artists and global brands at scale, from Coca-Cola and Samsung to McDonald's and Pokemon.

She began her career at Harley-Davidson and has since become a respected figure at the intersection of music, culture, and brand strategy.