Six leadership lessons from the San Francisco 49ers and leaders across the marketing ecosystem on building cultures, brands and organizations that endure.
Sunday is when the world sees the result. But the game is won, or lost, long before the players take the field. It's earned through the preparation no one sees, the trust between teammates and the standards they uphold when the pressure is on.
That was the premise behind The Long Game, a Virtuosi League leadership experience hosted with the San Francisco 49ers at Levi's® Stadium.
We brought together CMOs and their leadership teams to explore what it takes to perform today and endure over time. An NFL organization is a revealing place to ask that question. A place where expectations are relentless, and every week brings another test.
Our conversation began with Stephanie Rogers, Chief Marketing Officer of the San Francisco 49ers, and Austin Moss, Vice President of Player Development and Team Dynamics, who took us inside the culture of one of football's most storied franchises.
The conversation then widened to Jonathan Jordan of Edelman, David Creech of Publicis Sports, Jamie Gersch of Fanatics Commerce and Grant Parker of Innovid, each offering a different perspective on what it takes to build brands and organizations that last.
Virtuosi League's Six Pillars of Leadership provided the foundation for the day. Rather than remaining ideas on a page, they surfaced in stories about difficult decisions, human relationships and the everyday work behind sustained performance.
Every player who joins the 49ers arrives with extraordinary talent and a life shaped by different experiences, personalities and ambitions. Austin's challenge is to help those individuals become a team.
He described the importance of shared non-negotiables without asking players to give up their individuality. Talent may earn a place on the roster. Character, and the willingness to be a good teammate, help determine what happens next.
And those qualities must hold up on ordinary days, not just when the cameras are rolling.
Austin spoke about approaching each week as though your back is against the wall, whatever the previous result. A win doesn't excuse complacency, and a loss doesn't change the standard. Sunday's performance is earned in the work that happens all week.
Stephanie described a simple commitment that helps shape the 49ers' culture: “I've got your back.”
That promise comes with responsibility. Having someone's back may mean challenging their thinking or saying something difficult. It's easier to take a risk when you know your colleagues won't abandon you for trying.
The Virtuosi League Perspective: Reinforce Your Foundation begins with knowing what you stand for and being willing to live it. People notice the standards leaders uphold, especially when doing so is uncomfortable. Culture is built in those moments, when personal conviction becomes behavior others can count on.
The 49ers carry more than a football legacy. Their history belongs, in part, to generations of fans who have invested their identity and emotions in the team. That creates expectations no marketing plan can afford to overlook.
Stephanie described how the franchise's heritage, including the audacity of the original Gold Rush, informs decisions today. Knowing what the organization represents gives people room to innovate without losing what fans love about it.
David offered a related warning for marketers: "Don't chase cool."
Sports gives brands remarkable access to culture and community. But participation alone does not create value.
Understanding the landscape means identifying where audience passion, customer behavior, and business objectives intersect. The strongest organizations determine the role they want sports to play in their business before deciding where to invest.
David pointed to the work Publicis Sports developed for Visa around the FIFA World Cup 26™ as an example. Rather than approaching the event as a traditional sponsorship, they launched a global sports program that connected creativity, culture and commerce. Launched at Art Basel in Miami Beach, “The Art of the Draw” brought together 20+ artists from six continents for the first-ever global art collection celebrating the cultural energy of the FIFA World Cup 26™. By giving these artists the opportunity to express themselves on the biggest global sporting stage and empowering them as entrepreneurs, this effort demonstrated that creativity drives commerce and today’s creators are the entrepreneurs shaping communities and culture around the world.
The lesson extends well beyond sports. Too often, organizations start with the opportunity everyone else is pursuing and then search for a reason to participate. The better approach is to first understand the landscape, identify where your organization has a right to win, and invest where that advantage can create competitive advantage.
The Virtuosi League Perspective: Understand the Landscape challenges leaders to look beyond their immediate responsibilities and develop a deeper understanding of the forces shaping their business. That perspective is essential to recognizing where an organization can create meaningful value and where it should focus its efforts. Good leadership requires knowing which opportunities to pursue, and having the judgment to walk away from those that don't play to your strengths.
The football and business sides of the 49ers face different pressures, yet both are stewards of the same brand. Shared identity gives people a basis for making decisions without seeking permission at every turn.
That kind of clarity matters even more when organizations become complicated.
Grant sees the challenge in a marketing world where attention is fragmented and technology is changing faster than many teams can absorb.
Creative, media and measurement need to work together, while AI opens up new possibilities for personalization and optimization. Yet more capability doesn't automatically mean more progress. People still need to agree on the outcome they're trying to achieve.
At Fanatics Commerce, Jamie described the value of that same focus across businesses serving different parts of fandom. Improving the fan experience gives teams a common purpose they can translate into their own decisions.
Most leaders have seen the alternative: a promising initiative slowed by competing priorities, with talented people working hard in different directions. It's frustrating for everyone involved, and often avoidable.
The Virtuosi League Perspective: Clear the Path is a leadership responsibility. It means setting priorities, confronting friction and giving people enough context to exercise judgment. When leaders create real clarity, teams can move without waiting to be told every next step.
Austin captured his approach to developing players in a phrase that hit home: “transformational over transactional.”
He makes time to know the person behind the player, whether that's checking in after a difficult practice or bringing teammates together away from football. A rookie and a veteran need opportunities to connect as people, not only as colleagues.
That investment pays off when the stakes rise. Difficult feedback lands differently when it comes from someone who has taken the time to understand you.
Austin knows that a roster full of exceptional individuals doesn't automatically become an exceptional team. People need room to grow, honest expectations and confidence that others are invested in their success.
The 49ers' commitment to having one another's backs becomes especially meaningful here. Support is something teammates practice, not something an organization can simply declare.
It's worth asking whether we invest as much care in developing our people as we do in measuring their results.
The Virtuosi League Perspective: Strengthen Your Teams challenges leaders to measure success partly by what others become capable of doing. Coaching, trust and thoughtful delegation create teams that can make decisions and grow without depending on one person. That is how individual leadership becomes lasting organizational strength.
The more senior a leader becomes, the less they can accomplish through their own team alone. Progress depends on peers with different priorities, people outside their reporting lines and relationships that need attention long before a favor is required.
And those relationships are harder to build when trust is in short supply.
Jonathan brought this challenge into focus through the 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer. The research found that 70% of people globally are hesitant or unwilling to trust those with different values, perspectives or backgrounds. Jonathan also distinguished reputation, shaped by perceptions of past performance, from trust, which determines whether people are willing to place confidence in what an organization will do next.
That raises a difficult question for any executive: how do you bring people together across functions and differences when mutual trust can no longer be assumed?
Jamie offered a practical example through the company's Fan Advisory Network. By creating communities where fans provide direct, ongoing feedback, Fanatics helps employees across its businesses develop a shared understanding of the people they serve.
The benefit reaches inside the organization, too. Shared exposure to what fans actually need gives colleagues a reason to exchange ideas, challenge assumptions and work across silos.
Stephanie described a similar responsibility to the 49ers' fan community, where loyalty often passes from one generation to the next. Those relationships are part of what the organization has been entrusted to protect.
The Virtuosi League Perspective: Build Bridges begins with a simple recognition: the network is the work. Your peers are part of your first team. Being trustworthy, sharing information freely and investing in advocates across the enterprise help ideas travel and people align. Growth and innovation often depend on connections that no org chart can mandate.
Professional sports has a way of keeping people humble.
A team can prepare brilliantly and still face a completely different challenge the following week. An injury changes the lineup. An opponent exposes a weakness. The work of adapting starts again.
Austin described the need to reset continually and remain “humble and hungry,” however much progress you've made.
Stephanie faces a related tension: how do you protect what makes an 80-year-old franchise iconic while giving people permission to try something new? Anyone who has led an established brand knows how easily past success can become an argument against change.
That tension is only intensifying as technology reshapes the way organizations operate.
Grant brought it into focus through AI.
He argued that resilience depends on a culture where curiosity is welcome and experimentation leads to learning. When someone discovers a better way to work, the organization should be able to recognize it, share it and build on it.
He also stressed the importance of owning and controlling data as AI becomes more deeply embedded in marketing. Without that foundation, organizations risk surrendering control over capabilities central to their future.
The risk isn't only falling behind. It's becoming so comfortable with yesterday's success that you stop noticing what's changing around you.
The Virtuosi League Perspective: Fortify Resilience is about sustaining the capacity to lead through change. Recovery, perspective and adaptability need practice before a crisis arrives. So does knowing when to challenge a familiar approach, even one that has served you well.
The conversations at Levi's® Stadium reinforced a conviction at the heart of Virtuosi League: leadership shapes performance long before the results become visible.
Organizations can have extraordinary talent, ambitious strategies and powerful technology. Whether those advantages translate into lasting success depends on the people responsible for bringing them to life.
That's why we believe leadership development deserves the same attention and investment as any other business priority. Our Six Pillars of Leadership provide the foundation, and our LEAP Flagship and LEAP Essentials programs help leaders put those principles into practice, whether they're rising beyond functional leadership or navigating the demands of enterprise leadership.
For CMOs and executives across all functions, the question is worth asking: Are we developing the leaders our organizations will need tomorrow, or assuming they'll be ready when the moment comes?
The 49ers offered a powerful reminder that readiness is earned between games, through the habits, relationships and preparation that rarely make the highlight reel. The same is true in business.
Winning moments may define a season. But it's the leadership practiced every day that determines whether success can endure.