Octagon, the sports and entertainment talent agency, has promoted Alyssa Romano to chief marketing officer of its talent and properties division. The newly created role puts Romano in charge of communications, social media and creative strategies across the agency’s representation business.
Romano, who started her Octagon career as a PR intern, was the division’s senior vice president of communications and social media prior to the promotion, where she had led brand marketing, publicity, social and digital media efforts for the agency’s roster of athletes and entertainers.
Explaining the differences between the SVP role and her new appointment, Romano said that becoming CMO codified much of what she had already been doing as a “dot-connector” between different parts of the division.
“I think every comms person would say you wear a lot of different hats, and so this is more like formalizing that,” Romano said in a phone interview. “So [it’s] trying to figure out what are some of the best practices across recruiting and branding and telling our story from every different sport.
“There are some things that make total sense to recruit and play in the basketball space that doesn’t necessarily translate to the hockey space, but there could be one or two gems that would really transform the hockey space.”
Romano will report to agency founder and president Phil de Picciotto, who said in a statement that her “innovative thinking, ability to connect with people, and unwavering commitment makes her the perfect person to step into this new role.”
The agency has built a new social media team over the last six months that helps athletes share their stories, and Romano said that developing content on those platforms has been a huge focus.
She also addressed concerns that her clients have about brand safety on platforms in light of recent changes by Elon Musk (X/Twitter) and Mark Zuckerberg (Meta) to de-emphasize content moderation.
“We did a deep audit of … Threads and Bluesky, and kind of laying out what makes the most sense for our clients,” Romano said. “Because it’s really about owning your content and protecting your content, both from an AI perspective and your own personal IP.”
Romano also brings a wealth of experience with women’s sports, having overseen the growth of that side of the practice through basketball and soccer. Citing Trinity Rodman of the NWSL’s Washington Spirit as an example, Romano said she is excited the landscape has progressed so that “I don’t have to tell people why Trinity Rodman is important. People get it and they understand right away.” To that point, she hopes that as the CMO of the talent group, she can convince brands to further their investments into women’s sports.
“Where I want to focus on with our clients, and the different things we’re doing at women’s sport is, how do we keep this longevity?” she said. “How do we tell people that you’re not paying a little for a big return. You should be paying a lot because you’re gonna get a big return. There’s this myth in women’s sports that it’s an easy investment, it’s hot right now, but doesn’t mean you should be paying less.”
Octagon is a subsidiary of The Interpublic Group (IPG), the fourth-largest holding company of advertising agencies in the world. In December, Omnicom, the third biggest of the “Big Four” agency companies, announced its intention to buy IPG. Should the deal be approved, the merged entity would have revenue of more than $25 billion based on 2023 figures and become the world’s largest agency holding company. According to Ad Age, Omnicom expects shareholder approval of the acquisition in March.
