From cricket to kabaddi, Fuse maps India’s next fan frontier, preps to launch Ignite

Louise Johnson may no longer be glued to every sports broadcast. But her passion for sport runs deep—fuelled by childhood Formula One (F1) weekends with her mum and lively football banter around the Sunday lunch table with her Chelsea-supporting nephews.

Now at the helm of turning audience passions into brand opportunities as CEO of Fuse, the sport and entertainment marketing agency under Omnicom Media Group (OMG), Johnson leads a team that crafts innovative partnerships and immersive activations.

In a free-wheeling chat with Campaign, she reflects on how sport continues to shape both her personal life and professional instincts, why UEFA and F1 still thrill her, and how working at Fuse allows her to convert fandom into business impact.

She also reveals that after bringing Fuse to India last December, the company plans to soon introduce Ignite to the country soon. Ignite helps rights holders boost brand investment and revenue through integrated sponsorship, insights, and ecommerce solutions. 

Here are edited excerpts of the interaction:

Since data and technology are central to Fuse’s business approach, how do you use Omnicom Media Group’s data capabilities to help brands connect more deeply with fans—be it through OTT, social media or bespoke activations?

Over the past three years, we've significantly strengthened our data and analytics team at Fuse because, frankly, sponsorship has historically lagged behind media and marketing in measurement sophistication. We're strong advocates of evaluating sponsorship not just in the long term, but also in the short and medium term.

Being part of Omnicom Media Group gives us access to tools like Omnisport, which we adapt for sports-specific needs. For instance, if a client is a UEFA Champions League partner, we pull in their first-party data, UEFA’s data, their internal analytics and Omnisport’s tools to build a tailored measurement model that tracks impact across multiple levels. It's a highly bespoke approach, and both we and our clients are deeply committed to it—though it took some time to get here.

In India, this is a key focus for Jigar Rambhia (who heads Fuse’s operations in the country). Clients are curious about measurement but often hesitant to commit to full-scale modelling. That’s where our global case studies help—we use them to show how measurement not only supports the investment case but also demonstrates business impact across the entire funnel.

Looking ahead, AI will help brands hyper-personalise fan engagement and measure it. We’re also building a connected sport-commerce model that blends culture, media and commerce to drive real-time sales. This lets brands see tangible results—not just brand lift, but actual sales impact—so sponsorship moves from being a gut-driven decision to a performance-driven one.

When you have these measurement tools, do you also help clients identify some sporting activities that might not be on their radar? For example, India has many regional sports, like kabaddi and badminton. While Fuse is tapping into OMG’s centralised data, how do you pull out data points that can highlight the cross-pollination of regional sports across states or even countries?

Absolutely. While we leverage Omnicom’s centralised data through tools like Omnisport, we also work with external data providers to ensure strong local insight—understanding what audiences are watching, playing or consuming. When advising clients on sports marketing strategy, we begin by identifying which sport—be it cricket, football, or an emerging league—is aligned with their business objectives and target audience.

In India, cricket dominates but is highly saturated, which is why newer properties like padel or local leagues offer exciting white spaces. These might seem niche today, but we use data modelling to assess their growth potential.

A brand could invest when these sports are small to medium in popularity and benefit from the scale once they expand. Our job is to forecast that trajectory and show clients how early adoption can deliver long-term brand relevance and value.

Can you share an instance of a sporting activity that Fuse seeded with a client for long-term potential—and it actually paid off?

Women’s sport is a strong example. Just two years ago, audience numbers started to rise meaningfully—especially in football and basketball. In the UK, cricket and soccer have traditionally dominated, but I’m particularly excited to see how the Women's Premier League evolves.

Around five years ago, it was tough to get clients on board because old ROI models didn’t justify the investment. With limited broadcast coverage, women’s leagues just didn’t compete with men’s properties in media terms. We focused on the first-mover advantage instead—positioning it around values like inclusivity, trust, and fun. Brands that bought into that vision have started to see real returns.

In March 2025, Sky Sports united with a group of UK broadcasters under 'the Women in Football' network to support and celebrate women working in sport. Image source: Sky Sports.

The Women’s Super League in the UK now boasts strong partnerships with BBC and Sky, plus several commercial backers. UEFA Women’s EURO 2025 in Switzerland is another step forward. The key lesson? Don't measure everything on media value alone—long-term brand impact needs a more nuanced view.

How can brands whose core audience isn't primarily women be convinced to meaningfully invest in women’s sports, beyond gender-aligned marketing logic?

There’s a misconception that women’s sport only attracts female fans. Attend an Arsenal Women’s match and you’ll see a truly mixed crowd—men, women, families, kids. While it’s natural for female-led brands like beauty, clothing or femtech to invest, that’s not the only viable path. Many brands today want to take a gender-neutral stance and support sports inclusively.

A great case in point is the F1 Academy. Starting next season, all F1 teams will field a nominated female driver under their livery. This initiative gained real momentum when Charlotte Tilbury became the F1 Academy’s first-ever global sports partner in 2024. It reframed perceptions—proving that beauty and motorsport can coexist meaningfully, and that women’s sports deserve serious investment from a broader brand spectrum.

So, a gradual shift is underway from token engagement to active participation?

Absolutely. When I was on the Cannes Lions jury three years ago, women’s sport barely registered. But by 2024, as president of the Sport jury, I saw real progress. Orange’s ‘WoMen’s Football’ ad, which spotlighted gender bias, won the Grand Prix. Over a third of shortlisted and winning work featured women’s sport. The shift is clear—brands are now using top female athletes not just for representation, but to drive emotive, creative storytelling.

How can brands better tap into the commercial and brand-building potential of live sports—especially as the global sports market is projected to grow from $484.91 billion in 2023 to $651.01 billion by 2028 at a 6.1% CAGR, according to The Business Research Company—and as sports increasingly gain cultural currency?

That’s a really important point. With media becoming increasingly fragmented, live sports remain one of the few places where brands can still reach real-time, engaged audiences. This holds true for women’s sport too, which is gaining momentum. In India, sport already has a stronghold, but it’s poised for even greater growth as more brands seek stature, trust and cultural relevance. Live sport offers a powerful commercial and emotional gateway for brands to connect and scale.

With Netflix entering live sports, highlighting that content is king and context is queen, how will Fuse help brands create culturally rich, contextually relevant content that connects with passionate fans amid a fragmented media landscape?

The future of sports content is fascinating with new players like Netflix entering live sports. It’s about finding what works best for each client because content varies—a docuseries, short film, social or influencer-led. What excites me most is athlete-led content. Athletes today aren’t just endorsers; they’re co-creators and owners.

Take Cristiano Ronaldo: he’s evolved from his own brand to running a huge YouTube platform and streaming Premier Padel. Could athletes become the new broadcasters? The intersection of athlete-driven content, creator culture, and distribution is where I see the biggest opportunity for authentic, resonant storytelling.

Nielsen’s 2025 Global Sports Report states that 67% of football fans find sponsoring brands more appealing. How will Fuse help Indian brands capitalise on opportunities around the ongoing 2025 FIFA World Cup?

This World Cup is especially exciting—it kicks off in Mexico and wraps up in New York, and every cycle just gets bigger. At Fuse, we help brands tap into such global moments through three key routes.

First, there’s the option to sponsor FIFA directly, either globally or regionally. That works well for some, though the cost can be prohibitive. A second route is activating campaigns through a home nation—say, a brand already tied to the FA Cup in the UK can leverage England team assets ahead of the World Cup, including player access and training content.

The third route focuses on creators, footballers, and digital-first platforms to build ‘the road to the World Cup’—a strong narrative in the lead-up that tap into fan culture. The catch with official tournaments is you can’t use the IP during the event itself, so timing and planning matter.

Ultimately, it depends on the brand’s goal. If it’s mass exposure or market entry, the FIFA route makes sense. If it’s about trust and depth, home nations or fan-first campaigns are more impactful. Football isn’t just a sport anymore—it’s a full-funnel, multi-screen, cultural event where fans are watching, scrolling, and shopping all at once.

How prepared are brands to deliver deeply integrated retail media experiences across e-commerce and OTT platforms, given the risks of hyper-personalisation missing the mark?

Some categories naturally lend themselves better to this type of activation, like travel or food delivery. But it's evolving where you're looking at where the media spend is now and where consumers are going. So, you have to lean in and redefine what that looks like.

Fuse plans to integrate partnership, consultancy, activation, measurement, and Ignite, your specialised rights holder service. How will this end-to-end approach help Fuse connect all aspects of sponsorship deals—from origination to delivery and impact measurement?

Fuse operates on two fronts: servicing brands and working through Ignite, which focuses on rights holders. For brands, we often start at a strategic level, helping clients define partnership marketing objectives. Some clients come to us post-deal for activation, while others engage us early to recommend partnerships, negotiate rights, and oversee activation—whether through creative, media, PR, or events.

Ignite, launched post-COVID, provides consultancy to rights holders on digital, e-commerce, and go-to-market strategies. We’ve partnered with Formula 1 and football rights holders. Although relatively new, Ignite is rapidly growing and complements our holistic approach to sponsorship by bridging brand and rights holder needs seamlessly.

How is it doing it in India? 

That's our next step and we're working through that with Rambhia. We wanted to launch the Fuse first, which we did last year and now got some fantastic clients now. Phase two is to launch Ignite soon.

With Fuse’s Mumbai launch targeting a 1.8 billion-strong ecosystem, how will you use data tools to cut through cricket’s dominance and unlock regional sports like kabaddi for brands?

India’s vast sports market demanded Fuse’s presence. While many agencies exist, our edge lies in blending local insight with global expertise. Led by Jigar Rambhia, we leverage deep market knowledge and connect it to insights from 22 markets, supported by our London insight team as a centre of excellence. This approach allows us to tap into culturally rich yet data-light sports and help brands identify and monetise new opportunities beyond cricket.

Was aligning with big brands like Sriram Finance, Uni League Cricket, FedEx, and Mondelez a deliberate proof-of-concept strategy?

It’s not about legacy versus startups. We focus on partnerships that meet modern marketing demands—whether a legacy brand refreshing digitally or a digital-first brand seeking scale. We work with brands eager to do something different, bringing our culturally connected, seriously effective approach to life.