Sport Beach CEO Beth Sidhu on how to work with athletes: Take those athletes seriously

Beth Sidhu, the CEO of Sport Beach, has led the charge in launching what has become one of the most transformative beachfront activations at Cannes Lions in recent years.Created in 2022 by Stagwell, Sport Beach started as a place to bring together athletes, marketers and creatives to facilitate industry discussions and deals.In recent years, it has grown into a full-fledged sports marketing platform, expanding beyond the shores of Cannes to massive events like the Super Bowl, the NBA All-Star Weekend and CES  in Las Vegas.Sidhu, who was named CEO of Sport Beach earlier this year, spoke to The Post about the company’s growth, the lucrative world of sports and what’s next for the brand.Q:  Sport Beach has become such a focal point at Cannes Lions.Who came up with the idea and how has the brand grown since its inception?Beth Sidhu: Sport Beach was the brainchild of my colleagues at 72 and Sunny Glen Cole and Damien Journey.

What they saw was that there was no place for sport in Cannes at all.And so rather than make our activation about our holding company, Stagwell, we thought let’s make it about what you would do for a client; make it about an audience, make it about something they care about.

So the idea was around sports at the beginning.There was an ‘s’ – it was initially Sports Beach. I was sent a single slide in October of 2022, and it was an amazing lightning bolt.

I thought, this is an idea to bet the house on.Year one was just me running around promising people it wouldn’t be Fyre Festival 2.0, and now I really think Sport Beach is the premier and premium home of all sport in Cannes and in many other places.

We’re bringing together the same audience and really sort of around the calendar and around the world.Q: What was the moment when you realized it had become something bigger than an event?BS: The moment I realized what Sport Beach was going to be… you know, year one, we had a lot of great moments.Carmelo Anthony, Maria Sharapova, ...