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NEW YORK, USA //

Melissa Newhart is a brand partnerships and strategic marketing leader. Throughout her professional career, Newhart has been named to Billboard’s “Branding Power Players” and “Latin Power Players” lists, spotlighted in HITS! Daily Double “Noisemakers” and had her work featured in publications Muse by Clio and Campaign. In 2022, Variety named Newhart to their New York Impact Report, and Pollstar and VenuesNow featured her as part of their “Women of Live” list. In 2023, Advertising Week New York awarded Newhart their "Future is Female" award. The award honors rising stars of the advertising and marketing industry who have demonstrated ability to effect organizational change, commitment to external impact, and the ability to mentor others. In 2024, Advertising Week featured Newhart as a guest on their “Future is Female” Podcast.

Newhart most recently lent her experience to global entertainment, talent and sports company United Talent Agency (UTA), where for the last 7 years she was an Executive in the Music Brand Partnerships (MBP) department. Leaning into her passion for business development, Newhart was one of MBP’s first hires in 2017 and was instrumental in building and growing the department on a global level. Newhart also launched and oversaw MBP’s New York team. With over 15 years of extensive marketing, branding, strategic partnership and media experience, Melissa began her career at Columbia Records and joined UTA from Roc Nation, where she was VP of Brand Partnerships.

Throughout her career working across the music, entertainment, and sports industries sitting at the intersection of business development, strategy, marketing and partnerships, Newhart has brought her entrepreneurial spirit to inspire and execute new business opportunities with measurable results. She has worked on digital strategy and marketing campaigns for sports properties such as the New York Yankees, Brooklyn Nets, and Roc Nation Sports. During her time at Columbia Records, she worked on campaigns for artists such as Adele, Beyonce and Jack White.

On the brand partnerships side, Newhart has brokered over 350 deals for over 100 different artists such as Anitta, Bebe Rexha, Demi Lovato, Jonas Brothers, Karol G, Latto, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Tierra Whack, Tinashe and Young Miko, working with global brands such as Adobe, Cadillac, Diageo, Google, Louis Vuitton, Mastercard, Sprite and Xbox, among others.

In addition to artist brand strategy, Melissa has negotiated and executed partnerships for live music properties such as Made in America Music Festival, Post Malone’s Posty Festival, and TIDAL X’s Benefit Concert. She has also brokered and activated global tour sponsorships such as Mastercard Presents Jonas Brothers "Happiness Begins" Tour, Smirnoff Presents Karol G’s “Bichota” Tour, AT&T Presents Karol G's "$ripLove" Tour, and EVO Visian Presents Jonas Brothers “The Tour”.

When COVID brought the live music business to a standstill, Newhart found innovative ways for artists and brands to quickly pivot to virtual integrations, while giving back to those in need. She paired Ms. Lauryn Hill with Louis Vuitton to record an original musical and visual score for Virgil Abloh’s fashion show which was livestreamed globally from Shanghai. The livestream received nearly 100 million views. As part of the partnership, Louis Vuitton donated funds to Ms. Lauryn Hill’s Foundation, supporting black-owned businesses affected by COVID. Newhart also worked with GrubHub to program their “Sound Bites” livestream series, booking Lupe Fiasco, Iann Dior, Saint Jhn, and Dominic Fike with each of their sessions reaching millions of fans. The series benefited organizations such as World Central Kitchen and HeadCount.

During her time at UTA, Newhart was instrumental in recognizing new lanes of business for the agency and was at the forefront of UTA’s expansion into Hip Hop and Latin music. She was a key member of the signing teams and oversaw brand strategy and partnerships for superstars Anitta, Karol G, Latto, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Myke Towers, Rauw Alejandro, Romeo Santos, Sean Paul, Tierra Whack and Young Miko.

While leading brand strategy and partnerships for Karol G over the last 5 years, Newhart’s vision was instrumental in building and executing global campaigns that helped the Colombian Reggaetón Star transition into a Global Pop Star. Newhart secured Smirnoff as the presenting sponsor for Karol’s first-ever US headlining tour in 2021. As part of the deal, Newhart also enlisted Smirnoff to sponsor two sold-out headlining shows in Karol’s native Colombia, where she performed for a sold-out crowd of roughly 70,000 people. The sponsorships culminated in Newhart securing Karol G as the Global Brand Ambassador for Smirnoff, marking the largest brand partnership of the artist’s career at that time. The ambassadorship included Karol’s first global TV commercial, celebrating diverse voices and Latin culture.

The following year, Newhart brokered AT&T’s sponsorship of Karol G’s 2022 North American Tour, which included a one-of-a-kind immersive, in-store AR experience with Karol G that allowed consumers to unlock exclusive content and win tickets to the sold-out shows. In 2023, Newhart enlisted Karol G as the first female to star alongside Snoop Dogg and Andy Samberg in Corona’s “La Vida Mas Fina” commercial. The spot debuted during the Oscars which led to mainstream awareness for the Colombian artist. Since then, subsequent partnerships have included creating a Karol G character for in-game play with PUBG Mobile to celebrate female gamers and support the launch of Karol’s record-breaking “Manana Sera Bonito” album and brokering Karol G’s first luxury fashion partnership with LOEWE. The campaign was shot in Karol’s native Colombia, with a portion of the proceeds from the collection benefiting a University Scholarship Program for children of artisans in Colombia and the building of a craft training school in Madagascar.

In addition to working with global superstar artists, Newhart is a advocate for emerging talent as well. She places an importance on prioritizing purpose-driven campaigns that spotlight diversity and inclusion. She has helped Latto, Princess Nokia, Tierra Whack and Young Miko develop their careers by securing highly sought-after partnerships that spotlight their music and give them opportunities to take on creative directing and design roles, beyond traditional endorsements.

Newhart secured Tierra Whack as Banter by Piercing Pagoda’s first-ever Creative Director and jewelry designer. Whack designed a limited-edition collection in partnership with the Black in Jewelry Coalition, which was available in 500 storefronts nationwide. Whack also creative directed an exclusive YouTube series to launch the collection online. She enlisted Princess Nokia for Gillette Venus #SayPubic campaign where she co-wrote the campaign's song encouraging women to speak confidently about body hair diversity. Princess Nokia was also the face of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA)’s SeeHer 2023 Campaign, championing women across different cultures. In honor of Hip Hop’s 50th Anniversary that same year, Newhart paired Latto with Sprite to celebrate generations of hip-hop coming together culminating in an exclusive music release from Latto and Rakim that put a fresh spin on Rakim’s iconic song “Don’t Sweat the Technique”. In 2024, Newhart brokered Young Miko’s first ever global brand campaigns with McDonald’s and Sprite. The campaigns centered around newly released music from the artist’s debut album “att”, spotlighting never-before seen creative from the rising artist.

Not only does Newhart advance her clients’ careers, but she is also dedicated to mentoring the next generation of professionals across the entertainment industry. Throughout her time at UTA, she was involved in UTA's Internal Mentorship Program, UTA's Women's Interest Group, and Le Femme Majeure, a UTA event series that helps foster and promote women in the music industry. Newhart has spoken at universities such as NYU, Pepperdine, Drexel, and The Roc Nation School at Long Island University and has been a featured speaker for industry conferences such as Neuhouse's Event Series, Advertising Week New York and Hampton's Tech Week. Newhart is also an Adjunct Professor at New York University’s Steinhardt School, where she teaches their Strategic Music and Branding Class. Newhart spends her spare time mentoring students across multiple universities to support them as they prepare to enter the workforce.

In 2024, Newhart joined the board of WhyHunger, an organization working to end hunger and advance the human right to nutritious food by providing critical resources to support grassroots movements and fuel community solutions rooted in social, environmental, racial and economic justice. Since WhyHunger’s inception in 1975 by musician Harry Chapin and radio DJ Bill Ayres, the organization has kept music in its DNA through initiatives like their Artists Against Hunger and Poverty program, their annual Hungerthon campaign and Amplified concert.