G-Dragon to Bring ‘Übermensch' Tour to U.S. and Europe
Well, he said he would be back.
After a headlining performance at Head in the Clouds Los Angeles last month (which marked his first U.S. performance since 2017), G-Dragon has announced U.S. and Europe dates for his ongoing Übermensch tour. The newly announced leg includes shows at both Newark, New Jersey's Prudential Center and Los Angeles' Crypto.com Arena, venues he's returning to for the first time since BIGBANG's MADE tour 10 years ago, in addition to stops in Las Vegas and Paris.
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Throughout his career, G-Dragon has pushed boundaries and cemented himself as an influential cultural force not just in music but in fashion, visual arts, and philanthropy. 'This isn't just a concert — it's my next chapter. I've grown, changed, and challenged myself in ways I never imagined,' he shares exclusively with Rolling Stone. 'I want my fans to feel every second of that transformation live on stage together.'
The Übermensch tour began in late March, roughly a month after the release of G-Dragon's latest album of the same name. Launching with two sold-out shows at Seoul's Goyang Stadium, the tour has since made its way across Asia — selling out nearly every stop along the way. His latest stop was three shows in Macau, one of which was added due to demand. Although the tour centers on his latest album, fans can expect a setlist that spans across G-Dragon's solo career.
G-Dragon has been dropping dates and venues in different phases, with the first phase covering Japan, the Philippines, Macau, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Hong Kong, and the second phase consisting of Australia and Thailand just weeks ago. 'I'M COMING HOME,' he wrote on Instagram when sharing the dates for the first announcement.
With just a few U.S. dates on the schedule as of now, ticket demand is expected to be high. Tickets for the new shows will go on sale on June 27 at 10 a.m. local time via the tour's official website with a special presale for fans via G-Dragon's official fan community on June 25. The new leg of the tour is produced by Galaxy Corporation and AEG Presents, with Infinite Prospects Entertainment as the local promoter.
North American and Europe Tour Dates
Aug. 22 – Newark, NJ @ Prudential CenterAug. 31 – Las Vegas, NV @ T-Mobile ArenaSept. 5 – Los Angeles, CA @ Crypto.com ArenaSept. 20 – Paris, France @ Paris La Défense Arena
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The plan is to position the company, which has doubled in size in the last decade to reach annual revenue of $50 billion, to find its next $50 billion opportunities in areas like transformation, managed services, and sustainability. The new strategy was supported by three big campaigns. EY's brand refresh, "Shape the future with confidence," was its biggest in more than a decade. "Transformations" nodded to the global economic uncertainty in the market by tapping into real-world, high-stakes decision-making moments. The multi-pronged campaign reached 15 million people in airports, 5 million impressions on digital billboards, and 3 million viewers on digital and TV. Lastly, "Generations," a film that debuted at the World Economic Forum in Davos, used the voices of children from diverse backgrounds to urge business leaders to consider the lasting impact of their decisions. The company said the campaign drove a seven-point uplift in brand favorability among C-suite audiences and an 83% increase in its content being shared on social media platforms like LinkedIn and Instagram. The company said the impact of all this work is that EY is recognized as one of the top 25 brands in the world, per Brand Finance, and the strongest brand in the UK. David Sandström, Klarna's chief marketing officer Klarna Klarna has sparked fervent industry conversations about how it's using AI to make its marketing more efficient. Sandström has doubled down on integrating tools like Midjourney, Firefly, and DALL-E across its marketing operation. The technology has cut Klarna's creative production costs by $10 million annually and its overall sales and marketing spend by 11%, the company said. One of Sandström's big achievements last year was creating Klarna's AI shopping feed, an effort that spanned the company's marketing, product, and engineering teams. He's been vocal on industry podcasts and at events about Klarna's flat structure and on topics like AI ethics. Sandström enlisted Shaquille O'Neal for its most recent holiday campaign — renaming him "Shaquille O Deal" — as part of his efforts to differentiate the brand in the crowded US buy-now-pay-later market. Sandström has also played a pivotal role in inking partnerships with big platforms like Apple Pay, Uber, Walmart, Airbnb, and eBay — moves that aim to make Klarna more accessible. Efforts like these helped Klarna grow to more than 100 million active users and 724,000 merchant partners, as of May this year. Jennifer Storms, NBCUniversal Television & Streaming's chief marketing officer NBCUniversal's Television & Streaming Storms, who goes by Jenny, uses NBCUniversal's sprawling TV and streaming assets to get NBCUniversal's famous sports and entertainment properties the biggest audiences possible. Working with her counterparts at Universal Film, she helped make "Wicked" a streaming event with a marketing campaign that included partnerships with NBCU's entertainment properties, stunts, and buzzy social initiatives. "Wicked" wound up being Peacock's biggest film in the Pay 1 window, the first period following its theatrical run, in the streamer's history, with close to 1 billion minutes viewed in its first week. She tapped creators and celebrities to promote the Paris Olympics, helping score a 77% increase in viewership over the Tokyo Games and a massive amount of social media impressions. Now, Storms is preparing for 2026, when NBCU will host a trifecta of famous sporting events in the Super Bowl, NBC All-Star Game, and Winter Olympics. Storms, who was promoted to her role in January, has also put a big focus on fan engagement by leaning into real-life experiences. For "Saturday Night Live's" 50th anniversary special, her team orchestrated "Live from New York: The SNL Experience," a four-day pop-up that recreated the program's iconic studio and drew over 1,000 fans each day. For the 25th anniversary of "Law & Order: SVU," she created activations in New York and Boston that let fans celebrate the iconic crime show. Doug Sweeny, Oura's chief marketing officer Oura Sweeny joined the company in 2022 at a time when demand for wearable devices like Oura was slowing. He revamped Oura's marketing, cutting customer acquisition costs by more than half and launching Oura in over 6,000 retail locations and expanding to 32 new markets. Sweeny made Oura part of the cultural conversation, leaning into the national election when other brands shied away by sponsoring CNN's Magic Wall of election results. Sweeny's team also led partnerships with "Mission: Impossible," using Tom Cruise to show off Oura's stress-monitoring feature, and with England Football in the World Cup. He led the global campaign for Oura Ring 4, which included takeovers in New York, London, and Los Angeles, and expanded the brand to include women's health features. The proof is in the numbers: People's awareness of Oura when they're prompted to identify it has grown more than fivefold in the US during his tenure, according to the company, citing YouGov. Revenue has doubled for two years in a row, and the company reached profitability a year ahead of schedule. This heightened awareness and growth helped the company raise $200 million in investment in December, which valued it at $5.2 billion. Up next, Sweeny looks to keep expanding awareness and distribution while keeping an eye on economic uncertainty caused by tariffs, helping minimize their cost and impact on the company's supply chain. Dara Treseder, Autodesk's chief marketing officer Autodesk In her three-year tenure as Autodesk's marketing chief, Treseder has been propelling the technology company into the mainstream through smart partnerships and activations that bring the purpose of its software to life. Autodesk makes software products used across industries like construction, engineering, film, and architecture. For May the Fourth — Star Wars Day — Autodesk invited Star Wars fans to enter a droid-maker contest using its software, ahead of the launch of the new Disney+ series "The Acolyte." The competition and a TV commercial that aired during the show's premiere showcased how Autodesk played a role in designing characters from "The Acolyte," like Pip. This past summer, Autodesk became a supporting partner of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, its first-ever Olympics sponsorship and a large new business opportunity. Autodesk's software is being used to help adapt venues and design temporary buildings for the LA28 Games. Treseder and team also ran a huge push later in the year to highlight how Autodesk's technology played a big role in restoring the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, after the landmark was damaged by fire in 2019. This year, having appointed Giant Spoon as its first-ever creative agency, Autodesk ran its biggest campaign to date. The campaign featured the actor and comedian Tony Hale playing God. His role was a play on a quote from Autodesk's former CEO Carol Bartz: "If it wasn't made by God, it was made by an Autodesk customer." Autodesk said Treseder's marketing efforts have helped the company achieve a 25% lift in annual revenue through its direct digital channels. Treseder has also helped Autodesk fulfill its commitment to prepare young people for the world of work. More than 100 million students and educators accessed the free version of its software in 2024, a usage figure that was up 18% year over year. Sherry Weiss, Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal's chief marketing officer Dow Jones It's debatable how much legacy news outlets, especially iconic ones like The Wall Street Journal, can shift perception and broaden their audiences. That makes Weiss' accomplishments all the more notable. Last year, she led the effort with "It's Your Business," the paper's first major marketing campaign in several years, to grow its readership beyond its finance base to reach younger, more diverse readers. The campaign included out-of-home ads in key markets like New York, Miami, and Dallas. In concert with the Emma Tucker-led newsroom's work to make coverage more lively and enterprising, the campaign drove additional site traffic in nine out of 10 markets, increased people's likelihood to recommend the Journal to others by 19%, and boosted people's likelihood to subscribe, especially women ages 35 to 44, according to the company, citing external research. Total subscriptions to The Wall Street Journal grew 3% year over year in the quarter ended March 31, to over 4.3 million on average; digital subs represented 90% of those and grew 5% in the quarter, to over 3.9 million on average. Working with the newsroom, Weiss also helped draw attention to the plight of Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. One striking campaign, "Missing Articles," featured blank front page spaces of the Journal to signify where Gershkovich's reporting would have appeared had he been free, topped with headlines like "His Story Should Be Here." Gershkovich was released in August after a year and a half in Russian detention. William White, Walmart's SVP and chief marketing officer Walmart White has helped keep Walmart a step ahead of rivals with campaigns that associate the retail giant with cultural touchstones, not just low prices. For its last holiday campaign, "Gifts that Show You Get Them," the retailer featured cast members from popular series like "Gilmore Girls" and "SpongeBob SquarePants" giving gifts to their loved ones. It followed Walmart's Black Friday campaign "Deals of Desire," a 10-part series starring actors like Walton Goggins and TikToker Jake Shane that spoofed popular TV shows like "Bridgerton" and "Yellowstone." (Goggins also stars in Walmart's latest campaign, tagline "Walmart: Who Knew?", which drafted a bunch of celebrities to show that the retailer sells more things than people might have thought.) As retailers try to crack the code on shoppable TV, White and his team have been bold about trying new approaches. In their latest effort, Walmart sponsored its first feature-length holiday film, Roku Original "Jingle Bell Love," that prompted viewers to buy items relevant to the film during shoppable breaks. At a time when CMOs are being required to do more with less, White's ability to demonstrate marketing's financial value has enabled him to expand his budget as Walmart has outperformed rivals like Target and Costco. Next up, look for him to expand Walmart's three-year-old Creator Platform and use AI to personalize marketing messages to customers. Katie Williams, Haleon's US chief marketing officer Haleon Williams has seized on IRL experiences, beauty, and inclusivity trends to drive business for Haleon, the consumer healthcare company that contains household brands like Advil, Tums, and Sensodyne. To launch Emergen-C Immune+ Crystals, she created a campaign that included a product giveaway and a pop-up at JFK airport. The pop-up gave cold-susceptible travelers a sensory experience that mimicked the effect of the supplement. The campaign exceeded Haleon's product distribution goals by 114%. She also launched Sensodyne Clinical White, a teeth whitening paste aimed at beauty consumers, which Haleon credited with helping grow sales revenue of the Sensodyne portfolio by 14%. With concern about fake ads on the rise, Williams adopted a digital watermarking system to ensure the authenticity of Haleon's ads. Williams has also embraced the brand-supported entertainment trend. She helped develop a feature-length documentary called "Sensory Overload" about the needs of neurodivergent and sensory-sensitive people in places like the dentist's office. The documentary is available to stream on Hulu as paid content. Mike Zeman, Life360's chief marketing officer Life360 Zeman has been working hard to ensure Life360, a family safety app, can earn the trust of Gen Z, and not just their parents. TikTok has become a breakout channel for Life360, which has more than 1.5 million followers on the app. Rather than being overly promotional, the brand gets sassy in the comment sections and regularly posts memes. The approach helps build the legitimacy of the brand by leaning into trends like teens using the app to follow their parents around the map while they're out of the house. Zeman has also applied the edgy TikTok energy to Life360's ads. Its "Back to School" spot utilizes UGC-style videos and humor to emulate the chaos families often experience during the back-to-school period. Its "Family-Proof Your Family" series of ads uses funny examples of exaggerated family miscommunications to convey the message that Life360's recently acquired Tile brand can prevent small misunderstandings from becoming major problems. Under Zeman's leadership, Life360 has reached about 80 million monthly active users, including 2.3 million paying Circles — the private groups where members share their locations and chat with each other. Zeman plans to scale his team's marketing efforts in 2025 as Life360 launches new product categories like pet tracking.
