NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JULY 01: FIFA World Cup Trophy on display during the official Trophy Tour around FIFA 2026 World Cup host cities on July 01, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Stobe – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
FIFA via Getty Images
The 2026 World Cup hasn’t been getting the best press recently.
Sky-high ticket prices make it seem out of reach and out of touch for regular people, even those who live in the host cities.
Online forums are full of locals saying they would’ve liked to watch a game but can’t afford to.
And if the starting prices of tickets weren’t high enough, prices on FIFA’s official reselling platform are even crazier.
Some marketers must be looking at the World Cup right now and wondering if it is more likely to damage brands associated with it than benefit them.
However, as the largest World Cup in history, taking place in the commercial goldmine of the North American market, it is also too big an opportunity to ignore.
Marketing expert Malcolm Buick from brand studio Athletics believes there are still plenty of ways that brands can be victorious at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
He says “to make the most of it, brands really need to do more than just buying ad space.”
“The ones who will win are those who add something to the fan experience” as fans can tell the difference between brands that get it and those that just show up with logos.
As ticket prices, weather and kick-off time worries, and the huge cost of traveling to and around the U.S. make the World Cup seem beyond the reach of the regular fan, Buick highlights how sponsors can instead focus on helping local businesses and communities prepare for the World Cup, something he says Visa has been doing recently by sharing data and tools with small businesses and something that other brands have been doing through things like soccer clinics.
For official sponsors, it is important to add to the experience, not the noise. Buick points out that “fans aren’t looking for sponsors, they’re looking for a bit of shared emotion.”
The biggest mistake a brand can make is trying to own the moment instead of belonging to it. In an extreme example, in 2010, one broadcaster accidentally played an ad for Hyundai so England fans missed Steven Gerrard’s goal against the USA. While brands want to be part of the experience, brands that try to make everything about them risk a backlash.
Brands that aren’t official sponsors can still benefit from focusing on the cultural moment around the tournament and the lifestyle around it as well as around soccer as a whole. Buick says storytelling and creativity can cut through just as much as official sponsorships. The 2002 World Cup was sponsored by Adidas, but at the same time, Nike launched The Cage, a secret tournament hosted by Eric Cantona on a container ship. That campaign was a massive cultural success.
More recently, Welcome to Wrexham has enjoyed huge popularity, and even though the 2025 World Cup is in men’s soccer, there are still plenty of marketing and branding opportunities in women’s soccer, which has huge growth potential.
With the World Cup being bigger than ever, there are plenty of underdog stories to tell, from Uzbekistan to possibly Cabo Verde. But no matter how many teams FIFA adds to the World Cup, only one team can lift the trophy.
One question Buick said came up at the recent Leaders’ Week sport summit in London was “Do you have to win to be successful as a brand?”
He says success comes from relevance and authenticity, and that some of the smartest plays are niche, focusing on a specific team, community or piece of culture. “If you make fans feel like you understand them, you’ve already won.”