How soccer orgs and sponsors are putting local spins on World Cup campaigns

With 16 host cities across three countries, it’s safe to say there’s no one-size-fits-all marketing plan for this summer’s FIFA Men’s World Cup.

Given the scope of the tournament, the leagues, host committees, media rights partners, and sponsors seeking to contribute to the growth of soccer fandom in the US while also hitting their own marketing goals have approached the tournament differently than they might with smaller-scale sponsorships. That hasn’t always been easy.

“It took a while for those brands to wrap their heads around, ‘How are we going to do this in this many markets, how do we prioritize what we want to do, and how do we think through this market versus that market?’” Kim Scates, VP of commercial partnerships for the Houston 2026 host committee, told Marketing Brew. “The planning process has been a bit of a beast.”

After months—or, in some cases, years—of prep, marketers have landed on a range of different approaches to tailor activations down to the local level, such as homing in on specific host cities, changing their creative based on markets, and partnering with local organizations to make their mark in communities.

Lock in

Standing up a marketing campaign across multiple countries can be a tall task, but it has to start somewhere. The “where” differs based on the company.

For Telemundo, which holds the exclusive Spanish-language broadcasting rights for the World Cup in the US, targeting “key Hispanic markets” where the network and its parent company, NBCUniversal, have a presence was a natural jumping-off point, said Christina Kolbjornsen, Telemundo’s SVP of corporate and external affairs. Telemundo kicked off one of its initiatives, “Tu Momento. Tu Jugada,” in the Bay Area because it’s a World Cup host city with “a very strong viewership base” for the network, as well as a “very strong Latino community” overall, she said.

Visa, an official FIFA sponsor, started its efforts on the opposite coast. As part of a collaboration with more than 20 artists from six continents to showcase physical and digital art tied to the World Cup, the brand put together a showcase event in Miami called “The Art of the Draw,” which was hosted by artist and designer KidSuper and where the first five pieces of the collection were unveiled. Miami stood out because of its diversity and strong ties to soccer, Andrea Fairchild, Visa’s SVP of global sponsorship strategy, told us.

“Miami gave us the perfect backdrop for the culture of football,” she said, later adding that her team’s approach to the project was “about identifying these cultural epicenters and where these creators are living and thriving in their communities, and…giving them a platform on the world stage.”

Switch the field

Once marketers decided on the regions they wanted to focus on, some set about adjusting their creative based on those locations.

Lay’s, another official World Cup sponsor, has several campaigns tied to the competition, including “No Lay’s, No Game,” which targets fans around the world with different versions of the same creative idea, according to Jane Wakely, chief consumer and marketing officer and chief growth officer of international foods, at Lay’s parent company PepsiCo. In the UK, for instance, the campaign is called “No Walkers, No Game,” since Walkers is the UK equivalent of Lays.

The campaign “is built to flex, allowing us to reach global scale while delivering personalization that feels authentic to each market,” Wakely said in an email. “Every region activates the platform through the lens of its own football culture, rituals, and viewing habits.”

On Location, the official hospitality partner of the tournament, has been working with FIFA for about two years to promote the World Cup across all 16 markets. This year, the company is focused on providing global reach with celebrity-driven campaigns while drumming up local demand for tickets in specific cities, including Los Angeles, Atlanta, Dallas, Miami, Vancouver, and Mexico City, SVP of Marketing Anne Charls said.

“Every market is going to have something incredibly unique, and is going to be special in its own right,” she said. “Everything that our hospitality packages will deliver in those markets is going to be unique and localized, and represent that city in a really special way.”

For its part, Major League Soccer is running a robust league-level campaign leading up to, during, and after the World Cup, and it is also leaning heavily on its 30 club marketing teams to dictate how they promote MLS in their own markets, CMO Radhika Duggal said. The branding and messaging surrounding those efforts will generally be the same, she said, but the “local flavor” will be different.

“There are moments where we go to market together, but…we can’t do that at the expense of what makes the local club special,” Duggal said. “The clubs know the customer the best, [because] they’re physically in the market.”

Give back

Even companies that don’t have teams in every host city can access local expertise via organizations like host committees and nonprofits. Airbnb is an official FIFA sponsor, and also partnered with the Houston host committee, providing a $1 million investment to help support the development of a transit loop that connects the city’s NRG Stadium with the FIFA Fan Fest, Scates said.

Setting up programs that give back to host cities or supporting existing ones is another way many World Cup sponsors are aiming to stand out at the local level. As part of its World Cup marketing, and dating back to 2021, Lay’s has opened 12 soccer pitches around the world to benefit about 2,000 players a month, Wakely said; Telemundo teamed up with the US Soccer Foundation to support its “Yes, Coach” platform for recruiting and supporting youth soccer coaches; and Visa announced a 10-year deal with nonprofit Street Soccer USA focused on providing events like after-school leagues and offering financial education resources to players.

“That is how we create legacy,” Kolbjornsen said. “That’s how we create impact.”