{"id":22448,"date":"2025-07-11T17:36:48","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T17:36:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=22448"},"modified":"2025-07-11T17:36:50","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T17:36:50","slug":"a-year-out-from-the-world-cup-sponsors-are-stepping-up-their-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=22448","title":{"rendered":"A year out from the World Cup, sponsors are stepping up their game"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Football has long been far more dominant in the US than f\u00fatbol.<\/p>\n

But with the FIFA Men\u2019s World Cup coming to the states next year for the first time in more than three decades, soccer is generating more buzz than usual, and there\u2019s no shortage of stakeholders\u2014from FIFA sponsors to rights holders to Major League Soccer\u2014already working to tap into the international fandom surrounding the most popular sport in the world.<\/p>\n

The FIFA Club World Cup, a tournament involving 32 teams from each of the six FIFA confederations around the world, is heading into the finals, providing a glimpse of what fans might see from some major FIFA sponsors next summer. And while some other sponsors are sitting out the Club World Cup, they are deep into planning for the World Cup regardless.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any other sporting moment that has the ability to paralyze the world in the same way as a men\u2019s football World Cup,\u201d Emily Heath, global brand director at Unilever\u2019s Rexona brand (which is known as Degree in the US), told Marketing Brew. \u201cFIFA\u2019s ambitions are that 6 billion people watch the Men\u2019s World Cup next year, and [about 128 million] people tuned in for the Super Bowl, so you can see the difference in scale that has the ability to deliver\u2026It\u2019s totally different from any other sporting experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Going clubbing<\/h2>\n

The first Club World Cup took place in 2000 under the name the FIFA Club World Championship, and it ran annually from 2005 to 2023 before it was revamped into a four-year cycle starting with this summer\u2019s tournament. Though the new format was untested headed into this year, some FIFA sponsors and media rights partners were willing to get involved early, despite potential risks.<\/p>\n

Visa, the official payment technology partner of the Club World Cup, is one of them, activating via fan experiences at the event and treating it \u201ca bit as a testing ground\u201d to help prepare for World Cup activations next year, according to Andrea Fairchild, Visa\u2019s SVP of global sponsorship strategy.<\/p>\n

Michelob Ultra SVP of Marketing Ricardo Marques, meanwhile, called this summer\u2019s Club World Cup \u201ca great primer for what fans can expect\u201d from the brand in 2026, when it will serve as the official beer sponsor of the World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cParticipating in The FIFA Club World Cup is an opportunity for us to fuel our momentum, position the brand for future growth, and continue to make our brand synonymous with one of the world\u2019s most beloved sports,\u201d Marques told Marketing Brew in an email.<\/p>\n

Sports and entertainment platform Dazn is streaming all 63 Club World Cup matches, and has been working with FIFA to sell new ad formats across the streams, like brand takeovers of the digital clock and scoreboard, according to Walker Jacobs, global chief revenue officer and president of Dazn US.<\/p>\n

He said he\u2019s seen interest from official FIFA sponsors and nonsponsors alike, from a range of categories including financial services, food and beverage, apparel, telecom, auto, CPG, gaming, sports betting, pharma, QSR, and consumer electronics, perhaps in part because summer is somewhat of a downtime for most other men\u2019s sports in the US.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not that much else going on the calendar,\u201d Jacobs said. \u201cIt\u2019s a time of year when families are getting together, friends are getting together, people are going on vacation\u2026and [for] a lot of these categories of marketers that are activating around this, it\u2019s an incredibly important window for them to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

With that said, there are a handful of brands activating at the World Cup next summer that decided to sit on the sidelines for this year\u2019s club tournament. That includes Rexona, which has been involved with FIFA since 2023 under parent company Unilever\u2019s sponsorship deal, and auto services company Valvoline, which is sponsoring its first World Cup next summer.<\/p>\n

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Marketing Brew informs marketing pros of the latest on brand strategy, social media, and ad tech via our weekday newsletter, virtual events, marketing conferences, and digital guides.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

For Rexona, the decision, in part, came down to budgets, Heath told us. The brand is sponsoring the UEFA Women\u2019s Euro tournament this summer, and \u201cat the end of the day, there\u2019s only so much money that you have\u201d to spend on one sport, she said.<\/p>\n

Plus, she added, sitting this year out gives her team a chance to observe the potential level of fandom around men\u2019s soccer in the US as they think about how they\u2019ll engage those fans in the lead-up to next summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe US is not a soccer country at its heart,\u201d Heath said, and small focus groups the brand has conducted indicate some US fans aren\u2019t even aware there\u2019s a World Cup happening next summer. Still, the US is \u201ca sporting nation\u201d in general, she said, which is cause for some optimism about fan engagement.<\/p>\n

Countdown clock<\/h2>\n

Even if they\u2019re sitting out of the Club World Cup, World Cup marketers are thinking carefully about how to best capture the attention of soccer fans come next year. The Rexona team is \u201choping and anticipating that the campaign will be live in all 104 markets that we operate in, and not just a light touch, but a really significant, full media ecosystem campaign that will dominate next year\u2019s plans for the brand,\u201d Heath said.<\/p>\n

Visa started opening a string of new permanent soccer parks around the country in partnership with Bank of America and nonprofit Street Soccer USA in June as part of its World Cup sponsorship in order to give back to local communities while also giving the brand \u201cthe opportunity to engage the largest live-sports audience on a global scale,\u201d Fairchild said.<\/p>\n

As of mid-June, Valvoline was still developing its campaign, but the brand\u2019s marketing team is considering a presence at the FIFA Fan Festival as a way to engage with spectators visiting the US from around the world, according to Rob Kenny, Valvoline\u2019s chief brand and digital officer.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us to have it here in the US, where a lot of our business is located, a lot of our key customers are located, is wonderful,\u201d Kenny said. \u201cAt the same time, being able to offer an experience to customers around the world to come and be part of it with us is also an exciting opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Major League Soccer, too, is working on \u201creally big plans to ensure we capture as many fans as possible\u201d as the World Cup contributes to growing soccer hype in the US, said Jennifer Cramer, the league\u2019s EVP of partnership marketing. The event is sure to \u201celevate and amplify soccer in North America,\u201d she said, and it has already had a positive impact on the MLS sponsorship business, with brands looking to capitalize on the World Cup while also building long-term strategies for engaging with soccer fans in the US.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t do any good if they just come in for this one tournament and then they leave, because people are going to forget,\u201d Cramer said.<\/p>\n

Even when the World Cup ends, there are hopes that an appetite for soccer in the US will stay, and with it, opportunities for brands, said Jessica Sinn, EVP and co-lead of global marketing agency 160over90, which is working on World Cup campaigns for clients including AB InBev, Coca-Cola, and McDonald\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose fans are still going to be fans,\u201d she said. \u201cThose stories are still going to be there. There\u2019s still going to be a demand for it, so\u2026what\u2019s coming after?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Football has long been far more dominant in the US than f\u00fatbol. But with the FIFA Men\u2019s World Cup coming to the states next year for the first time in more than three decades, soccer is generating more buzz than usual, and there\u2019s no shortage of stakeholders\u2014from FIFA sponsors to rights holders to Major League […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22448","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-marketing"},"yoast_head":"\nA year out from the World Cup, sponsors are stepping up their game | Brandiary<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Football has long been far more dominant in the US than f\u00fatbol.But with the FIFA Men\u2019s World Cup coming to the states next year for the first time in more\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, 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