World Cup no longer has global audience – and that’s a marketers challenge
The domestic football season is hurtling towards its conclusion and, despite England’s drab international break and talk of boycotts, World Cup fever is starting to build.
Soon, wallcharts will be pinned up, vintage England kits pulled out from the back of the wardrobe, and Three Lions will find its way onto office playlists. However, this World Cup is going to feel very different.
Traditionally, the World Cup is the closest thing sport has to a global moment, with billions watching the matches. But that version of the tournament is disappearing.
This year’s edition spans three countries across multiple time zones, and is the largest to date, with 48 teams competing.
It will be a challenge for fans. It will be even more of a challenge for brands.
There is no longer one audience, but millions of them spread across platforms, geographies, cultures and timelines – watching different matches, following different players, and engaging through entirely different entry points.
There’s multiscreening, there’s watch-along streams, fan zones, the traditional viewer, the stat heads, the casuals, and the fanatics.
Single event World Cup?
And yet, there is still a tendency to treat the World Cup like a single event; one campaign launch then some media noise, a few social activations then onto the next thing. Stick a nation’s flag on something and hope for the best.
That’s not going to cut it. Attention doesn’t work the way it used to – the way we are consuming football has completely changed. A goal in one match might dominate TikTok in Brazil, while a refereeing decision trends on X in Europe and a player’s off-pitch moment takes off on Instagram somewhere else entirely.
These are as much a part of the tournament as the product on the pitch.
For brands, this creates a different kind of challenge. You are no longer competing for reach, but for relevance – over and over again, in different contexts, with different audiences, often at the same time. And that is where many are falling short.
For agencies planning brand campaigns, going big isn’t the open goal it once was. Instead, they need to understand where their brands can credibly play, and how they can show up consistently within that space.
They build narratives before the tournament starts, contribute to conversations as they unfold and they extend them long after the final whistle.
Visibility key
High visibility is relatively easy to achieve with enough budget, but visibility without a distinctive point of view fades quickly in a fragmented landscape. It will have as much impact as Roy Hodgson’s England in the 2014 tournament.
What cuts through is something sharper. A clear stance. A recognisable, consistent voice. A sense that the brand understands the culture around the game, not just the game itself. It’s that shift from global messaging to local and contextual relevance.
But you can’t do it all. The ones that succeed will be those that know exactly where they belong, and show up there better than anyone else.
That’s how you win the World Cup without kicking a ball.
Tom Ingoldby is head of sport at Velvet