The World Cup Lab
Later this week, across the three countries currently known as North America, but some may call the Divided Americas, the largest and most important sporting event in the world will descend for the second time.
The 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup.
However, this moment brings all sorts of geopolitical questions, complaints about high ticket prices, debates about rosters, and questionable community impact. Every major event sings this sad song in its prelude, and this event is no different. That is not to suggest that many of the issues are not equally genuine and gargantuan.
The counterargument to these issues typically centers on legacy impacts, such as massive global media exposure, job creation, a once-in-a-lifetime hoisting opportunity, and community building.
There are multiple blessings for the marketing community, both obvious and opportunistic. Brands, agencies, producers, and creators are all awash in building campaigns, activations, events, festivals, and hospitality programs. These stakeholders are enjoying a unique influx of financial resources, global spotlight, and assets to leverage.
How they will deploy these assets will be fascinating. Nonstop content. Adverts that are more film than function. Towering activations. Eleven Star Hospitality. Wrapped buildings. Lit towers. Massive flags. Community events. Headlining concerts. Fan parades. Fan tours. Even if you don’t love sports, take the time to grab some popcorn and watch the branding!
These ingredients create a powerful legacy for our industry: capacity building. Major events such as FIFA (and the Olympics) are a generational opportunity for industry players to try new muscles, learn new skills, approaches, and brainwaves. Empowered by outsized budgets and international strategies, there
These ingredients create a powerful legacy for our industry: capacity building. Major events such as FIFA (and the Olympics) are a generational opportunity for industry players to try new muscles, learn new skills, approaches, and brainwaves. Empowered by outsized budgets and international strategies, there is a golden opportunity to curate, ideate, and create in entirely new ways.
The knock-on effect of this is on local (odd to suggest anyone is local these days) marketers, and it is impactful to our industry. With this tournament spread across so many sites, even more North American marketers will be able to deploy their new approaches for years to come. Many will realize that the creativity they rubbed up against from colleagues in South America, Europe, and Asia, and from briefings, created a powerful fusion with their regular approaches.
Our challenge to ourselves is to ensure that when the final whistle has blown on and off the pitch from WC2026, we are like the teams that competed. We learn from this. Like the team that won the prize formerly known as the Jules Rimet Trophy and all those who did not, some marketers will have won, and others will have lost. However, all marketers should take their learnings from this campaign and share them far and wide.
How do we take what we learned in this lab moment and keep testing, learning, and innovating? How do we avoid returning to our traditional approaches when the next brief pings our inbox and instead see it as an opportunity to return to the global stage? Those are the questions I leave you with as you enter this lab known as the World Cup and learn from the weeks ahead.
MH3
