The 2026 World Cup kicks off on June 11, and the global soccer event is posing thorny challenges for brands looking to activate around it. With games spread across the United States, Mexico, and Canada, transportation difficulties and rumors of shady ticket reselling, there’s a growing tension between the scale of the event and how accessible it actually feels to fans.Layer on the U.S.’ massive creator economy (forecast to reach $37.1 billion this year) and the reality that soccer still trails far behind America’s dominant sports, and you get an unusually tricky marketing environment. Rather than centering activations in and around stadiums or relying on fans to tune into television broadcasts, brands are investing in creators ahead of kickoff, commissioning bespoke sponsored content, branded long-form series, and more, to drum up World Cup buzz from afar.
“Creators are going to be the key to success of how to build the fandom,” said Matt Grandchamp, svp and head of revenue at digital media publisher NowThis. “The logistical nightmare that is the World Cup in New York and New Jersey… what can brands do?”
With a geographically dispersed, month-long tournament, brands can’t just rely on staging sponsored events in host cities as they do with F1 or the Super Bowl and hope creators capture the cultural moments on site. They also need creators who can build World Cup buzz away from the host cities.
