Perspectives
Executive Summary: The FIFA World Cup is one of the world's biggest cultural moments, offering brands a unique opportunity to connect with audiences at scale. But in a crowded sponsorship landscape, the campaigns that stand out do more than secure visibility – they create relevance, spark participation and leave a lasting impression. This article explores five lessons from some of the tournament's most effective activations, showing how brands can build stronger sponsorship strategies and brand partnerships by creating more distinctive, relevant and engaging experiences for audiences.
Sports partnerships create rare opportunities for brands to become part of the conversations, emotions and shared experiences that captivate audiences around the world. The most successful sponsorship campaigns go beyond visibility to create meaningful participation, cultural relevance and lasting connections - principles that extend well beyond any single tournament.
Yet these moments also highlight a challenge facing sponsorship marketers everywhere. In an increasingly crowded media landscape, visibility alone is no longer enough. The brands that create the greatest impact are not necessarily those with the biggest budgets or most prominent assets, but those that find ways to engage audiences in more relevant, authentic and memorable ways.
Hall & Partners' latest research found that 50% of consumers believe most World Cup advertising feels similar, highlighting how difficult it has become for brands to stand out in major sporting events.
The brands that win in sponsorship aren't always those with the biggest investment. They're the ones that give people a reason to care, participate and remember the brand long after the event is over.
Senior Vice President, Hall & Partners
What the best sponsorships have in common
While not every brand can afford to become an official World Cup partner, the principles behind the most effective campaigns extend far beyond football. Looking across some of this year's standout activations, we identified five lessons that any brand can apply to build stronger sponsorships, brand partnerships and marketing campaigns.
1. Create a truly ownable brand story, not just another football story
When brands sponsor a major sporting event, the natural instinct is often to maximise the value of the assets they have invested significant sums to secure. Star players, famous teams and iconic tournament moments are frequently placed at the heart of campaigns to help capture attention and drive engagement.
The challenge is that many brands take the same approach. When everyone is telling a football story, campaigns can quickly become interchangeable, making it difficult to achieve distinctiveness and stand out from the crowd.
The most effective sponsorship campaigns use the property as a platform but keep the brand firmly at the centre of the narrative. Rather than making football the sole hero, they make the brand's role feel essential to the story being told.
Visa's recent World Cup campaign is a good example. While football and Ted Lasso provide the entertainment, Visa is woven naturally into the narrative, enabling the journey through a series of payments and interactions. The result is a campaign that celebrates the event while communicating a clear and memorable role for the brand itself.
The lesson:
Distinctive brand storytelling: Sponsorship works hardest when the brand has a meaningful role, not just a visible presence.
2. Engage passive fans, not just fanatics
While football is the world's most popular sport, not everyone engaging with the World Cup (or other sporting events) is a die-hard fan. For many people, the tournament is as much about entertainment, culture, social occasions and shared experiences as it is about the football itself.
The most effective brands recognise this and create campaigns that appeal beyond core sports audiences. Doing so allows them to broaden their reach and ensure that the impact of their activity extends beyond the tournament itself.
One approach is to use entertainment and celebrity-led storytelling that resonates with a wider audience. Brands such as Uber Eats, Adidas and Nike have used personalities including Gordon Ramsay, Timothée Chalamet and Channing Tatum to reach beyond traditional football audiences. By tapping into entertainment and popular culture, these campaigns engage people who may not be invested in the sport itself but still want to be part of the wider World Cup moment.
The strongest campaigns recognise that people engage with the tournament in different ways. For some, it's about the football. For others, it's about entertainment, national pride, social connection or simply being part of a shared moment. The brands that resonate most create relevance across all of these motivations.
The lesson:
Audience expansion beyond fans: Build campaigns for the wider cultural moment, not just the most passionate fans.
3. Tap into local cultures to build authenticity
Global events demand local relevance. While the World Cup may unite audiences worldwide, the most effective campaigns acknowledge that fandom is experienced differently in every market.
Football supporters are deeply invested in the nuances of the sport, from local rivalries and historical narratives to player stories that may be invisible to international audiences.
Brands that show a genuine understanding of these details are often rewarded with greater credibility and engagement. Adidas provided a strong example through its campaign encouraging Scottish fans to support Scott McTominay, drawing on his status as a fan favourite in Naples. The creative worked because it tapped into a football narrative that felt authentic and culturally specific rather than relying on generic tournament messaging.
Similarly, brands such as IRN-BRU and Brahma have consistently leveraged local football culture to create work that resonates more deeply with regional audiences.
The difference is subtle but important: rather than talking at fans, these campaigns demonstrate that the brand understands the communities it is speaking to.
The lesson:
Cultural and local relevance: Global platforms create reach, but local insights create relevance.
Great sponsorships don't interrupt culture - they become part of it. The strongest campaigns understand the communities they're speaking to and find authentic ways to contribute to the experience.
Strategist, Hall & Partners
4. Leverage creators and influencers for sponsorship success
One of the biggest shifts in sponsorship marketing has been the growing role of creators and influencers. Traditionally, sponsorships relied heavily on brand-owned communications. Increasingly, creators are becoming the mechanism through which brands participate in cultural moments in real time.
Their value extends beyond reach. Creators allow brands to engage through voices that feel native to social platforms, helping sponsorship activity feel more authentic, relatable and culturally relevant.
They also enable brands to connect with specific audiences and communities that are often difficult to reach through mass media alone.
Recent Hall & Partners research found that 28% of consumers prefer influencer content as it comes across as more authentic, while 20% said Influencers and content creators help to inform their brand choices.
This is particularly valuable during tournaments like the World Cup, where conversations move quickly and opportunities emerge from unexpected moments.
Brands such as Airbnb and E.ON Next have successfully used creators to extend the impact of their activations and make their campaigns feel closer to the people they are trying to reach.
The strongest creator partnerships work because they provide audiences with access to experiences, perspectives and stories that feel genuine rather than overtly commercial.
The lesson:
Credible voices through creators: Choose creators who can bring authenticity and relevance to your sponsorship, not just additional reach.
5. Create immersive fan experiences
Consumers increasingly expect brands to contribute to the experience rather than simply advertise around it. The best sponsorship activations increasingly combine experiential marketing with digital engagement to deepen participation.
This can happen in many forms. Some brands focus on physical experiences, from fan zones and pop-up events to brand activations that bring people closer to the action. PepsiCo's "PepCity" activation, for example, created a multi-layered experience connecting fans, partners and culture through a series of interactive touchpoints.
Others focus on product-based engagement, using limited edition packaging, competitions and promotional mechanics that encourage participation beyond the point of purchase.
Digital experiences are equally important. Panini's evolution of the traditional sticker album into connected digital experiences illustrates how brands can blend physical and digital engagement, creating additional reasons for consumers to interact throughout the tournament.
The most successful activations share one characteristic: they make consumers feel part of the experience rather than simply spectators of it.
The lesson:
Experience design and participation: Create opportunities for participation, because engagement can be far more powerful than exposure alone.
Five key takeaways for sponsorship and partnership marketers
1. Don't let the property overshadow the brand
Partnerships can provide attention and relevance, but the most effective campaigns ensure the brand plays a meaningful role in the story rather than simply borrowing equity from the property.
2. Remember that not everyone engages in the same way
The most effective partnerships engage audiences beyond the most passionate fans. They also create relevance for people drawn in by the entertainment, emotion and shared experiences that surround a cultural moment.
3. Cultural understanding creates relevance
Global platforms can deliver scale, but the strongest activations demonstrate a genuine understanding of local cultures, communities and behaviours.
4. Use creators to add relevance, not just reach
The best creator partnerships do more than amplify a campaign. They help brands connect with audiences through voices, stories and communities that feel authentic and credible.
5. Give people something to be part of
The sponsorships people remember are rarely the ones they simply see. They are the ones they can engage with, experience and become part of.
From visibility to participation
Across all five lessons, a common theme emerges. The most effective sponsorship strategies do more than generate visibility. They create relevance, participation and lasting memories.
Whether through storytelling, local insight, creators or immersive experiences, the brands that stand out are those that give people a reason to engage rather than simply observe.
That principle applies regardless of the platform, property or partnership. The challenge remains the same: turning sponsorship from something people see into something they genuinely want to be part of.
Hall & Partners UK research (July 2026) Base: 250
Meet our authors
Farid Jeeawody, Senior Vice President, Hall & Partners
Ben Leo, Strategist, Hall & Partners
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Key Questions
The strongest sponsorship campaigns go beyond visibility. They create a distinctive role for the brand, engage audiences in meaningful ways, reflect local cultural insights, leverage authentic creators and encourage participation through memorable experiences.
Brands maximise sponsorship value by making the partnership relevant to their audience rather than simply increasing exposure. Strong storytelling, cultural relevance, creator partnerships and immersive experiences all help turn sponsorship into meaningful brand engagement.
No. While official partnerships provide unique opportunities, many of the principles behind successful sponsorship marketing - such as distinctive storytelling, audience engagement and cultural relevance - can be applied to brand partnerships of any scale.
Creators help brands participate in cultural moments through authentic voices that resonate with specific communities. They add credibility, relevance and real-time engagement that traditional brand communications alone may not achieve.
An effective sponsorship strategy combines a clear brand role, audience relevance, cultural understanding, authentic creator partnerships and opportunities for consumers to actively participate rather than simply observe.
Ground any evaluation in your unique brand and partnership objectives. Hall & Partners use a strategic framework built around what people See, Feel, Think and Do to evaluate partnerships and marketing holistically, with metrics tailored to reflect your specific objectives . We also use smart analytics to isolate and quantify the true sponsorship impact on brand equity to help understand the brand return on sponsorship investment.
