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January 3, 2025
Will FIFA World Cup 2026 Live Up to the Hype for Marketers?
The Home Depot and Lay’s both recently signed on as sponsors of FIFA World Cup 2026, one of the most lucrative athletic events globally, which for the first time is being hosted across three countries — Canada, Mexico, and the U.S.
The men’s soccer tournament, held every four years, will also feature 48 teams, an expansion from 32 teams qualifying to play since the 1998 games.
As the Official Home Improvement Retailer of the event, Home Depot will run on-site activations at stadiums and FIFA fan festivals. Through its retail media network, select supplier partners in exclusive categories will be able to participate in World Cup-themed activations alongside Home Depot.
“We know our customers love sports and we love connecting with them through their passions,” said Molly Battin, SVP and chief marketing officer at Home Depot. “We can’t wait to help build the FIFA World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. — the communities where we live and work.”
PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay announced that its Lay’s brand will serve as an official sponsor of the 2026 FIFA World Cup as well as the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil, extending Frito-Lay’s role as a regional supporter during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and as a tournament supporter at the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023.
Lay’s will also be prominently featured on each pitch during every match through LED field board exposure, press conference backdrops, and products sold across concession stands. Beyond stadiums, Lay’s and other PepsiCo snack brands, including Doritos, Cheetos, Tostitos, and Ruffles, will hold FIFA fan zones across hosting cities.
Jane Wakely, chief consumer and marketing officer and chief growth officer of international foods at Lay’s, said, “Soccer is one of the world’s biggest passion points, and this historic partnership allows us to bring the excitement and reach of the FIFA World Cup and the FIFA Women’s World Cup together with the joy and fun of our iconic brands across the world.”
FIFA’s top-tier partners include Aramco, Adidas, Coca-Cola, Hyundai and Kia, Lenovo, Qatar Airways, and Visa, while other sponsors include Anheuser-Busch InBev, Bank of America, McDonald’s, Mengniu Diary, Unilever, and Verizon.
For the first time in the tournament’s history, the FIFA World Cup will feature a “Super Bowl-like” halftime show during the final championship match to be held at the MetLife Stadium on July 19, 2026.
Football has been America’s favorite sport since 1972. According to a Gallup poll taken in December 2023, 41% of respondents said their favorite sport was football, followed by 10% for baseball, 9% for basketball, and 5% for soccer.
However, soccer continues to expand in popularity, with many fans increasingly playing in their youth (or watching their kids play). A recent report on the state of soccer fandom in the U.S. by marketing, media, and experiences company For Soccer shows that the number of people who have been soccer fans for five years or fewer is up 57% compared to last year, and the number of first-time fans is up 400% year-over-year.
The last time the U.S. hosted the FIFA World Cup was in 1994 when the country had only a handful of professional soccer leagues. With the current momentum behind the sport, many are predicting the FIFA World Cup 2026 could be a breakthrough event for the sport of soccer, with the marketing opportunity potentially rivaling the Super Bowl in the U.S.
Ray Major, chief deputy CEO and chief economist at SANDAG, told the San Diego Union-Tribune, “Soccer fans continue to grow in the U.S., and around the world, making the World Cup more appealing than ever. More importantly, the 2026 World Cup will be held in North America at 16 locations, many of which will be in the U.S. One should not underestimate the impact of potential advertisers who are going to go all out to market and sponsor what is essentially 16 Super Bowls in one year.”
Jessica Giordano, senior partnership and brand experience leader at marketing and sponsorship activation agency GMR Marketing, said on the Footballco Business Podcast, “One of my most favorite parts about the World Cup itself is just the fandom and the pure melting of culture, which you see in the World Cup. And so when we talk about, again, the biggest event, I think it’s bringing all of those elements. And [it’s] in the United States, which is the most commercially significant event as well.”
Discussion Questions
What do you think of the potential marketing opportunity around FIFA World Cup 2026?
How does the marketing opportunity differ from other prime sports events such as the Super Bowl or Olympics?
Poll
Loading …BrainTrust
Patricia Vekich Waldron
Contributing Editor, RetailWire; Founder and CEO, Vision First
Lisa Goller
B2B Content Strategist
Melissa Minkow
Director, Retail Strategy, CI&T
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I’ve no issues with Lays; Home Depot was a harder sell for me, but maybe not as crazy as I first thought: Hispanics dominate the homebuilding field, and as they’re a likely soccer fanbase as well, there may well be potential there. Still, for UScentric companies, I don’t see this as some kind of seminal event.
The FIFA World Cup will live up to the hype for marketers in America but especially for as long as the U.S. team remains competitive, and also within the cities that are hosting.
This is a huge event for television every four years regardless of location. Die-hard soccer fans in the U.S. will watch to the end regardless of which teams do well. This is even more largely true in Europe, Mexico, and South America.
In the U.S., however, the majority of viewers are casual, not fanatical.
I’ve felt strongly for a while that Soccer and F1 are crucially important for US consumers in the future. Netflix’s Christmas success with the NFL is another example of how there has previously been vast untapped potential. Smart brands will figure out their role here, and the streamers hosting the games matter greatly. This is a digital story as much as it is a marketing story.
World Cup is a global phenomenon, and in 2026 sponsors have an opportunity to reach and engage with the US market who as hosts will be tuned in to the action. It’s also a chance to build connections with
worldwide consumers.
This partnership will be beneficial to both advertisers and soccer awareness. Terrific timing by advertisers to participate in the uptick in soccer interest. I hope Home Depot does some interesting programs to support soccer. With over 2,000 store in the U.S., over 180 in Canada and around 130 in Mexico, Home Depot is a great platform to expand North American interest in soccer.
There will be a lot of eyeballs on the World Cup, so it’s a great opportunity for retailers and brands to expose themselves. There’s a very natural win for CPG firms which tend to be global and whose products can be consumed as part of the joy of watching sport. For others, like Home Depot, the win is a slower burn.
Brands will invest in being part of the historic FIFA World Cup 2026, which will unite a continent with hosting duties and grow the game with new fans.
The Beautiful Game will resonate with bigger global audiences by connecting with consumers across the English, French and Spanish-speaking world. Welcoming 48 teams and adding a new halftime show will further engage the masses and boost brands’ ad spend.
Collaboration is a major theme among the three host countries as well as retail stakeholders. Retailers, brands, tech providers and media all want to win by converting sports lovers’ passion into purchases.
If USA fields a competitive team it will be a force multiplier for this event. If not, it will still be big, just not as big.
The FIFA World Cup 2026 offers an unparalleled marketing opportunity, combining the excitement of hosting in three countries Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. with the expansion to 48 teams, ensuring a massive global audience. Sponsors like Home Depot and Lay’s are already leveraging this platform with innovative activations, while the addition of a “Super Bowl-like” halftime show and soccer’s growing popularity in the U.S. make the event even more commercially appealing. The tournament has the potential to redefine soccer’s cultural presence in the U.S. and unite diverse audiences globally, making it essential for marketers to craft authentic campaigns that resonate with the World Cup’s spirit of passion and connection.