World Cup Gold Rush: Why Brands Are Betting on Fans Over Footballers

**Tim Elliott** (0:00)
It's the Morning Drive, this is Mira Business FM. Tomorrow, the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off officially. It's across Mexico, Canada, the US, and it launches the largest, most logistically massive tournament in sporting history. 48 teams preparing to battle it out on the grass. But there is also an equally kind of ruthless war being fought off the pitch already. Global brands racing to capture the attention of billions of fans, and mainly fractured attention as well, from TV, to radio, to socials, to Nike's Cole Palmer ad, to the rise of fan-first campaigns. What works in sports marketing now is one of the questions I'd like to get an answer to this morning. Pete Jacob is the Manager Director of the public relations firm, marketing firm as well, Current Global MENAT, Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey, and he's with me. It's good to meet you.

**Pete Jacob** (0:55)
Hello, hello. Nice to be here.

**Tim Elliott** (0:57)
Good to have you here. I want to look at this through a PR marketing lens, if we can, and basically sit and talk football for half an hour, if I'm honest. But let's start with the scale of the tournament, because we've got three host nations, we've got multiple time zones, we've got...
There's so much to look at here. The traditional kind of TV commercial high-budget thing doesn't really cut it now, does it? So how radically of corporate sponsors had to alter media buying strategies, what they're putting forward, the attention they're seeking, compared to Qatar? That was only four years ago.

**Pete Jacob** (1:35)
Well, I think that's the right word there, is massive. And that is particularly the difference from, do you just think of the footprint of this tournament? And it's, as you said, three continents, expanded this time round as well, 48 teams.
I think even as a diehard football fan, I nearly said soccer then.

**Tim Elliott** (1:54)
I wouldn't want to drop on that.

**Pete Jacob** (1:55)
Yeah, we would have had to start again.
Diehard football fan, there's over 100 games. So it's going to be a war of attrition to watch every single game. Time zone wise for us here in the Middle East as well, I was talking with someone yesterday, Monday I think there's five games going on in a 24-hour period for us here. So there's a challenge for fans just to keep up. But if you're an official partner around the World Cup and you've paid a fairly pretty penny, I was going to test you actually, Tim, to see if you could name me who the official partners were for the FIFA World Cup. I won't.

**Tim Elliott** (2:31)
I'll be honest with you.
I mean, I'll end up watching games. I don't really watch a lot of international football. I'm not a big World Cup person. But of course, I'm watching some of the hype around it. But I could not name you an official partner.

**Pete Jacob** (2:44)
No, and that's probably...

**Tim Elliott** (2:46)
I could probably name you one. No, I couldn't even do that. Who are they?

**Pete Jacob** (2:50)
So you're testing me now. So you've got the ones that have been supporting FIFA for a little while. So PepsiCo would do Lays, or I think we'd know it as Walkers.

**Tim Elliott** (3:01)
That would have been my guess.

**Pete Jacob** (3:02)
Yes.
Ramco is obviously going in this year as well. Hyundai from an automotive. McDonald's have been in and around the World Cup for a wee while. You may have seen some of their, one of the activations, they're doing promos and products, packaging and stuff. So it's a real mix. But if you're one of those brands, how do you just be present across three continents, multiple timezones, six, nearly six weeks of a tournament? It's tough and it's potentially extremely expensive.

**Tim Elliott** (3:38)
This is the thing. So let me turn this around to you. How do you, what should be your primary motivation just to be present, just to be as front of mind as you possibly can?

**Pete Jacob** (3:51)
Well, it depends what kind of brand you are, what you're doing. If you're one of the official sponsors, I would argue the check you have written is really the entry cost, right?
Well, what a lot of brands don't do is they'll sign a check in the boardroom, get some TV advertising, you know, board advertising, maybe run a competition, take some partners to a ticket. You actually need to be almost spending double the amount, the actual cost of the actual rights acquisition itself, to actually activate the property, the asset. Well, if you're an unofficial or anyone else who's not an official partner, you've got to be very clever. I actually did a bit of work with FIFA many, many years ago.