What Ad Leaders Are Watching Out For At The World Cup

The wait for the World Cup is almost over. The biggest football show on earth is about to kick off across the US, Mexico and Canada — and global anticipation is already hitting boiling point. For brands, it’s a dream scenario: mass live family audiences, culture‑shaping moments, and social media in full eruption. If there’s a relevant way in, marketers simply can’t afford to sit this one out.

So, what are agency leaders most excited about as the next month of football unfolds? Which advertising plays, platform features and brand strategies will they be watching closely? And what marketing lessons are likely to emerge from the next four weeks?

Here are some thoughts on what is interesting ad execs from this unmissable sporting spectacle.

Felipe Serradourada Guimaraes, chief creative officer, BBH London & Dublin

This year, there’s already been nostalgia for the good old days of the original, and iconic, Nike and adidas World Cup ads. We’ve seen this year’s adidas slot but I’m most looking forward to seeing what Nike creates. Will they go down the ‘Brazil at the Airport’ route from 1998 or bring us back to 2002’s ‘Cage’?

I’m also curious to see what brands who don’t usually play within football will do. When there’s a big cultural event - World Cup, Olympics - nearly every brand wants to join the conversation. What’ll be interesting is how they do it, and how they play around the rules and regulations of being a non-sponsor to own the moment.

Chris Turner, planning director, Pablo

As our Betfair World Cup work says, “Everyone’s got an opinion,” so I might as well get mine into the mixer.

This World Cup, advertising is going to have to work harder: battling early morning kick-offs, heavy eyelids and enforced quarter-time commercial (*cough) water breaks. 

Befitting the North American venue, we’ve already seen supersized storytelling from the likes of Nike and Adidas. Big money. Galactico casts. A full Super-Bowlification of football (soccer). They’re clear favourites to win the advertising World Cup.

With my British sensibility, I’m naturally more drawn to the plucky underdogs and the dark horses. The brands who do not have the firepower and can’t resort to flogging the CR7 GOAT.

So I’m looking forward to those who will surprise us at this World Cup, hijack the unlikely moments, and build connections in ways we never saw coming. Because in advertising, as on the pitch, the ones who can spring a tactical surprise are often the ones who win against all odds.  

Tom Sneddon, head of social, Serviceplan Group

 We know the drill. Every four years, the pattern repeats. Special edition packaging. Official sponsors reminding us they're official sponsors. Stirring films about passion, glory and the beautiful game. Goalkeepers shifting dandruff shampoo. Strikers with razors. Ex-pros selling barbecues. Ex Managers selling business services. And a parade of unidentifiable players from nondescript clubs daring you to place a bet.

We know it's all coming. And mostly, we're not getting excited about it.

What I'm watching for is the rare brand that answers the brief fans actually want: don't join the noise, enhance the experience. Make something that earns its place in the tournament rather than hijacking it. Give fans something useful, funny, genuinely entertaining or unexpectedly moving that they'd seek out even without the badge on it.

Someone will do it. One brand, one idea, cuts through everything else. Let's see if they can beat an octopus that predicted the winner of every game.

Will Hodge, chief strategy officer, Droga5 London

Welcome to a World Cup like no other. Not just because it’s the biggest tournament football has ever seen, or because North America will inevitably try to make every match feel like the Super Bowl, but because it’s AI’s first World Cup.

That means I’m less interested in what brands put on perimeter boards or squeeze into their glossy global films. I’m more interested in what brands and fans create that can rise above the chaos and cut through to still be talked about in a month’s time.

This tournament will generate a mind-bending volume of content, all of it clipped, remixed, memed, debated, reinterpreted and redistributed at the speed of culture. It’s the Mother of all creative challenges.

So what will Irn-Bru do when Scotland face Brazil? Which brand dares to have a fresh take on those agonising moments when VAR holds an entire nation hostage? Which players, teams or brands will create a lightning-bolt moment so distinctive it escapes the stadium to flashes around the world, copied in the playgrounds, pubs and parks?

This is a World Cup where the biggest creative match is spontaneity and inventiveness vs craft and control.