By Matt Powell, CEO of Moroch, a full-service advertising and media agency based in Dallas, TX.
It’s always a dilemma for brands and advertisers when faced with a major sporting event that has dominating viewership, but that isn’t a premier sport in the U.S. Yes, there is a captive audience, but how many are active followers of the game? How many are followers of our domestic product (Major League Soccer)? How many know who our players are, competing internationally, and footing around the globe for any number of soccer clubs?
The answer prior to the 2026 World Cup was only a very small percentage. Only 2 in 10 Americans said they are avid followers of U.S. soccer (per a recent Ipsos poll). This led to far less emphasis on advertisements around the 2026 World Cup featuring the U.S. Men’s National Team as the lead, and challenges brands to either embrace well-known international stars with larger household name recognition, like Lionel Messi (currently in MLS after a storied career), Nordic star Erling Haaland, or Christiano Ronaldo, or pivot to a very different tact.
Per the Ipsos poll, 25% of Americans planned on visiting a bar or restaurant to watch World Cup matches, on top of neighborhood gatherings and in-home viewership. However, that figure was probably dwarfed during the USA-Belgium match that took place on July 6th, which drew over 30M English broadcast viewers and an additional 12M Spanish language viewers.
That group viewership leads into one of the trends in WC advertising: community over competition. Perhaps that’s tying into the weariness of the world right now, pulling back from the aggressiveness aspect of competition to emphasize the fact that this is bringing different communities together.
As an agency that heavily focuses on making local connections with the brands we work with, this tactic resonates. The World Cup, even as a novelty every four years for many, does inspire far more community engagement and passion than almost any other major event outside of the Super Bowl.
Another component in World Cup advertising has been the presence of celebrities. Again, this plays into the issue with casual fans who aren’t aware of our U.S. athletes, or possibly any soccer stars. However, tapping into music, film and other well-known athletes (as seen in Nike’s Rip The Script, featuring soccer icons, LeBron James, ‘Ted Lasso’, global music artists and numerous others) is another way to transcend a general ignorance towards the World Cup.
At times it’s a bit of a celebrity overload, throwing every celebrity imaginable at the viewer in the hopes they recognize one of them. But it’s also a way to hit several generations in one commercial.
Advertisers have a tough road in both educating consumers about the World Cup and soccer, while establishing brand identity and lasting impact. It will be interesting to see what rises to the top from major brands during the final weeks of the tournament. No sport inspires passion like soccer. This could be an opportunity for brands to connect with fans through sport in much deeper ways, especially as the saturation point has been reached in other major American sports like the NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA.
Yes, the “American Soccer Moment” has been discussed in the past, and hasn’t yet materialized, but something feels different this time around. The level of excitement was higher, and the level (and discourse) of disappointment was noticeable after Team USA’s disappointing performance against Belgium. Keep an eye on continued viewership for the World Cup games, even with the US out of the tourney. Brands may be on the precipice of a new wave of American enthusiasm, and getting in on the ground floor to develop consumer relationships is only going to get harder from here on.
