Globally, 67% of Gen Z and millennial football fans practise pre-match rituals (Heineken, 2025) – a behaviour several sports and FMCG brands have keyed into via superstition-spotlighting social media shorts and ads foregrounding football fandom’s unwritten rules or depicting devotion’s absurd and obsessional depths.

Most fans are planning to watch the World Cup from home rather than bars or public screenings (see Key Stats), presenting major engagement opportunities for consumer tech, supermarket and DIY brands. Key strategies include e-commerce-hosted tutorials for upgrading home viewing and activities, ads depicting frenzied watch party preparations and shoppable hosting persona quizzes.

Responding to consumers’ expectation that brands should recognise national identity (see Key Stats), astute sports and tech brands have grounded campaigns, experiences and store concepts in regional nuances. Tactics include championing the contribution of grassroots fandoms to football culture, city-specific youth tournaments, pairing local teams with emerging artists (serving as creative directors) and flexing pop-ups and flagships to local obsessions.

With Fifa facing criticism for World Cup match tickets’ extortionate prices, related to dynamic pricing, smart brands are driving fan engagement through stunts and activations that provide access to sporting legends, key venues and games. The best include superstar athlete-led WhatsApp group chats, stadium sleepovers and footballer-fronted video call giveaways.

Other brands are courting football’s budding fans via campaigns and activations that raise the prospect of future champions, bring the game into current Gen Alpha online hang-outs and enshrine youngsters’ creativity.