📳 World Cup 2026 Special
PULSE/6: Where football, fandom and brands collide
Welcome to CO/SIGNALS[PULSE] - In this quick-fire series, we highlight collabs we’ve come across, to keep you on the pulse of brand and media partnerships.
As the dust settles with FIFA World Cup coming to an end, we’re reminded that football is so much bigger than just the game. It’s a month where fandom spills into culture - into pubs, playlists, watch parties, merch, group chats and whatever hot take is currently tearing up the timeline.
And there’s no shortage of brands finding smart ways to co-sign the energy around it.
Infact, in putting this list together, it was hard to include everything so we’ve compiled some of the best examples, with a particular bias to media partnerships and what we’ve come across in the UK.
Let’s take a look…
Levi’s: Stadium Sponsorship Workaround
FIFA asked Levi’s to remove its name from Levi’s Stadium, but the brand still found a way to leave its mark. By covering the logo in a way that preserved the iconic shape, Levi’s turned a compliance issue into a clever visual joke, and a viral moment.
It’s a neat reminder that sometimes the best brand moves happen when the rules are the constraint to work around.
They also activated elsewhere including this UK watch party pop-up with VERSUS.
Nike Football: Toma el Juego
Nike’s Toma el Juego (Take The Game) is an evolution of their early 2000’s Joga Bonito (Play Beautiful) street ball activations. Supporting their classic tournament film (RIP THE SCRIPT), Nike is building a platform around community, expression, and the creative energy that sits around the game.
Adidas: Home of Soccer, NYC
As covered by OffBall, adidas ran their Home of Soccer in Brooklyn, New York, complete with live screenings of select matches, 3v3 football games, food vendors and a beer garden, interactive experiences, and cultural programming celebrating New York City and global football fandom.
COPA90 also played a key role producing content across multiple activations as covered here and here.
Jordan: NYC Public Library Soccer Cage
The eponymous basketball brand continues to stretch into football. Read Jordan Wise’s take on their challenges here. For now, this is a cool activation at an iconic venue, supporting the wider Nike activity.
Tesco Mobile x COPA90
Tesco Mobile hit us with the four-part social series with Michael Dapaah, produced by COPA90. Nice way to create a credible voice in football culture through humour and personality rather than hard-sell. This collab shows how telcos can borrow cultural relevance by backing the right creator/producer pairing.
Here’s another telco example, leaning into mindset and mental health from EE and VERSUS.
Sure/Rexona: Referee Sponsorship
Sure/Rexona’s placement on referee shirts is one of the cheekiest sponsorship ideas of the tournament so far. The logo sits in a spot that is easy to miss until the exact moment everyone’s eyes are on the official.
Google x Ladbible and COPA90
As a sponsor of the ITV broadcasts, Google felt inescapable around the World Cup in the UK. Here’s a little more on some of their collaborations with partners…
Working with Mural Republic and SportBible, this interactive OOH idea is a nice example of AI being used to create something public and participatory, rather than just digital and disposable. By turning fan input into murals, the campaign gives people a way to see themselves in the tournament.
Working with COPA90, we see a series of entertaining sketches with the likes of Rob Beckett, and England football team stars Jack Grealish and David Seaman.
Through Google’s continued partnership with the FA (running since 2023), they’ve tapped England team players like Harry Kane for a series of Google Gemini ads.
One thing that is clear from all of this from Google, is that they are committed to football in the UK - working with a range of partners and relationships - to promote their marketing priorities in Google Pixel and Google Gemini.
ChatGPT x Hypebeast: House of Hot Takes
Everyone is a pundit and football is no stranger to arguments and debates. So it’s nice to see Hypebeast and ChatGPT team up to turn an East London World Cup watch into a live opinion machine: DJ Shaq hosted a debate where Felicia Pennant, Oré Olukoga, Shay Gunner and Enoch Freeman built their arguments “with a little help from ChatGPT”, then stress‑tested them in front of a crowd armed with red and green cards to literally vote takes in or out.
House of Hot Takes is compelling because firstly, who expected ChatGPT to partner with Hypebeast?? Secondly, it smartly turns AI from a tool into the attraction. ChatGPT wasn’t hidden in the workflow - it shaped the debates, powered the creative output and became part of the live fan experience. For marketers, it’s a smart prototype for how tech can drive the activation.
New Balance x Versus: The Departure Lounge
The Departure Lounge is VERSUS and New Balance turning an East London space into a four‑day mini‑festival for “new football culture”. The idea was simple: during major tournaments, fandom is often seen through one lens. But in London (one of the most multicultural cities in the world), every country has fans here.
So rather than another standard fan zone, New Balance and Versus created a space where people could “check in” to global football culture without leaving London.
Disclaimer: We worked on this one! See more here.
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