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Marketing in Action | The 5 Biggest Marketing Lessons from the World Cup
In the debut episode of Marketing in Action, The Actionists' co-founders Lee Roth and Pio Schunker break down the biggest marketing lessons from the FIFA World Cup. Rather than ranking the best and worst campaigns, they focus on the practical actions marketers can take into their next major event from building long-term commercial impact to creating campaigns that truly stand out.
What You'll Learn:
Key Takeaways:
Perfect for: CMOs, brand marketers, sponsorship teams, agency leaders, and anyone looking to turn major cultural moments into long-term business growth.
00:00 – Introduction: Why the World Cup is a masterclass for marketers
02:24 – Lesson 1: Build for the Tail, Not Just the Peak
13:15 – Lesson 2: Find the Unclaimed Story
16:36 – Lesson 3: Make the Product Part of the Story
19:23 – Lesson 4: Audit Your Talent
21:23 – Lesson 5: Make It a Conversation, Not a Broadcast
25:30 – Final recap: The five actions every marketer should take away from the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Lee Roth (00:01)
Welcome to our new video series Marketing in Action, where Pio and I debate modern marketing tactics and topics and provide the actions we think is needed to do things better. So, of course, if we're going to start this thing off, we're going to start it off with the key lessons from the World Cup. But before we dive into things, Pio, is that your new Spanish palace behind you? And is that Ronaldo's house up in the hills? What is going on?
Pio Schunker (00:31)
Spanish? Yes, definitely. Palace? Not quiet. That'll be the next place. Ronaldo's place? I think so, allegedly. That's right there. Whoever's built that house is rich enough to have taken the entire hillside and built into it. People who've been in the house say it's quite spectacular. But Lee, the bigger news is that I'm finally in my house two years after having bought it. So I can't tell you how thrilled I am and this is our inaugural video podcast, I guess.
Lee Roth (01:02)
Not as thrilled as every contractor who has worked for you over the last two years. How many times did you revise those plans, Pio? Was it as many times as you returned a cocktail?
Pio Schunker (01:14)
I think possibly a little bit more than that, Lee. And I think I put a few of their kids through school already. But it's going to be quite spectacular. Of course you'll never know because you're far too unclassy to deserve staying at this place, but I'll be sure to put you up in an appropriate motel of your choosing, somewhere near me.
Lee Roth (01:17)
You are so just so generous, Pio. Thank you so much. But okay, let's move on. Let's get started. and let's talk about Spain, right? Their first final since 2010. People must be going bad shit crazy out there.
Pio Schunker (01:47)
Absolute total football fever. Even I'm caught up on it, to be honest with you. The Spain versus France match on Tuesday was just absolutely bonkers and phenomenal. My Spanish friends here actually thought France was going to win. They just saw them as having a stacked superstar roster. And France really did have the talent. But I've got to tell you, BBC Sports wrapped it up so nicely the next day when they said Spain played like silk.
Because while France had their superstars, Spain played like a team. I thought that was such a good lesson. That you don't need to be a superstar to win, you need to be a team. I thought that was a wonderful takeaway for me personally.
Lee Roth (02:24)
Yeah. It really is.
I couldn't agree more, but honestly, Pio I'm just shocked you're watching a sport. But let's talk about those World Cup lessons, right? And you and I talked about this and we kind of debated should we talk about best versus worse? But then we thought, you know what? What lessons can marketers actually learn from the World Cup and then apply it to the Super Bowl, the Olympics, World Cup 2030? That feels more Actionist to me.
Pio Schunker (03:00)
Yeah, I totally agree. I think the best and worst creative lists have been done to death. And quite frankly, given the state of creativity these days and all of these events from Super Bowl to World Cup to Olympics, it's so lacking in anything worthwhile talking about that I think the bigger thing that we should really focus on and really in line with our own mission of making marketing much more actionable to the business is what can marketers walk away with?
Lee Roth (03:26)
Yeah.
Pio Schunker (03:30)
What did you do to build brand relevancy? What did you do to build brand relevancy and commercial success? Right? I think some of the lessons that we've walked away with could potentially be a path forward for marketers moving on, you know, towards an extentful event. So So just some background for anyone who's listening to this outside of your wife and my family. Work media, I think, put global ad spend at something like 10.5 billion? And that's on top of the 2.8 billion FIFA collected from its 20 official sponsors, Lee, right? A lot of money. And that's not even counting the non-sponsors like Nike, Lego, Modello, who piled on it as well. Think about that. That's an absolute obscene amount of noise fighting over a six-week period and for somewhere like
Lee Roth (04:07)
Lots of money.
Pio Schunker (04:25)
Somewhere between 5.8 to 6 billion anticipated viewers of this event. Right? That's massive in terms of competing for attention. How do you stand out and what were the mistakes made? And what can we learn from it?
Lee Roth (04:39)
Yeah. You're right. That is just a ton of noise. And if you think about it, on top of a challenge that the World Cup was already being co-hosted in the US, really, where soccer..
Pio Schunker (04:53)
You mean you mean football?
Lee Roth (04:56)
No, I mean soccer isn't as well known.
Pio Schunker (04:59)
This is why you won't be visiting me in Europe, Lee.
Lee Roth (05:02)
There's a lot of reasons why I won't be visiting you in Europe. That's the very bottom of the list. But getting back to this, soccer isn't as well known as most brands in the US, right? So what's happening as a result of that? All the brands are using the same sports and entertainment celebrities, right? And that's where things are going wrong because they can't stand out. So, especially in the US, we know a few stars: Messi, Ronaldo, Beckham. I mean..
How much money are these guys making from this thing?
Pio Schunker (05:31)
Exactly. And when everyone starts using them, differentiation becomes a real big issue. But there were some really big trapdoors that I saw a lot of people fall through. And as I said before, when your c-suite is asking you, okay, so how do we do? What can you walk away learning from this event that you can apply to future tent poles? For me, lesson number one, and probably the most crucial one, Lee, is built for the long tail, not just for the peak.
By that I mean most brands plan for and planned for their six-week event and stop right there. Some decent spots, some good campaigns, but not necessarily an afterlife. However, for me, Adidas was a masterclass because what they had was cross-functional integration within the company. They had partner integration.
Especially in retail, they had a long runway well before kickoff and a real commercial target baked in. Not just an awareness or relevancy play, which as an example, Nike by contrast, said the only reason they were doing what they were doing was for brand relevancy. Understand that. Understand that. But the fact that they've been criticized for no product innovation, absolutely whiffing on brand and retail marketing.
Yeah, I agree with you, Lee. I actually feel like I understand that they were trying to get back to relevancy after their whiff on a focus on performance marketing and D to C. They needed to get back to brand, they needed to get back to retail and that focal point. So I got that and I really like that. But I felt that of course you go back to your DNA, right? You go back to what made you great, but you've got to present it in a new way. And frankly, I felt like this was the right future from 12 years ago or something just revisited, you know, and it just felt emptier for me, even understanding the strategic intent and even though liking some of their executional elements that they did in terms of making it TikTok ready and getting new chapters out there on TikTok. So all of that was really well done, but it did not change my mind about Nike whatsoever.
You'd have thought they'd have wanted to be a little bit more ambitious than they were. Adidas war. Creativity-wise, Adidas's work, good, not great. Very cinematically done. I love the fact that they tapped into youth culture and the fact that greatness begins on the street. Really nice tie into Adidas's previous history of tapping into street culture and fashion as a general counterpart to Nike in general.
But honestly, some of it actually felt like a Nike ad for me when I was watching it. And I certainly didn't need Timothy Shamalama Dingdong in full multi-supreme mode, being MC totally overplayed. Like I can imagine that they signed him on when he was at his peak. But since then, the backlash against him has just mounted, not just through his Oscar campaign, but just continuing in terms of his self absorption and just out, you know, entitled attitude.
Lee Roth (07:32)
He is so overplayed. I cannot watch him in another thing.
Pio Schunker (07:51)
But again, putting aside the executional issues, which for me varied, what I loved about Adidas's work, Lee was the consistency and the discipline and the continuity that they applied. So for example, Backyard Legends, the five-minute spot, the marathon epic spot was really the latest in the You Got This campaign that Adidas launched since Paris, I believe Paris 2024 Olympics, right?
Lee Roth (08:21)
Yeah, I think so.
Pio Schunker (08:24)
People understanding what you got this means, just as a brand platform, and this being the latest chapter. Number one, lovely. Then they did a teaser introducing Shyamalama Ding Dong and the crew that he was playing with, right? In November. But then brilliantly, the product drops with Messi and Bad Bunny and the Super Bowl spots. Those product drops were phenomenal, just beautifully designed products that created objects of desire out of these things.
Sold out within minutes, just phenomenal demand for them. that also highlighted Adidas the game and innovation. Then basically a tie-in to retail, what they did with Nordstrom Shop and Shop nationwide, the tie-in with Dick's Retail for Messi's Algeria, hat trick, fan experiences across five host cities, you know, hosted through the Adidas app. And that's just within the US, right? And you could see it was just global.
Lee Roth (09:22)
I mean, you're right, but you're forgetting my favorite. The giant Yamal barge in the East River was like FIFA's version of the Statue of Liberty. That thing was sick.
Pio Schunker (09:23)
You know, you showed it to me, you're right. What I loved about that specifically was iconic brands really create their own worlds and they're often larger than life. And that's kind of the scale that that icon brands operate under. And I felt like that's what Adidas played into did really well. But they had so many of these throughout Lee, and the numbers proved it out. I think almost 300 million product sales booked.
Before kickoff, much higher numbers to be expected. Revenue up 7% year over year, to I believe almost 7 billion this year. CEO Bjørn Gulden I hope I'm pronouncing that right, is tying it directly to closing the US gap on Nike. So very competitive play and point to this, guiding a full-year single-digit growth.
But the World Cup is seen as fuel for the entire year, not just a spike for six weeks, that is the difference for me. That is the difference to most other people that I loved what they did.
Lee Roth (10:36)
Yeah, and let's compare that to Nike, right? Because they weren't an official sponsor. They did a good job in bringing new fans. They came up with what I think is a really strong platform with Rip Up the Script, right? Really great platform. They capture that in that chaotic feeling, that behind the scenes energy. But, and this is a big but, it landed for me as a self-indulgent, a little overstuffed with celebrity.
Kardashian, really? Channing Tatum. So they really need to hit a home run. Maybe they hit a single here, right? I think what I liked about it is they're trying to get back to their old DNA. And I think the platform was very strong. And I'll talk a little bit more in lesson three and five about what that platform could have been versus what it was.
Lee Roth (12:03)
What is the lesson one? If you can boil it down, what is lesson one?
Pio Schunker (12:33)
For me, start the drip months out. So treat retail, your product, your app, your content as one platform, not just a separate line item sharing the same launch date. And Lee, trust me, big companies do this all the time. Right? McDonald's is probably one of the few exceptions where everything launches as a massive event and they do it really well and you should check that out sometime. But to me, beat the noise, not necessarily by always outspending it, but being there before it gets loud and being there after the noise quiets and you've got a true return. So really look at not just the peak, but the tail.
Lee Roth (13:15)
Yeah.
I think it's a really good lesson. Speaking of lessons, let's go to Marketing in Action lesson two, which is around find the unclaimed story. So for me, it felt like every brand ran the same message. Communal gathering around the World Cup, insert a product, the joy, the tension, the focus on the sheer love of the game. But really, the tournament itself was writing a much sharper story that almost everyone could see, which is the underdog versus Goliath, right? Cape Verde, population 500,000. If you asked every American where Cape Verde is, I guarantee you 0.01% of the population would know where it was up until the World Cup, right?
Lee Roth (14:04)
They were ranked 67th and they held Spain scoreless. They took Messi's Argentina into extra time. You had Paraguay's Orlando Gill save two penalties, eliminate four-time champion Germany, which I was thrilled about. Spain toppling the favorites. Argentina's comeback against England. Now, most of the time you don't know that these upsets are going happen, but oyou need to go beyond the surface. You need to figure out what your brand stands for and how you're going to connect to the game in a very interesting way. And David versus Goliath was just one of the ways that you can find an unclaimed story to talk about rather than Messi for the 400th time.
Pio Schunker (14:46)
For the four hundredth time. Because you know what? I totally agree with you. And it wasn't just about the underdog. It was about what it takes to be a leader or a winner when you're down, when you're far behind, and how you have to come from far behind. Argentina's story against Britain the other night wasn't they were down and they were down I think into the eighty-fifth minute of the game. And they came back in the last few minutes and scored two goals.
Pio Schunker (15:15)
Now, England had made some really tactical errors by going on the defensive rather than the offensive, which really allowed Argentina to recoup and regain ground. But the way Argentina did it, those are like stories that are for the ages, right? And I feel like no one looked at their platforms to accommodate: hey, this is what we're gonna do pre-so we have a set piece of content that will address the game and the champions. I mean, every company wants to celebrate like champion the champions. But where the story in the World Cup and Olympics always lies is in the surprises that happen on an everyday basis. And no brand really claimed that broader platform for me.
Lee Roth (15:44)
Which is funny because if you think about what the US loves the most, we love the underdog Cinderella story, right? And no one really captured that. So if I break it down, lesson number two is audit the landscape for the story not being told, right? And then build a platform that can pivot along the way so you can own all those moments as it's happening. Not just plan for a campaign six months ahead of time or come out a few months later with a recap, but really think about that untold story.
That matches your brand DNA and build out a platform flexible to pivot along the way throughout the entire series.
Pio Schunker (16:36)
Absolutely. All right. On to lesson number three. My pet peeve. And you'll know this from us having worked together in the Coke days. Make the product part of the story. this was always my favorite litmus test with all of the agencies was when they'd present work, I'd basically say to them, and there'd be some genius spots being you know presented. I'd be like, Can this spot still exist if we remove the product from it?
Pio Schunker (17:05)
And if the answer was yes, that the spot doesn't collapse without the product, right? Then you knew you were in trouble. You the product had to be the reason the whole story was being told. And frankly, there were so many, including the Nike stuff, where I just was like, it could be any sports shoe brand over here. You know, unlike, say, what they did, what Nike did with Colin Kaepernick, where you know indisputably that Nike has the guts and the balls to do that.
Lee Roth (17:25)
Yeah.
Pio Schunker (17:34)
I just didn't feel there were so many sponsors where I just felt mostly anyone can say this. and for me, the best work in the game made the product inseparable from the emotion or the event itself, and not just a proud sponsor logo built in. for me, for example, thethe Coca-Cola's Uncanned Emotions told a really true insight, which is this is how people actually interact with the product while they're watching a game, any game, right? But especially one as high stakes. And so I felt that insight rang very true. I know they were criticized by many because of the use of AI and how it felt flat to many people, but what do you think?
Lee Roth (18:11)
Yeah, listen, I think there's a real lesson to be learned. Maybe this is marking action lesson 3.5 here, but I think what Coke did really well is they found a really great human insight, which are so hard to come by. They brought their story to life with that insight. Where they have struggled and where many markers struggle is when they use AI to display real human moments or when they're show, yeah, human moments, emotion, interaction, insights, anything that when you're trying to do a real human story.
Lee Roth (18:55)
Don't use AI to do it. 'Cause it just takes it away.
Pio Schunker (18:59)
Well said, well said.
Lee Roth (19:01)
Was that a compliment, Pio?
Pio Schunker (19:04)
Yeah, well that word just isn't in my vocabulary, especially with you. But moving on, lesson number three, wrapping that up would be can you swap your product for a rivals without changing the ad? If the answer is yes, then it's a prop, not a proposition.
Lee Roth (19:23)
Yeah. You were so good at that when you were running the Coca-Cola brand. You knew a Coca-Cola spot within five seconds without ever seeing a product. Okay. You're welcome. I need to give you a back. Number four, Marketing in Action, lesson four. audit your talent. So we started talking about this before.
Lee Roth (19:50)
Everyone was using the same names. Messi, Beckham, Yamal, Halland, Mbappé Ronaldo. Yeah, you couldn't tell which one's which. I just wish I was their agent because I would have made a ton of money. I mean, Messi was probably in forty or I think he was in like twenty-five percent of all the spons that ran. Can you imagine?
Pio Schunker (19:58)
Twenty two to twenty five percent exactly is what I heard. Exactly, exactly. And Beckham in about ten or eleven for ten or eleven sponsors, something like that.
Lee Roth (20:15)
It's insane.
When was the last time he played soccer, 20 years ago? And he's still the face that everyone knows? I mean, it's crazy. It's so crazy that if you look at what YouGov's recent study, only 40% of US followers notice sponsor activity. Could you imagine spending billions of dollars and only 40% notice that sponsor activity? Forgetting about association or driving out brand love or any of the other measurements. They're not even noticing it to begin with.
Pio Schunker (20:51)
Yeah. Absolutely. Huge, huge fall down factor over here. All right. So what would your lesson four be then for everyone listening?
Lee Roth (20:58)
So breaking it down, lesson four, you really need to think about first and foremost what your brand stands for, what your DNA is, and who should be the celebrity that represents that. Then really audit your competition as well as adjacent category so you know that you're gonna be able to stand out and not just be part of the sea of sameness.
Pio Schunker (21:10)
Yeah.
Totally agree. Totally agree.
Lee Roth (21:23)
All right, bring it home, number five.
Pio Schunker (21:27)
Number five for me would be make it a conversation and not just broadcast a soliloquy. I felt too many brands stuck to broadcast when mode when really a two-way call and response content is truly what gets Gen Z alpha millennial attention, right? It is that call and response. Nike got it right. I really liked what they put out on social media, specifically for TikTok, very Netflix.
Very episodic, very reality feel, very, very quick edits that work well on TikTok, nice crossover cameos that kept the content fresh. That's what people were coming back for, was to see who else would show up, you know, within the Nike channel on TikTok in terms of who would show up, which athlete, which celebrity. So there was that interest. But it was still Nike broadcasting one way out, right? Now, by contrast.
There were a few standouts. For example, Levi's. It was a one-off, but it was, I don't know if you remember or read about this, where FIFA prevented Levi's from using their logo in the stadium so they covered the signage, the Levi's signage. And then Levi's put that out on social, right? But the Levi's signage is so distinctive that the handicap of it was what actually got them probably their most significant piece of attention in years.
Pio Schunker (22:53)
Right. I thought that was a really nice way where you capitalize on the moment, but it was one off. Where I thought who I thought did it really well Lee you know this from me from again from the Coke days. I have been such a big fan of packaging being one of the most important brand channels ever. When I was at Samsung, I would hold a mobile phone up and say, if your user experience on this isn't optimal.
Pio Schunker (23:21)
That is your brand. That is because this is what you hold. That's your calling card about what it says about you. So I feel like, you know, Coke did some really nice stuff with the product and the packaging this time around for World Cup, which I loved. But the one that stood out for me was Cafe Bustelo. I hope I'm getting that right. So, coffee brand, they did four special edition cans for Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia. Each can designed by local artists, right?
But each can, I think they shipped close to a million or something like that, with a built-in tattoo kit, face tattoo kit baked into the product itself. So Lee, what was happening? Every person who bought those cans, searching out those cans, one because of the design, the can design installed, and then obviously what it allowed you to do was putting on those face tattoos in support of their country, their team, promoting themselves and promoting the product.
Lee Roth (24:04)
Hey, Pio where did you put your tattoo? I'm just curious.
Pio Schunker (24:20)
You know, well, I don't think it's just legal for this kind of broadcast Lee. But anyway, can you imagine that in one fell swoop, they were showing support for their country, for their team players, for themselves, for the product. And then putting that on social, right? That to me, and at a fraction of the budget, Lee, at a fraction of the budget that some of these other big players are doing, right?
Lee Roth (24:31)
Maybe.
Can you imagine their budget versus Nike's?
Pio Schunker (24:52)
Exactly. YouGov, I believe, if I'm getting this right, rated them the most effective marketer out of all the marketers that they had evaluated to the World Cup. Tiny fraction budget. So for me, it's build a two-way dialogue, not a soliloquy, right? That gets active participation. And the most active way you can participate these years, especially on social, is to make your product a tool of self-expression for your consumer, right? Because that's the natural behavior.
That a Gen Z or an alpha is going to want to do. So I thought they did that really well, and that would be the lesson number five for that. So all right, Lee, bring it home, sum it up.
Lee Roth (25:30)
Alright, so our five Marketing in Actions are lesson one, build for the tail, not just the peak, right? Don't just build for that moment, build leading into the moment and after the moment. So you're really dialing the up the impact on the business. Marketing in Action lesson two, find the unclaimed story. Don't just go for the obvious. Everyone already is. Marketing in Action lesson three.
Make the product part of the story, not a prop. I can't believe we're still talking about this. Marketing and action lesson four, audit your talent, right? Make sure they're the right for your brand DNA and make sure they're ownable. And then lastly, marketing and action lesson five, make it a conversation, not a broadcast. So if you're still listening to us, thank you so much for listening. And please give us any feedback. We are all ears.
Lee Roth (26:26)
Thank you, Pio.
Pio Schunker (26:28)
Thank you. Bye-bye.