4 media buyers on how they’d invest $500K around the FIFA World Cup

Few sporting events are as truly global as the FIFA World Cup. The 2022 tournament, held in Qatar, engaged approximately 5 billion people worldwide, with the final between Argentina and France reaching close to 1.5 billion viewers.

Kicking off in June, the 2026 tournament across North America is expected to generate roughly $10.5 billion in ad revenue. For marketers, though, it won’t be an easy goal.

Advertising investing strategies the World Cup have become more complex. While the event continues commanding massive audiences, linear reach is declining and attention is increasingly moving to “shoulder content” around the match — including second-screen commentary, podcasts and creator content.

Depending on the market, there’s also a timing challenge. Many matches, held in cities across North America, will air outside peak hours in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. This will limit live broadcast opportunities but opens the potential for highlights, replays and commentary-led content.

So, how should marketers approach the global sports event of the year? The Current asked four media buyers across the U.S., Australia and Europe how they would deploy a $500,000 budget around the tournament.

U.S.: Gina Whelehan, Group Director, Strategic Partnerships, Butler/Till

The goal: With the right mix of channels and creative that reflects the culture and energy of the tournament, brands can build awareness and drive performance. This isn’t simply about securing a prime, in-game placement at the height of the competition (though that certainly has its advantages). It’s about showing up consistently throughout the tournament and activating against the moments that matter most to achieve each key performance indicator (KPI).

The plan: The biggest mistake brands make with tentpole sports moments is over indexing on the live game. The smarter play is to invest in everything around it.

Fandom lives in the anticipation, the analysis, the player stories, the unexpected upsets and the emotional aftermath. Aligning with shoulder content allows brands to show up where engagement is often deeper.

A $500,000 budget can be deployed across a surround-sound ecosystem that includes social platforms, community-driven environments, relevant publisher properties and digital video (OLV, OTT). These spaces and placements can be matched with a meaningful contextual and moments-based targeting strategy, coupled with relevant audience qualifiers.

The delivery: Get in market several weeks before the first match to build momentum as anticipation grows, increasing investments and expanding presence as the tournament progresses. And don’t stop at the final whistle. Fans will continue to dive into the stories that follow these wins and losses, giving brands the opportunity to taper off without appearing to have disappeared once the games end.

Creative should pair the culture, energy and emotion of the World Cup with established brand messaging and assets. Platforms that allow for real [and] near-real-time creative optimization and refresh will be key as the tournament unfolds, helping brands stay relevant rather than static, especially heading into the final rounds.

Clear KPIs need to be defined by channel and role. Awareness and reach where scale matters. Engagement and site visitation where interest peaks. Leads or purchases where intent is strongest. Not every placement has to “close,” but every placement should have a purpose.

The landscape: Sports have always been cultural. Soccer’s growth in the U.S., particularly among younger generations, is reshaping the opportunity. These audiences are increasingly digital-native, socially connected and influential in shaping future buying power, and they are driving fundamental shifts in how media is being consumed.

Fans are watching games on one screen, following commentary, memes and reactions on another and engaging in real-time conversations across social and community platforms. This multiscreen behavior creates a real opening for brands to meet consumers where they already are. And with AI accelerating personalization and optimization, this dynamic shows no signs of slowing down.

An alternative: Gaming sits at the intersection of competition, community and fandom — many of the same dynamics that fuel the World Cup itself. If the audience is right, an all‑in gaming strategy could be a powerful and differentiated way to show up around the tournament.

This could take several forms: tapping into standard gaming ad units, building a brand‑specific custom gaming experience, aligning with gaming creators and live content across relevant platforms or deploying rich, data‑driven placements powered by sports-centric technologies.

Australia: Vicki Iszatt, Director, OMDIGI Group

The goal: Five hundred thousand dollars sounds like a lot until you see who else is spending. Hyundai, Commonwealth Bank, McDonald’s have already locked in their SBS broadcast sponsorships. So, the goal of the media plan is to win in the space they cannot buy.

The plan: The plan is to spend the budget in the areas where the conversations are happening around the matches — on socials, on CTV, on second screens where you can really have fun and lean into the moment.

You need creative that can be turned around same day on match results to get the cut through and the conversation. Simply having a static campaign across the tournament won’t achieve that.

The delivery: Three phases: build the brand connection before the tournament starts, activate hard during matches, convert in the finals window. If you miss one, then you have wasted the other two.

The landscape: The World Cup is a unique event where millions of Australians watch the same thing at the same time. However, the audience is fragmenting. In 2022, a third of all SBS World Cup viewing happened on digital, and in 2026, the number will be higher. The broadcast isn’t the whole game anymore.

The brands that get this right will be treating broadcast as context — and not the main event. CTV and social are where the real work happens.

An alternative: While everyone is fighting over broadcast spots, the most passionate football fans are on Reddit debating tactics, roasting referees and dissecting every result. You can target those communities directly. The CPMs are cheap, the audience is high-intent and they are already in the mindset we want.

Or we could forget the screens altogether and buy the pubs! People watching football in a venue are emotionally activated, drinking and spending.

U.S.: Angela Seits, Vice President of Strategy and Planning, DEPT

The goal: A $500,000 budget won’t compete with FIFA’s official partners on linear broadcast, but it doesn’t need to. The more meaningful question isn’t how to maximize reach, it’s how to integrate into the fan experience itself.

The plan:The approach I’d prioritize builds a connected ecosystem around those moments of peak intent.

The delivery: I’d focus on CTV and live-match adjacency as the anchor with contextual creative tied to specific matchups. Bilingual creator content on TikTok and Instagram covering live matches and structured as a recurring segment rather than a sponsorship unit. And programmatic DOOH in host cities (NYC, LA, Miami, Dallas) that makes the brand feel local rather than national. Paid search captures the intent spike that follows every big match. Together, these aren’t just efficient buys. They map to how this audience actually moves through the tournament. The brands that win this moment will have done it by showing up in the right context at the right cultural moment, not by outspending the room.

The landscape: In the U.S., soccer fans skew younger, more multicultural and more digitally native. The audiences driving viewership growth are disproportionately Latino and Gen Z, two segments with enormous demographic crossover and a shared behavioral pattern.

They engage with the tournament in real time across multiple screens simultaneously, in both English and Spanish. They’re searching during matches, reacting through creators and forming opinions about brands in the same moments they’re forming opinions about players. Brands that build mental availability and genuine affinity with them now are making a long-term growth investment, not just a media buy focused on one event.

An alternative: Soccer fans are deeply ritualistic. I’d love to launch a superstitions-led campaign that taps into that psychology: Invite fans to share their unwashed lucky jersey, the seat they can’t leave, the exact snack required for their team to score, and reward the most outrageous rituals with prizes throughout the tournament. The execution would be creator-led and shareable, positioning the brand as a co-conspirator in moments fans are emotionally invested in.

Germany: Gabriel Rizzo, Senior Digital Consultant, Mediaplus International

The goal: If I had to invest a $500,000 budget around the upcoming FIFA World Cup in a European market, the primary objective would be brand awareness with a clear bridge into consideration.

During the tournament, performance KPIs often become less efficient due to rising media costs and intense competition. Brands should therefore prioritize impact and memorability, building strong brand recognition quickly and turning high engagement into real interest.

The plan: Football is deeply rooted in European culture, making the World Cup a uniquely effective platform. It delivers significant reach within a short time frame, paired with high attention levels, particularly in video environments. Premium, contextually relevant placements further strengthen brand perception.

With a $500,000 budget, the strategy should emphasize concentration rather than fragmentation. In this setting, focused impact outweighs excessive channel spread.

The delivery: The media mix should focus on high-attention video. CTV and streaming play a key role, using big screens and shared viewing to create strong impact. Online video, including YouTube and premium sports publishers, expands reach in high-quality environments. Social video adds short emotional formats with careful frequency control. A light search layer helps capture rising demand during the tournament.

The main challenges are rising costs and heavy competition for premium placements. Early planning and fast approvals are essential. The intense match schedule also increases the risk of creative fatigue, so assets need to be distinctive from the start and flexible enough to remain effective across the entire competition window.

The landscape: This strategy reflects a broader shift in how brands think about media. There is less focus on short-term clicks and more focus on attention, strong reach in quality environments and lasting brand effects. CTV and premium video are becoming more important because they offer higher attention and better viewing environments. At the same time, brands are moving away from last-click attribution and toward privacy-safe measurement and brand lift studies to understand real impact.

In this context, major sporting events are not just short-term performance boosts. They strengthen long-term brand building by creating powerful cultural moments that support continuous brand presence throughout the year.

An alternative: A more playful approach would lean into second-screen behavior. During matches, social activity spikes. Brands can activate around match days with reactive content, short-form video, interactive polls and collaborations with football creators or fan communities. Success depends on cultural fluency. Content must feel native to the moment rather than interruptive. In this context, relevance often outweighs sheer media weight.