What the World Cup Means for Retailers
Major sporting events can boost retail sales, and FIFA World Cup 2022 — which began Nov. 20 — is one event that has international dynamism. Insightful brands with relevant merchandise have targeted their packaging and marketing efforts to coincide with one of the largest tournaments in the world.
For the first time, World Cup 2022 is being held in November and December, the exact time retailers are focusing on their crucial holiday sales and consumers are juggling holiday shopping, meals and travel. NBCUniversal, for example, will have four games of the World Cup on Thanksgiving Day in the U.S., airing on linear and on Peacock, and then leading into Sunday night football.
More than half the world watched the 2018 World Cup, according to FIFA. English-language World Cup broadcast rights belong to Fox Sports, and will be broadcast on its family of networks and the Fox Sports app. World Cup match replays will be streamed for free on Tubi. NBCUniversal’s Telemundo U.S. Spanish-language broadcast and Peacock will air all 64 games live with pregame sponsorship by Ford, the halftime by T-Mobile and the postgame by Coca-Cola. Other major brand partners that have signed on for Telemundo’s coverage of the World Cup: Volkswagen, Samsung and Xfinity. In turn, NBCUniversal has exceeded all of its 2022 World Cup revenue goals and well ahead of national and local ad sales from the 2018 World Cup.
FIFA World Cup 2022 viewership is anticipated to outpace 2018, and become the world’s greatest multi-platform sports event ever.
“With the World Cup right before the holidays and smack in the middle of Black Friday sales, there may be the fear that watching soccer may cut into shopping time, but I think there are ways to tie the two together and perhaps have World Cup merchandise as an in-demand holiday gift,” Fabio Sá, senior vice president of soccer at 90 min The Players’ Tribune, a part of Minute Media, told Retail Leader Pro. “I also think there'll be a multitude of soccer fans and bandwagoners stopping what they're doing to watch the U.S. games — and probably many of the other big games. With so many people having adapted to ‘work from home’ and with the majority of the games happening at either 11 a.m. or 2 p.m. EST, this sounds like the perfect excuse for people to get together in front of the TV and enjoy these moments with friends and family. Not to mention that an insane number of games — 22 — will be played during Thanksgiving week, including the highlight of the group stage at least for the American fans, which is the USA vs. England game on Friday, Nov. 25 at 2 p.m.”
Above all else, for retailers Sá sees the World Cup 2022 as an opportunity to align with the passion and excitement of the games.
“This is a chance to help add to the fandom with promotions, contests and more for both endemic and non-endemic brands,” he said. “There are obvious advantages for restaurants, who will be showing the games during daytime hours and [can] take advantage of many Americans’ ‘work from home’ schedule, but retailers have the opportunity to get creative with ways to tie their products into the excitement of the World Cup.”
U.S. Soccer Fan Consumers
In the U.S., soccer doesn't hold the cultural relevance that is found in many other countries, but soccer culture is growing tremendously.
“What's interesting to me when thinking about U.S. soccer fans, is that they are not only lovers of the game, but proponents, protectors — fighting for elbow room at sports bars and elevating the sport until it is just as much a part of U.S. culture as American football or basketball,” Sá said. “This offers a unique opportunity for brands and retailers to get in on the bottom floor and create relationships with this passionate fanbase before everyone else is vying for their attention. If retailers are able to connect with U.S. soccer fans early on, they have the potential to become a go-to brand for those fans — creating a lifelong relationship and brand equity."
Soccer is debatably the world’s most popular sport, and one of the fastest-growing team sports in the U.S., especially among youth and ethnically diverse communities, according to Telemundo’s “ The Future is Fútbol 2022 Report."
Some highlights of U.S. soccer fan consumer data include:
- Soccer has an estimated 85 million adult U.S. followers and has seen a significant increase in popularity, with a gain of 52% more fans from 2012 to 2019, compared to the 27% growth in basketball and the 8% growth in baseball during this period, Telemundo reports.
- U.S. soccer fans spend 7% more than average American sports fans on team sports clothing and are more likely to purchase sports-related items like tickets, equipment and memorabilia, Telemundo finds.
- Among U.S. Latinos ages 16 and older, almost three-quarters (73%) say they are soccer fans, and three times more Hispanics call themselves Superfans (22%) compared to non-Hispanics (7%).
- For World Cup 2022, 64 million non-Latinos ages 16 or older (29% of total non-Latinos) and 23 million Latinos (53% of total Hispanics) are expected to watch.
- High school soccer participation increased 32% from 2002 to 2019, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS).
- Soccer is egalitarian, considering that high school girls play almost as much as boys, with participation growing 31% for girls vs. 33% for boys from 2002 to 2019; 374,773 high school girls played soccer during the 2021-2022 school year and 436,465 high school boys, according to NFHS. Last school year, only track and field (1.15 million), football (977,000) and basketball (892,000) had more participants than soccer (811,000), according to the NFHS.
- While soccer still lags behind football, baseball, basketball and hockey among U.S. fans, 32% of U.S. adults said they consider themselves fans, including 7% who said they are “avid fans” of the sport, according to Morning Consult data. Both of those figures are unchanged from a July 2019 survey.
- More than half (54%) of soccer fans are under age 45, giving it the youngest fan base among all U.S. sports. Enthusiasm for soccer was higher among younger adults than the general population, with 40% of those ages 18-34 identifying as fans, Morning Consult reports.
- With more than 40% fans of color, the diversity of professional soccer’s U.S. fan base is rivaled only by that of the National Basketball Association. More than half of Hispanic Americans (55%) identified as soccer fans, a considerably higher share than among Black (33%) and white (31%) adults, as well as those of other races (43%), Morning Consult finds.
Soccer fans are younger and more diverse, suggesting that the sport is on a trajectory for growth. If the U.S. continues to see growth in Major League Soccer (MLS) — 10 clubs have been added since 2015 — success in the U.S. Women’s National Soccer team and the rising participation among youth, then it will become the leading soccer market in the world, FIFA predicts, in time for the World Cup matches to come to the U.S. in 2026. A monumental 80% of Latino World Cup viewers and 75% of non-Latinos say it is important that the World Cup returns to the U.S. in 2026, so they have the opportunity to attend in person, Telemundo reports.
Ready for Kick Off
Most shoppers won’t be able to attend the tournament in Qatar, but will watch the games on televisions, phones, computers and tablets. Consumers will be looking for products, such as soft drinks and salty snacks, that can help them create an at-home soccer game experience, and products can be optimized so they appear in shopper searches linked to the World Cup, Nielsen Consumer LLC says.
In turn, a Google Trends report for the search term “World Cup food” shows that the term peaked at 100 for the 2018 World Cup. The data showed that the volume of people searching for “World Cup food” increased from early June onwards in 2018, despite the World Cup not kicking off that year until June 14, Nielsen reports.
A winter World Cup tournament has never happened before, but the timing could work well becoming a shared experience as consumers gather for special at-home holiday celebrations, Nielsen predicts. The World Cup will overlap Thanksgiving along with traditional festive shopping holidays Black Friday and Cyber Monday, ending on Dec. 18.
Not surprisingly, consumer spending on the World Cup is tied to the performance of the home nations, and retailers will have an incredible opportunity to engage with shoppers and boost sales if the consumer’s home team plays well. For example, when England reached the finals in the Euros in 2021, this added 2.3 billion pounds of food and drink sales in the U.K. (not including on premise), according to The Grocer. Team USA is competing in the World Cup for the first time since 2014.
Frito-Lay, a subsidiary of PepsiCo, signed on as a North American Central American regional supporter for the World Cup, reaching 23 markets across those countries and becoming the first salty snack brand collaboration of any FIFA World Cup. Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Budweiser holds the title of Official Beer of the World Cup, managing campaigns in more than 70 markets for the 2022 World Cup tournament, and conducting an omnichannel campaign. Each World Cup, Budweiser releases uniquely designed bottles and cans that represent the host country and makes sure consumers see the collaboration on shelves worldwide. In 2022, each bottle and can has a QR code, linking to a special Budweiser FIFA World Cup website where consumers will have the opportunity to access content, including the opportunity to win prizes, including a trip to the World Cup Finals. Last week, however, host country Qatar, which has tight restrictions on alcohol, and FIFA banned beer sales at World Cup stadiums (but Budweiser Zero non-alcohol beer can be sold). In Qatar, Anheuser-Busch InBev will focus the sale of alcohol beverages on the FIFA Fan Festival, other fan destinations and licensed venues.
For soccer fans, this World Cup is definitely a strange one, to say the least, Sá said. In turn, fewer brands than usual have actively decided to engage with it globally, mainly due to the problems with the host country, but also due to it being played during the winter and the holiday season, conflicting with so many other more traditional sports in the U.S.
It’s also important to note that soccer players are the highest-paid athletes in the world for a reason — international recognition and, therefore, international endorsements. Lionel Messi is the highest-paid athlete in the world in 2022 with Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar (yes, he goes by one name and also has a Netflix series and meme) all in the top five, according to Forbes. All three of these soccer players will play for their home countries in the World Cup. Messi, Ronaldo and Neymar are legendary internationally and their faces and names are everywhere, not just on jerseys and soccer balls — the Messie Burger launched at the Hard Rock Cafe this year, for example. Ronaldo, Messi and Neymar also consistently score the most views and engagement on Instagram, according to Nielsen’s data.
And What About World Cup 2026
In 2026, for the first time ever, the World Cup will reach across three countries: U.S., Canada and Mexico. Sixteen cities will host matches, growing the soccer fan bases across North America. In addition to MLS’ growth in the U.S., the Canadian Premier League started in 2017 and now has eight teams. Mexico’s Liga MX boasts some of the largest crowds of any North American league. In the U.S., Houston is the 2026 World Cup host city with the most football fans per capita, followed by Los Angeles and Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, according to Nielsen Scarborough.
Insights into North American soccer fandom from Nielsen include:
- U.S. men’s national team fans — 44% use Twitch for sports news and content. This is 1.41 times greater than the general population.
- Canadian men’s national team fans — Fandom has increased 33% since the 2026 World Cup hosts were announced.
- Mexican men’s national team fans — 81% of fans are interested in sports betting and 94% are interested in politics.
As far as how U.S. men’s national team soccer fans consume sports content, Nielsen found:
- 82% use YouTube
- 80% use Facebook
- 74% use Instagram
- 72% use Twitter
- 58% use TikTok
- 55% use Snapchat
- 44% use Twitch
Retailers that want to win the game for the 2026 World Cup and start making early inroads in North America need to start planning now for campaigns that can build on the momentum of 2022 and turn today’s fans into tomorrow’s customers.
“There might be room for hundreds of brands to take a small bite in 2026, but only a few of them will really own the narrative and really win in the 2026 World Cup,” Sá said. “Those probably will be the ones who start early, fail early, fix early, show resilience and commitment. Those are the ones who will be praised by the fans in 2026. When you stop to think of it, it's very much like the journey of the winning athlete of all sports, isn't it?”
RL Pro Analyst Take:
Sports fandom and retail have always been symbiotic, but with major world sporting events, the relationship between the two grows stronger. With world sporting events such as the World Cup or the Olympic games, retailers and brands gain global exposure for their products and brand voice. Outfitting a team — such as Ralph Lauren for the U.S. Olympic athletes, or being an official sponsor of the event — presents the retail industry with unique opportunities to expand their narratives. Sports fans tend to be very loyal consumers, looking for new ways to support their team and showcase their pride. Retailers need to look for creative ways to bring these fans into their ecosystems to provide experiences and products that enhance their fandom. As mentioned in this week’s insights, soccer is still gaining popularity within the U.S. market and retailers have a chance to court sporting fans as the market grows by introducing new products and branding. Other sports gaining notoriety with consumers, such as Formula 1, pickleball and various esports leagues, present additional future opportunities for retailers to engage with enthusiasts. Retailers can tap various fan communities to help find pockets of growth and allow them to tap into new buying centers for their products.