Football Belongs to Everyone: How Your Company or Community Can Celebrate the World Cup
World Cup craze isn’t just for the die-hard fans
ArcelorMittal does not make boots or broadcast matches, but during the World Cup it made a visual campaign called nossa base vem forte, "our base comes on strong," celebrating that its steel helps power the sport and schooling of young athletes across Brazil, and inviting people to wear that pride. Cheering for our base, the campaign says, is playing together. A company that makes metal found its own reason to be at the party.
That is the thing about the World Cup. It is the one spectacle the whole planet is invited to, and the invitation does not check whether you are a football club, a national team, or about sport at all. Right now, with the quarterfinals live, only seven teams are left, and the final set for July 19, billions of people will celebrate the World Cup anyway. So why not make this a celebration for the people in your company or community?
Look who is already celebrating
A moment this big is not a mere topic to cover. It is a party to host for your own people. You are not trying to own football. You are using the fact that everyone already feels something this month, and giving the people who belong to you a reason to celebrate together, out loud, where their friends can see.
ArcelorMittal is not the only one who found a way in, and the pattern across them is the point.
TVRI, Indonesia's national broadcaster, holds the free-to-air rights to every match. Its reason to celebrate is bringing the whole tournament home to the whole country, so its campaign is about being the channel that carries the Cup. The Indonesian branch of Hetero CNS, an Indian pharmaceutical company, simply celebrated the tournament together as colleagues, one shared frame for the group.
Not one of them is a football team nor a fan club, but all of them have their own reason to celebrate a spectacle the whole world already loves.
How to make a World Cup campaign yours
The move here is different from campaigns made by the fans of the football team. Instead of letting the football team take the center stage, put your community there.
Start with how you could frame your campaign:
Reads like an ad | Reads like a celebration |
|---|---|
[Company] Supports the World Cup 2026 | Nossa base vem forte, our base comes on strong |
Watch every match on [Channel] | We're bringing the whole Cup home, free, to everyone |
[Company] Celebrates the World Cup | Together we win |
When togetherness is in mind, and your main goal is to celebrate together, try to pick slogans or taglines that lean on “we” and “us”.
Then name your campaign the right way. Always include the name of your community, company, or club along with the event “World Cup 2026” so your people can actually find it and confirm that it’s for them. Not sure how to tackle it? Here’s how you can name your campaigns better.
Don’t forget about the caption, as it gives people context and more encouragement to check your campaign out. Here are some styles of captions you can try:
For companies: I am [Name] from [Company name], ready for the World Cup 2026 final and I pick [Country name] as my winner.
For communities: World Cup 2026 is coming to [community name], and I support [Country name]
For school/hobby clubs: It’s football season in [School/Hobby club name] and I’m cheering for [Country name]
Always use the “Add custom field” feature so your supporters can easilyl personalize your format by adding their own name or which country they’d like to show up for. End the caption with the push to share your campaign “Get your Twibbon on [link].” Although this is an internal event, adding the link to your campaign would make it easier for your friends to join.
Now that the campaign is covered, how do you make it feel like a real celebration? Here are two ideas for your campaign activation:
First, promote a Twibbon along with your online match screening.
This works for a community with multiple branches across regions. It might be difficult to gather in one place, so an online match screening can be a place to activate your Twibbon. While the match runs, members can live-tweet or live-text using their Twibbons.
Second, launch multiple campaigns to vote for a final winner.
Launch multiple campaigns for the teams left in the quarterfinals. And for the next few days until right before the semifinals, have your people pick one Twibbon of a team they think will go to the final. Prepare simple gifts, with your community, for whoever picked the right country, and, just like that, you’ve organized a fun activity together with Twibbons.
Football will keep belonging to everyone, the way it always has. The company that ran an ad is forgotten by the final whistle. The one that gave its own people a reason to celebrate together threw a party they remember long after the trophy is lifted.
