This year the Canadian men’s national team (CMNT) is actually playing in the FIFA World Cup. It’s been 36 years since Canada’s last appearance in the quadrennial event. The tournament kicks off on Sunday, Nov. 20 with the final on Friday, Dec. 2 in Qatar. Soccer is one of the most watched sports globally with an estimated 3.5 billion fans and is expected to garner more eyes within the country this year.
With the event about two weeks away, there aren’t any major opportunities for this World Cup available, apart from some small spot sales.
Jim Kozak, SVP sport, entertainment, culture, MediaCom Canada, suggests that there are a few ways to leverage advertising or sponsorships around this year’s FIFA World Cup. These include partnerships with the media rights holder here in Canada, BellMedia (TSN/RDS). Brands can gain exposure around the global event through opportunities such as in-game broadcast features, commercial spots, custom content, experiential events like viewing parties and other brand activations.
Due to the seasonal time of year and the time zone difference between Canada and Qatar, Kozak anticipates that many initiatives will be based online and on social media in and around screens of all sizes.
Advertising and sponsorship opportunities were first offered to Global FIFA rights holders in their respective categories. However, once the first right of negotiation period opened up, any and all brands that BellMedia would want to partner with were able to participate. In addition, he says brands can partner with the Canadian Soccer Association and associate with the men’s national team or individual players who will actually be on the pitch.
Adidas has already released a World Cup lifestyle collection inspired by 1986 jerseys. Meanwhile, Coca-Cola has sponsored every World Cup since 1978.
However, advertisers need to proceed with caution, says Simon Ross, VP strategy and insights, Horizon Media.”We cannot ignore the negative press surrounding this tournament, particularly in relation to the 6,500 workers that have purportedly died building the stadiums, and other major issues such as the lack of LGBTQ+ rights in Qatar and other issues that have been reported in the lead up to this tournament. Brands need to be careful advertising in and around the world cup and balance the opportunity to reach new audiences with some of the negative connotations associated with this tournament,” explains Ross.
That hasn’t stopped the World Cup from being extremely popular. “With the phenomenal performance of the Canadian men’s national team in qualifying for the FIFA World Cup for the first time in 36 years, we have seen overwhelming advertiser demand for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, and we are nearly sold out through the entire tournament,” says Stewart Johnston, SVP of sales and sports, Bell Media. “As one of the world’s marquee sporting events, we are set to deliver extensive live production around the tournament, and we anticipate this strong momentum will create even greater demand heading into the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Canada, Mexico, and the USA.”
With the dovetail effect of this year’s Men’s World Cup brands should start thinking about opportunities for 2026 and there are also a number of upcoming soccer specific events that brands can take advantage of including the FIFA Women’s World Cup held next year in Australia and New Zealand.
Kozak says brands can look to achieve loftier goals and objectives through direct sponsorships with FIFA as we head towards the Women’s World Cup in 2023 and the 2026 Men’s World Cup that will take place across Canada, USA and Mexico. This is the only way that brands will show up within the broadcast while the actual game is in play. “Any brand that wants to reach Canadians in an authentic way around the sport of soccer should use a mix of a few or all of these avenues to form a truly integrated marketing campaign,” Kozak concludes.
