The biggest sporting moments are no longer confined to the pitch. THE·TEAM explores how brands can use music, fashion, creators and entertainment to turn cultural participation into meaningful connections.
In 1994, Motown icon Diana Ross opened the first Fifa World Cup in the US with a ceremonial penalty. Inevitably, she missed, a moment since immortalised online as one of the great curtain-raising gaffes.
What felt like a one-off entertainment stunt now looks like an early signal of the World Cup’s evolution into something much bigger than football.
Thirty-two years later, the game’s showpiece spectacle recently returned to North America, featuring 48 teams, three host countries and a worldwide audience of billions – bigger, louder and more culturally expansive than ever.
More than a tournament
This was the World Cup of everything: a tournament worn as much as watched, where cultural participation extended far beyond the pitch.
Football shirts have become cultural currency. Once confined to matchdays, they sit at the centre of fashion, lifestyle and identity, worn as readily on city streets as in stadiums.
Brands have recognised the shift. From Spain, dressed in Loewe, to Thrasher collaborating with Argentina, or Zalando turning German matchdays into fashion-ready fan moments, the World Cup has become a platform for cultural expression as much as for sporting competition. The result was a tournament that lived across wardrobes, social feeds and communities worldwide.
For many fans, engaging with the World Cup means more than watching matches. It means wearing it, sharing it and making it part of their own cultural identity.
It’s also performed, felt and heard. Music, once adjacent, now forms a key part of its tapestry. Artists were central to the storytelling around the main show, from Killer Mike welcoming the world to Atlanta to Barry Can’t Swim soundtracking Scotland’s first World Cup in 28 years. And live music was integral. Tyla lit up the opening ceremony, megastars headlined Fan Festivals across the continent and, fittingly, it all culminated in the inaugural FIFA World Cup Final halftime show, courtesy of Coldplay’s Chris Martin.
“The opportunity isn’t to interrupt the football, but to contribute to the wider cultural moment unfolding around it,” Tim Pearson, VP, brand partnerships, music, at THE·TEAM, says. “Music, like football, is a global passion with countless entry points, capable of connecting audiences across genres, generations and geographies. That makes the World Cup a uniquely powerful playing field for artists. The most effective partnerships understand that, creating campaigns that feel authentic and additive rather than simply borrowing the tournament’s attention.”
Brands are increasingly borrowing the language of entertainment to tell football stories. Nike’s six-minute film “Rip the Script” signalled this shift, blending sport and celebrity with figures such as Jason Sudeikis, Central Cee, LISA, Federico Valverde and Travis Scott. The line between athlete, artist and actor continues to blur as campaigns adopt cinematic scale and storytelling.
In that world, relevancy is critical, as Sam Stone, SVP, talent sales and marketing EMEA at THE·TEAM, notes: “When we build partnerships, we don’t think about talent through the lens of sport, music or entertainment. We think about relevance. The question is always: who can help a brand connect authentically with the audience it’s trying to reach? Our role is to understand the wider cultural ecosystem and identify the people who can bridge different worlds in a way that feels genuine. Burberry’s recent campaign did exactly that, bringing together cultural figures that felt authentic to both the brand and the football moment.”
Fan fests: a cultural playground
Among this disparate global carnival, 13 Fifa fan festivals acted as its town square; part music gig, part product showcase, part brand experience and part expo.
On any given day, fans moved between live music, food, fashion, and big-screen watch-alongs, coupled with brand activations and immersive experiences such as Unilever’s House of Fresh – an in-person creator hub that ran in New York, Miami and Mexico City.
These spaces were no longer secondary. They were the clearest tangible expression yet of how modern audiences now engage with live events: entertainment, marketing and commerce all combining in one place.
The social-first World Cup
The media landscape has changed just as dramatically. In 1994, the World Cup was a linear affair. Major broadcasters defined the tone and texture of what audiences consumed through a single screen, at a specific moment in time.
In 2026, it was lived on social media and narrated in real time. Watched live, of course, but also clipped up, curated and reinterpreted across platforms by the millions out there who constitute our creator economy. Fans shaped stories and creators guided audiences towards the colour and context beyond the pitch.
The World Cup, therefore, is no longer a singular, self-contained property. It’s now fluid, social and immersive. Sport is fused with fashion; music adds to the atmosphere; entertainment fuels participation and talent moves across it all.
For brands, talent and rights holders, that creates opportunity but also complexity. Showing up meaningfully demands expertise across the entire landscape.
As Elizabeth Lindsey, global president of brands and properties at THE·TEAM, explains: “Operating at the intersection of sport, music and entertainment gives us a unique understanding of how modern audiences watch, follow, participate and purchase within major cultural moments like the World Cup. And how brands, talent and rights holders can create relevance when it matters most. That informs everything we do, helping clients move beyond visibility and build the kind of connection and resonance that drives meaningful commercial impact.”
In an age of personalised feeds and polarised thinking, the World Cup still unites billions in a shared story. That’s a rare asset, and THE·TEAM is built to help brands participate in it meaningfully.
The challenge for brands is no longer visibility. It’s participation. The winners now and in the future will be those who understand how culture moves across sport, music and entertainment – and know how to create value within it.
