So, I heard the World Cup finished.
If you’re expecting performance breakdowns, discussions of the standout goals, or assessments of which referee decisions were actually fair, you’ve come to the wrong place.
I’m not a football fan. I can’t commit to watching 90+ minutes of 22 grown men chasing a ball. What does interest me is something that’s actually going to pay the bills: the marketing.
Major sporting events always create a secondary competition between brands seeking to insert themselves into the conversation. This year’s FIFA tournament was no different, producing some genuinely clever examples of reactive marketing and social-first creativity, often delivered with the kind of tongue-in-cheek fun that really gets the Facebook mums talking.
Here are the five campaigns that caught my attention.
Paddy Power finding a way to join the World Cup anyway
Some of the best campaign work came from a country that wasn’t even at the tournament. With Ireland absent from the competition, Paddy Power faced a PR challenge familiar to many brands: how do you get people excited about an event they’re not directly involved in?
Rather than pretending Irish fans cared about every match equally, Paddy Power built an outdoor campaign around the temporary loyalties and rivalries that emerge whenever Ireland misses a major tournament.
Support messages such as “Go Panama”, “Support Uruguay” and “Viva Brazil” appeared across billboards, train stations, airport locations, all encouraging Irish fans to adopt teams for reasons ranging from cultural connections to little more than football banter.
The campaign’s brilliance was that it didn’t try to manufacture enthusiasm for the World Cup. Instead, it recognised a genuine behaviour that already exists. Every major tournament without Ireland creates a search for a surrogate team, whether it’s due to family links, holiday memories or simply wanting England to lose. Paddy Power simply gave those conversations a public platform.
One airport advert asked travellers if they had “forgotten their passport?”, turning Ireland’s absence from the tournament into the punchline. Rather than dwelling on disappointment, the campaign transformed it into something shareable and self-aware.
While countless brands spent the tournament talking about football, Paddy Power spent it talking about football fans. And that’s usually where the more interesting stories are.
Levi’s and Heinz turning cover-ups into coverage
Levi’s found itself at the centre of a venue headache after FIFA’s Clean Stadium rules forced Levi’s Stadium to temporarily become the far less exciting-sounding “San Francisco Bay Area Stadium”. While the wordmark was covered for the duration of the tournament, the unmistakable shape of the batwing logo remained.
Rather than ignore the situation, Levi’s leaned all the way in, welcoming the world to the “Beautiful REDACTED Stadium” across social media and changing their own profile pictures to match.
Heinz hit a similar snag after bottles of ketchup inside stadium areas were spotted with their logos taped over, due to similar non-sponsor branding restrictions.
The response? Heinz turned FIFA’s attempt at brand protection into free publicity, positioning itself as “the unofficial stadium ketchup” and mocking the taped-over bottles across social channels.
These stories crossed paths when Levi’s joined Heinz online in joking about their shared experience. Suddenly, two separate examples of brand restrictions became one wider viral conversation.
Our takeaway is that restrictions don’t have to suppress brands. Sometimes they instead create far better stories than traditional advertising ever could.
Norwegian Air turning online banter into business
Ahead of England’s quarter-final clash with Norway, Norwegian Air challenged British Airways to a simple social media wager. The losing airline would swap its online branding to match its rival.
When England secured victory, Norwegian Air followed through. Its social channels adopted British Airways branding, accompanied by a series of posts acknowledging defeat and celebrating England’s win.
It was a simple idea that didn’t require expensive, elaborate production. Just two well-known brands committing to a joke and hashing it out via phone screens.
But that type of engagement made it all the more genuine. Rather than acting like corporate competitors battling for customers, Norwegian Air and British Airways acted more like the actual football fans they were aiming to engage. That authenticity helped the story travel well beyond the aviation press, generating mainstream coverage and social engagement on both sides.
After the headlines began, the airline quickly followed through and launched a promotional fare sale between the UK and Norway, converting that attention into actual ticket sales.
Too often brands create awareness without any plan to drive actual business results. Norwegian managing both is a useful reminder that the best World Cup activations don’t always look like obvious marketing campaigns.
Greggs and Uber Eats serve up a lesson in reactive marketing
Food brands also jumped on the matchday hype by leaning into football rivalries.
Ahead of England’s last-16 clash with Mexico, Greggs announced it was temporarily “benching” its Mexican chicken range in England stores. Customers were told the decision had been made after “careful consideration” because, naturally, “it’s coming home”.
(Personally, I’m glad that phrase is retiring for another few years. And who knew Greggs had a Mexican chicken range?)
The stunt generated national coverage despite requiring little more than a social post and a willingness to commit to the bit. More importantly, it felt unmistakably Greggs. As the stunt aligned so naturally with their established tone of voice, it felt like an authentic connection and look at the World Cup through the lens of their own products and audience.
Uber Eats later adopted a similar approach ahead of England’s semi-final against Argentina, temporarily suspending Argentine dishes from its UK platform to show support as ‘football takes priority’.
What made that campaign particularly effective was the reaction it generated. Uber Argentina fired back, Uber Brazil joined in, and even Gordon Ramsay became part of the conversation. What started as a single social media post quickly snowballed into a much larger story.
Both campaigns demonstrate a key lesson for brands during major cultural moments. Finding your part in the conversation surrounding major events and staying true to your own brand and audience so you don’t appear out of place is key.
Iceland proving that attention isn’t always controllable
Of course, not every World Cup stunt goes to plan.
Ahead of England’s semi-final clash with Argentina, Iceland temporarily renamed three stores “England”, selecting locations linked to members of the national squad to tap into tournament optimism.
The idea was simple and exactly the sort of activation that tends to generate local and national media coverage. Initially, it achieved exactly that.
Unfortunately, this story didn’t stay focused on football for long.
According to Iceland, the retailer was promptly contacted by lawyers acting on behalf of the Football Association and asked to remove the displays. What was intended as a light-hearted show of support for the national team quickly became a conversation about trademarks and legal challenges.
Unlike with Levi’s and Heinz, who successfully turned their restrictions into part of the joke, Iceland found itself reacting to events rather than driving them.
Generating attention is only half the challenge. The other half is maintaining control of the story once people actually start paying attention.
The bottom line
From covered logos and social media wagers to food-based football banter and unexpected legal disputes, this tournament proved that the smartest campaigns don’t come from forcing a message or throwing millions at official sponsorships.
The brands that won the internet weren’t necessarily the ones spending the most; they were the ones reacting fast, spotting the right opportunities and giving people a genuine reason to laugh and share.