This increasingly common behavior could render traditional sponsorships dead on arrival. A brand purchases an incredibly expensive broadcast commercial, only for it to air to a room of bowed heads—invisible the moment the referee blows the whistle.

Brands fix this disconnect when they meet fans precisely where their thumbs are. They engineer living marketing systems that plug directly into the specific apps, influencer streams, and cultural moments commanding actual attention. In fact, this is how brands have dominated this summer’s global tournament by catching fans mid-scroll. Here’s a handful of proven, winning strategies to inspire your next fan engagement.

High-Velocity Asset Engines 

To capture everyday sports fans and cord-cutters, FOX One needed to be inescapable. They anchored their campaign on a single, uncompromising mandate: “The World Cup comes first.”

Executing that message required an operational model built for massive scale and relentless speed. FOX One transformed major transit and cultural hubs into brand moments that stopped audiences in their tracks: travelers in LAX and JFK terminals, pedestrians passing glowing digital kiosks in West Hollywood, and crowds standing under the towering screens of Times Square in New York and The Reef in Los Angeles all confronted the same bold directive.

This physical takeover demanded a digital infrastructure capable of matching its footprint. We deployed a high-volume, tier-three production model to fuel a robust programmatic media strategy, pushing rapid-turnaround assets across paid social feeds, web channels, and O&O digital displays to catch casual fans the second they opened their apps.

To close the loop, we brought the message straight into the living room through a comprehensive Connected TV (CTV) takeover of the Vizio smart TV platform. The instant a fan grabbed their remote and powered on the screen, the official streaming destination was already waiting for them, making the choice to sign up frictionless.

Benching Owned IP

When the global gaze locks onto the pitch, Netflix recognized that some cultural moments aren't meant to be competed with, but celebrated. They solved this by giving their own content library a vacation.

The brand bypassed standard promotional strategies to launch a cheeky, brutally honest out-of-home and social campaign acknowledging the fact that everyone—including the characters of famous Netflix series—just wanted to watch the games. They swapped out the official artwork for their biggest shows, replacing iconic show leads across billboards, social channels and the Netflix platform itself with handwritten, paper “out to lunch” signs. For a few weeks, Mexican viewers logged onto the platform to find an entire row of local titles in the library displaying these signs. The posters declared “We're out”-style messages that were highly contextual to the specific title, making references to the charters’ storylines.

We anchored this physical and digital takeover with a hero film featuring an entire roster of iconic show characters taking a well-deserved break. What truly resonated with audiences were the unlikely crossovers between these different worlds, topped off with a surprise cameo from the real-life VP of Content for Latin America, Francisco Ramos—the actual boss. The platform leaned completely into the cultural obsession, capturing attention by humorously admitting they didn’t have it. Ironically, both the film and the OOH pieces closed with the same sentiment: “Some moments can wait, this one cannot. See you soon.”

Engineering Modern Lore

When YouTube set out to kick off a massive cultural conversation ahead of the summer’s biggest soccer tournament, a standard announcement wouldn't suffice. The primary objective was to actively drive and become part of a cultural phenomenon before the first whistle even blew. We solved this by anchoring their message to two simultaneous national obsessions: the country's feverish hope for a sixth title—the “Hexa”—and the massive success of the recent Brazilian film The Secret Agent.

The resulting campaign, “A Agente do Hexa,” starred 80-year-old Tânia Maria, a main cast member from the film. Her age meant she had naturally lived through every single one of Brazil’s past world championship victories. The creative team utilized Gemini to seamlessly insert her into grainy, archival footage of those historic moments. The campaign film also playfully depicted her performing a bit of witchcraft, framing the actress as the country’s secret lucky charm pulling the strings behind every championship win.

This approach transformed a pre-tournament brand moment into a piece of highly shareable cultural lore, driving 1.4 million earned views and generated over 51,000 positive engagements. It proved that merging artificial intelligence with deep-rooted cultural nostalgia can successfully ignite a cultural phenomenon that resonates far beyond a standard commercial spot.

Once the tournament began, we expanded the strategy to capture the live momentum. We launched a separate, social-first campaign aimed at boosting community engagement alongside Casa CazéTV. Through a dedicated paid creators program, we pushed responsive, tune-in content that earned more than 60% positive sentiment and over 90M views.

Continuous, Living Marketing Systems

The brands that dominated the games discarded the linear broadcast mentality entirely. They refused to wait for a designated commercial break; instead, they synchronized their campaigns with the raw momentum of the tournament itself. These responsive layers wrap directly around the fan experience, no matter where and how they watch. 

So, the winning play next major sporting event? Engineer active, continuous marketing systems capable of capturing intent the second a fan reaches for their smartphone.