With the world’s biggest quadrennial sporting event just 10 days away, SU has been capturing unique brand activations and crossover campaign insights into the longstanding partnership between FIFA and The Coca-Cola Company, a FIFA partner since 1976 and an official sponsor since 1978. Let’s take a closer look at this epic partnership:

FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour by Coca-Cola

The World Cup Trophy Tour–which kicked off in Dubai in May and included 51 countries and territories–wraps up this week in Toronto, its last stop in North America (host of the 2026 World Cup) before the trophy heads to Qatar for the hotly anticipated 2022 event, beginning November 20. For the first time ever, the tour visited all 32 countries that qualified for this year’s World Cup–bringing Coca-Cola and FIFA one step closer to their goal of visiting each of FIFA’s 211 member associations by 2030.

In another first, all activations throughout the tour were digitally led–reducing waste and minimizing consumption of water, energy, and materials at each stop–in a nod to the beverage giant’s wide-ranging sustainability efforts.

SponsorUnited was on the ground for the tour’s stop in Dallas earlier this week. The seamless, two-day event proved to be a terrific experience for fans, who enjoyed activities including fast-feet interactive games and foosball. At Coke Ink Studio, they could get “inked” with temporary tattoos of Coke cans bearing promises they’d make if the US wins the World Cup, part of the company’s sprawling “Believing Is Magic” campaign (detailed below). Other fan favorites: a photo opp with the trophy, sponsored by Coca-Cola, as well as a chance to create a Panini trading card with a selfie.

“Believing Is Magic”Campaign

To inspire fans worldwide to share the commitments they make in support of their favorite teams, Coca-Cola unveiled the “Believing is Magic” campaign in September, spotlighting authentic moments of connection between fans, and the beliefs, rituals, and promises inherent in World Cup fandom. In keeping with Coca-Cola’s focus on digitally driven initiatives, the campaign features an online hub that connects fans across the world, and three digital films about the promises fans make if their team wins.

Taglines like, “If we win I’ll get a tattoo” will also feature on special edition “promise” packaging worldwide–part of Coca-Cola’s commitment to immerse fans in soccer’s unifying magic.

Once the World Cup kicks off on November 20, Coca-Cola will also unveil a program that highlights fan superstitions during matches. New packaging also will showcase team colors and shared promises.

World Cup 2022 Anthem: “A Kind of Magic”

On October 19, Coca-Cola and Universal Music Group announced the unveiling of the FIFA World Cup 2022 campaign anthem–a multicultural reimagining of Queen’s iconic track, “A Kind of Magic.”

A collaboration between three female recording artists–Danna Paola of Mexico, Felukah of Egypt, and Tamtam of Saudi Arabia–the song was released on October 21, as was the accompanying performance video, filmed in Mexico City. The video captures the excitement for one of the biggest sporting events on the planet, fusing Latin and Arabic culture with the impassioned world of the FIFA World Cup.

An electrifying performance of “A Kind of Magic” is scheduled for the World Cup opening ceremony on November 20, when Qatar will face off against Ecuador to jumpstart the FIFA festivities.

UFC 280 took place over the weekend in Abu Dhabi, and 20+ brands were spotted activating during the Pay-Per-View broadcast including these frequently seen brands:

- DraftKings

- Crypto.com

- VeChain

- Monster Energy

The 2022 Laver Cup was held over the weekend at O2 Arena in London, England.

ROLEX, the founding parter of the Cup, along with Mercedes-Benz AG, HEAD&UPS were some of the brands activating during the tournament.

SponsorUnited had courtside seats for the first day of the U.S. Open, when a slew of fans–and brands–descended on the USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center for the celebrated two-week event.

This year, Cadillac replaced Mercedes-Benz as the elite tournament’s official vehicle, a long-term agreement that was announced in mid-August. The American carmaker’s presence was felt from the start, thanks to the fleet of vehicles that transport players and staff around New York during the two weeks of play stationed outside the tournament complex.

Inside the tennis center, Cadillac’s sponsorship gives the brand net signage on all 17 tournament courts at the Open, including practice courts and the match courts seen on ESPN, the event’s broadcast partner.

Located directly next to Arthur Ashe Stadium–the tournament’s premier venue–the Cadillac Pavilion features an immersive experience for fans that showcases the brand’s plans to be fully electric powered by the end of this decade, as well as its new electric SUV, the Lyriq, onsite for visitors to ogle. Along with the pavilion activation, Cadillac placed another Lyriq vehicle next to the practice courts for passers-by to peruse.

Another marquee sponsor, JP Morgan Chase, enjoyed pride of place at the Open with its Chase Lounge, located near the center’s entrance and exclusively accessible to cardholders.

American Express, a partner of the U.S. Open since 1994, is also making a splash with its Amex Fan Experience venue. Activations include glow tennis–a virtual game where fans volley a neon ball back and forth on a digital court–tennis-themed nail art, and a cardholder-only lounge where fans can enjoy refreshments while charging their devices. The venue also features a mini tennis court, a tennis-ball version of Connect 4, and a claw machine where skillful fans can win an Amex radio to listen to the tournament matches on ESPN.

Other brands are showcasing an array of predominantly tech-driven activations alongside the non-stadium courts. Wilson Sporting Goods’ virtual reality activation allows fans to don a headset that inserts them into a tennis match, while CHUBB sponsors a game where they pick up a racquet to “hit” a virtual ball that splatters virtual paint across a screen. Meanwhile, Chase’s outsize activation invites fans to play an array of video games, and also offers a photo opp in a mirrored selfie photo booth. Moderna gives fans the chance to sign a screen and have their signature emailed to them on a selfie, while a U.S. Open campaign, #BeOpen, lets fans use a selfie to create a GIF.

Besides touting its sleek seat design and in-flight leg space with a display and photo opportunity, Emirates Airlines also sponsored the NextGen Kids Zone, which offers a variety of onsite activities for little tennis fans like basketball, hockey, football, soccer and other sports.

For fatigued fans needing a pick-me-up, IHG Hotels & Resorts offers massages for joining their membership and rewards program.

Nick Kyrgios won Washington’s 2022 Citi Open, his second Citi Open championship in just over three years.

Citi was the title sponsor for this event. Host sponsors included Kastle Systems, Events DC, CityRidge, Emirates and Tennis Channel.

SponsorUnited was on the ground at the 2022 MLS All-Star Skills Challenge. Below are the top 3 most commonly seen brands during the Minneapolis-based event.

Event Activations:

AT&T

Old Spice

Bounty

ESPN Broadcast:

AT&T

GMC

Frontier Communications

Check out the graphic below to see how these brands activated during the event.

The UEFA2022 Women's Euro–which wrapped up in London on Sunday–garnered record attendance across the entire tournament, doubling it from 2017 for a new record of nearly 575,000 spectators.

The final match–which saw England win its first-ever major women’s championship with a 2-1 victory over Germany–also set new records for attendance and broadcast viewership, with over 87,000 fans and 17.5 million viewers in the UK, respectively.

Fifteen brands leveraged the tournament’s unprecedented spotlight as sponsors, with visibility on social media and at the venues. Healthcare brand Grifols’ many sponsorship assets included signage on the video board, sponsored content via email, and social media posts of the tournament’s top scorer, Beth Mead.

Heineken had a unique opportunity as presenting sponsor of the pregame warm-up for some of the matches, which included a live DJ set.

As the presenting sponsor of the “player of the match” for all 31 games, VISA enjoyed prime positioning, with its logo front and center on the trophy. VISA also scored the most social posts with the UEFA Women’s Champions League with 72–nearly double those of second-place Heineken.

VISA’s social posts with the UEFA outnumbers all other brands in 2022, while Heineken scored the highest total engagement with the league, with 160,000 followers across 46 posts. Heineken also leads in highest average engagement per post, at over 3,000 followers.

VISA and Heineken also created campaigns celebrating women’s empowerment surrounding the tournament. Heineken launched a campaign in May that encourages fans of all genders to show their passion for women’s football. VISA’s campaign, unveiled last month across audio, digital, and print formats, leveraged the tagline, "When more of us play, all of us win," in homage to female athletes.

Last weekend Matt Fitzpatrick took home his first major championship win. Fitzpatrick has deals with Castore, Protiviti, Skechers, Troon and Workday. All five brands can be seen on the course either on his hat, shirt or golf bag. Fitzpatrick promotes his social media where he is ranked #71 amongst golfers in terms of total followers (219K total following across Instagram, Twitter, Facebook) with a 15% YOY growth in followers.

Take a closer look into which brands boasted a prominent presence during the coveted U.S. Open:

Over 70 brands were active on the broadcast the final day while Lexus, American Express, ROLEX, Sentry, &Deloitte had the most unique assets during the event.

Viewership for the final round on NBC was 5.41M and a key way brands activated during the event was through broadcast advertisements. 63 total brands had a placement during the final round of the event with 16 having more than one asset. Brands that had more than one asset include AT&T, Corona and Verizon.

Lexus, American Express and Rolex saw the greatest number of unique assets during the event with Sentry Insurance and Deloitte rounding out the top five. Here are just some of the ways these brands activated:

Lexus - Golf Simulator (Sponsored Attendee Activity), Trophy Experience, Split Screen Commercial, Ad / Logo Pop Up

American Express - American Express Cardmember Lounge, Member When Moments (Featured Segment), Split Screen Commercial

Rolex - Interior Signage, Upcoming USGA Championships and Scoreboard (Featured Segments), Ad / Logo Pop Up

Sentry Insurance - USGA GHIN Mobile App (Presenting Sponsor), Split Screen Commercial

Deloitte - Bunker Cam (Presenting Sponsor), Ad / Logo Pop Up, Live Read Commercial

* These five brands are all partners of the U.S. Golf Association (USGA)

Austin Leibach, who oversees golf operations at SponsorUnited, gives his thoughts on what the LIV Golf Tour could mean for the PGA TOUR, “All eyes are always on the golf majors, the four largest tournaments each year, but I expect to see even more focus on them in the coming year. The PGA TOUR is missing some major star power in the likes of Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Dechambeau, Koepka, and others, lured away by the extreme salaries of the LIV Golf Tour. Since these golfers are still allowed to compete in the majors, I anticipate a larger brand focus on these normally exclusive tournaments.”

The Enjoy Illinois 300 Presented by Ticketsmarter took place Sunday and kept NASCAR fans on the edge of their seats. This was the first Cup Series NASCAR Race held at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway and it did not disappoint. It was an exciting event that finished with an overtime shootout won by Joey Logano, achieving his 60th career win in his 15 years of racing. Lagano has Pennzoil as a main sponsor along with a hit list of brands that includes Shell, AAA & Ford.

World Wide Tech became the raceway title sponsor in 2019 and during the event there was a large amount of brands present in-venue, most of which have a direct tie to the midwest. Brands had a huge presence through the speedway (not just on the cars) so which brands were present?

Present via signage &activations were Ameren Illinois, Bommarito Automotive Group, C.A. Jones, Illinois Office of Tourism, Scott Credit Union, SSM Health, and of course World Wide Technology. Outside of the race itself, many of the brand activations draw their own attention from fans attending the raceway from tabling to interactive activities present throughout the venue. Some big brands activating on race day include Enterprise Rent-A-Car, GEICO, Toyota Racing, Oakley, McDonald's, and State Farm. Brands also have exposure through the drivers themselves, mostly through the branding on the cars themselves.

It’s no surprise that the best way to get brand exposure is to have your driver finish 1st. However, for this past Cup Series race, it pays to be partners with the top 5 finishers: Joey Logano x Pennzoil, Kyle Busch x Snickers, Kurt Busch x Monster Energy, Ryan Blaney x Dent Wizard, and Aric Almirola x Ford.

Roland Garros 2022 was not a tournament to be missed, but if you did you heard about it. Not only did Rafael Nadal win his 22nd Grand Slam title (which cements him as the greatest winner of all time), Iga Świątek continues her unbeaten streak of 35 wins consecutively and became the new number one women’s tennis player in the world.

The official sponsors of the event reaped the benefit of these history-making moments as all eyes were on the players and surrounding tournament signage. The brands making the biggest impression through the tournament were BNP Paribas, Emirates, Lacoste, Renault, Wilson, Oppo, Perrier, Rolex, Engie and Infosys.

On the athlete endorsements side, Nadal has over 44M followers on social media that over 11 brands have the privilege of leveraging. His partnerships provide a voice to brands like Babolat, Nike, Kia, Telefonica, Amstel Ultra, and Richard Mille, among others.

Nadal’s highest engaged posts were for these brand partners:

• Kia: 635K

• Telefonica: 470K

• Amstel Ultra: 440K

• Cantabria Labs: 260K

• Babolat: 99K

Within the women’s bracket, the Polish Iga Świątek has agreements with PZU Group, Tecnifibre, Asics, Rolex and Xiaomi. Iga also has an impressive social following like Nadal and has a total engagement of over 12M across 83 branded posts with five brands. With 10.93% of her audience engaged per post, each brand has received nearly 2.5M likes/comments/shares.

Last Saturday, Real Madrid raised their 14th Champions League trophy, making them the most successful team in the history of the tournament, with a total of 14 UCL trophies.

We broke down some of the top insights from the biggest soccer game of the year.

The PGA Championship concluded this Sunday as Justin Thomas took home the Wanamaker Trophy in a nail-biting three-hole playoff victory against Will Zalatoris.

16 new brands signed on with the PGA tournament as broadcast advertisers this year, including adidas, First Horizon Bank, and Morgan Stanley.

In one of the craziest Kentucky Derby. finishes ever, Rich Strike took home 1st at 80-1 odds, the largest in Derby history. The broadcast on NBC saw a 14% increase in the number of brands leveraging the over 15 million viewers this year, an 8% increase in viewership.

BMW was the newest addition to the Derby’s sponsorship list signing on as the Official Luxury Vehicle. With BMW entering the race for the first time, which brands have been capitalizing on the Derby’s viewership the longest?

Woodford Reserve has been the Official Bourbon of the Derby since 1999, the longest partnership to date. Longines and Vineyard Vines have also been Derby sponsors for over a decade with partnership starting in 2011.

*Photo From Churchill Downs Website

During the Derby, Churchill Downs owned brands TwinSpires and Brisnet also saw exposure throughout the race and events before and after.

A sponsor since 2020, Ford was visible at multiple points throughout the race including at the starting line for all to see. Ford was also visible across barrier signage throughout the course as well as on a large fixed wallscape on top of the stable.

The 2022 Formula 1 Miami Crypto.Com Grand Prix was an event not to be missed! Even with soaring ticket prices, over 85k fans were in attendance from all parts of the globe. In typical Miami fashion, the Grand Prix featured sponsored events and activities only Miami could produce. Inclusive of week-long events and waterfront activations.

Here’s what you missed…

The spectating area was divided into 4 “campuses,” North, South, East, and West.

After visiting the North Campus, fans were able to walk towards the South Campus, which featured a variety of activation, including Ferrari, Crypto.com, and McLaren, Bal Harbour Shops, among others. This area seemed to be geared towards suites and a more upscale ambiance and audience.

From drop off at gate 13, fans walked into the North Campus, which included activities from Red Bull, ESPN and Gainbridge, among many other merchandise, food, and drink vendors.

The East Campus and Marina provided a unique vibe, with yachts and a large club sponsored by MSC Cruises. This was one of the main focal points of the layout and was definitely a talking point.

There were also some other activations around the track from AutoNation, Flor De Cana, Heineken, Hard Rock, just to name a few.

The Miami GP was a massive success for the city as well as Formula 1 itself. Next stop, Vegas!

In addition to being the first MLS club to win CONCACAF Champions League, the Sounders will also be the first to represent the league at the FIFA Club World Cup.

We highlight some of the activations and FS1 broadcast ads during the Sounders 2022 CONCACAF Champions League victory, which saw a record-breaking crowd of 68,741 fans.

The 174th annual running of the Grand National horse race took place at the Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool this weekend, with between 500-600 million viewers worldwide.

Over 50 brands across 19 categories were seen partnering with the three-day race, including UK based brands Randox and Jewson.

Sunday was the first race of the 2022 MotoGP season, with Bastianini taking the victory in Qatar.

The Qatar Tourism Authority showcased many assets in their home GP, along with a variety of other brands activating.

Congratulations to the Los Angeles Rams for winning Super Bowl LVI and Cooper Kupp on receiving the MVP award.

Anheuser-Busch showcased their brands in featured segments during the broadcast on NBC, while Crypto brands, being new to the Super Bowl scene, saw advertisements from Coinbase, FTX, eToro&Crypto.com who have combined over 115 new sponsorship deals since the beginning of 2021.

The 2022 NHL All-Star Skills Competition presented by DraftKings Inc. featured brands sponsoring the events.

Discover Financial Services, Honda, EA SPORTS, Dunkin'​ and Verizon were among the brands who had a presence during the competition.

The 2022 College Football Playoff National Championship in Indianapolis aired on ESPN last night. More than 80 brands were visible during the broadcast where the The University of Georgia beat The University of Alabama 33 - 18.

Many familiar brands within the college space leveraged the airtime. AT&T who was seen throughout the game has over 60 deals across the NCAA. Other brands with a significant presence in the NCAA and also during the championship game broadcast were Taco Bell, Capital One, and Goodyear. These brands have 50, 30 and 10 deals across the NCAA respectively.

As the NCAA Football season comes to an end, more than 9,000 brands in over 30 categories were actively buying sponsorship or media within the NCAA since the start of the football season. TicketSmarter, Coca-Cola & Pepsi are the top three brands in terms of sponsorship deals with Allstate and Nike rounding out the top five.