Best brand campaigns ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup

Football being the most popular sport, FIFA Men’s World Cup is one of the most awaited and most followed tournaments in the world. Consequently, it’s a great opportunity for big brands to indulge in brand activations and create innovative ad campaigns focused on the wider football audience to increase their reach and connect with the millions of football fans worldwide. 

Here we take a look at the eight best brand campaigns ahead of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup – 

8. Powerade’s ‘Power Your Fate’

Owned by the Coca-Cola company, energy drink Powerade’s brand campaign is going viral. Featuring Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal and Real Madrid’s Rodrygo, the ad showcases the preparation of top athletes, their discipline and positive mindset. It also shows important moments while playing football like scoring goals, saving a goal, dribbling past opposition players and scoring a solo goal. 

What’s made it interesting is their depiction of the players in those moments which is depicted artistically in the form of beautiful murals, statues and paintings, ending in a bronze façade on the stadium for maximum impact. 

The background narration lends a powerful impact to the whole commercial and having involved two popular and highly talented footballers with massive following, Powerade may just have succeeded in engaging a huge legion of fans

7. Fernet Branca’s ‘We are Unbearable’

An Italian Amaro or Bitters company, Fernet Branca has hit it out of the park with their FIFA World Cup brand campaign ‘We are Unbearable’. 

The brand campaign shows alternative opinions where the Argentinian fans are seeing the complaints from other nations through a song about how the Argentinian fans have been insufferable after their World Cup win in 2022 and how no one wants Argentina to win the World Cup again and then the situation changes as the Argentinian fans take over the song wanting the Albiceleste to win the World Cup to celebrate another four years of being World Champions. 

Created by Zurda Agency, the ad also includes references to local memes and appearances from Latin American content creators, lending an authentic cultural feel to the narrative, giving an emotional touch to the ad. 

It’s a very creative and funny song that instantly starts to get into your head and the Argentinian fans have liked it so much that this has been taken up as the unofficial anthem of the Argentine National Team. 

6. Lay’s ‘Most Epic Watch Party’

Another interesting brand campaign from Lay’s owned by Pepsi. Filled with football’s top stars Lionel Messi, David Beckham, Alexia Putellas, Thierry Henry and actor Steve Carell who are all being invited to a World Cup watch party alongside several shoppers However, the condition for the invite is that they must all have Lay’s with them for snacking. Additionally, they have also shown a Whatsapp group featuring live reactions and voice notes coming from the stars. 

The brand campaign has gone viral with more than 10 million followers which shows that Lay’s has been successful in fan engagement with this innovative and funny brand campaign. 

5. Budweiser’s ‘Let it Pour’

Budweiser, the official beer of the 2026 FIFA World Cup launched its FIFA World Cup 2026 campaign ‘Let It Pour’, featuring Norwegian striker Erling Haaland and legendary former German coach Jürgen Klopp. The ad features the myriad emotions that fans go through when watching their favourite football team. 

Created in association with Grey Global, the campaign leans into the idea of “letting it all out’ featuring fans watching the World Cup games in the stadium, in pubs and in front of their TV with friends, compatriots and colleagues. Budweiser has incorporated intense cinematic moments to capture the emotions of elation and misery in the fans and players alike. 

It’s a brilliantly conceptualized and conceived ad campaign ahead of the FIFA World Cup and with popular football celebrities involved, it will surely pull people to watch the coveted competition. 

4. Brahma’s ‘Let Yourself Believe’

Created in conjunction with Africa Creative, Brahma Beer’s ‘Tá Liberado Acreditar (Let Yourself Believe)’ is another fabulous ad campaign ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. 

Featuring the legendary Brazilian striker Ronaldo Nazario and current Brazil head-coach Carlo Ancelotti, the ad invokes nostalgia, belief and positivity in supporting the Brazilian National team at the upcoming World Cup. 

Brazil has a rich history of football and being the country with the most World Cup trophies (5), the expectation from the National Team remains sky high. With the World Cup fever gripping countries, this ad has been created to invoke positivity and belief amongst the Seleção fans to support their country in big numbers. 

The campaign starts with the narrative that Brazil aren’t favourites for the first time in years and that it has been more than two decades before a title and only 23% fans believe that they will win their sixth title. The ad also shows a dramatic recreation and comparison of clutch goals from the past World Cup wins. It also highlights the street football culture, the passion and love for football amongst the people in the country and urges them to believe and have faith in the team – a brilliant ad campaign trying to rouse the fans to support the Brazil National Team at the upcoming World Cup. 

3. Pepsi ‘Football Nation’

Global non-alcoholic beverage giants Pepsi have been known to create some iconic World Cup brand campaigns and this year it’s no different. Pepsi has come out with a brand campaign for the 2026 FIFA World Cup titled ‘Football Nation’ which is immensely funny and innovative. 

The aforementioned Pepsi campaign brings together several popular footballers – David Beckham, Mohamed Salah, Vinicius Junior, Alexia Putellas and Florian Wirtz. The brand campaign has been designed to highlight the fan banter, rivalry and football culture. 

The campaign starts with the idea of creating a fictional nation of football where the fans decide the rules. It begins with the age-old argument of calling it football vs soccer and goes into all kinds of rules being created by fans with the ad ending on the premise of settling everything on the pitch. The choice of music is exceptional too with ‘Freed from Desire’ blaring in the background with passionate fans bantering and discussing the different rules in football. 

This is an incredible brand campaign that will attract a huge audience, especially the youth. Pepsi’s creative team have simply outdone themselves yet again. 

2. LEGO’s ‘Everyone wants a piece’

Global Danish brand LEGO have finally achieved what a lot of brands have failed to manage before i.e., bringing the two footballing legends and fierce rivals Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi together in a brand campaign. 

LEGO’s latest brand campaign created for the upcoming World Cup is titled ‘Everyone wants a piece’ and features football superstars Ronaldo, Messi, Vinicius Junior and Kylian Mbappé. The LEGO Group has created World Cup player-themed exclusive sets and the LEGO World Cup trophy.

The ad shows the four mentioned players sitting in a round table format and trying to build the World Cup trophy from the Lego building bricks and as they try to complete it with their own miniature figure, the table keeps turning and, in the end, a young boy comes, opens a part of the trophy, brings out his miniature figure and completes it, leaving the players in surprise.

The LEGO Group has started collaborating with major sports like Football and F1 to reach a wider young audience and they may have just struck gold by bringing together fans of the two most followed athletes in the world ahead of the FIFA World Cup. 

1. Adidas’ ‘Backyard Legends’

Adidas have just blown every other brand away with this pre-World Cup advert. Titled the ‘Backyard Legends’ this ad features superstar footballers Messi, Beckham, Mbappé, Yamal and Trinity Rodman. One frame also shows Vinicius Junior, Pedri, Raphinha and Florian Wirtz. 

Actor Timothy Chalamet leads the campaign trying to make his team for 3 vs 3 against a street crew who play on a patch of concrete in between apartments and haven’t lost in 20 years. He narrates the story with all the right kind of emotions, excitement and focus on street culture, preparing his crew to compete against them. Adidas have also used non-intrusive AI work to give Beckham a mohawk, showing a younger Zinedine Zidane and Alessandro Del Piero who also lose to the said street crew. 

The ending is even more incredible with Messi and Bad Bunny showing up to see if Chalamet’s team wins. The whole 90’s and street football vibes give the advert an amazing feel. Hands down the best World Cup advert this year with people calling it to be made into a movie or a TV series.