The World Cup proves attention can’t just be bought

The FIFA World Cup is one of the biggest marketing stages on the planet. Billions of people are following the tournament, stadiums are filled and social media is overflowing with celebrations, opinions and clips of fans enjoying themselves.

But each tournament seems to teach us the same lesson. Getting visibility and attention aren’t the same thing.

You can see the biggest brands that have spent millions securing official sponsorships and their logos are almost everywhere. They’ve bought the visibility that an SME might dream of. But being seen in that way doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be remembered.

Remember the Scottish fans in Boston? Thousands turned the city into a sea of tartan. Rather than manufacturing a moment, Samuel Adams, the city’s beer company, saw it and gave journalists the data that became part of the story. They didn’t create the news, they gave it what it needed.

Marketers will ask ‘how do we get people to notice our brand’ whereas comms will say ‘what are people already paying attention to and where do we belong in that?’. Here’s where we see the split between brands that contribute and the ones who interrupt.

I’ve loved seeing the World Cup feature across every platform. People are watching on TV, debating decisions on Reddit, discovering new clips via TikTok and seeing what journos have to say on X. And then, if you’re like some of the sporting mad members of Strand, you’re sharing reactions in WhatsApp groups. Attention is fragmented.

We’ve said before that PR, digital, social, creative and brand can’t work in isolation, they need to work together. Audiences don’t care for the channel; they just experience your brand.

And that is exactly why people will remember Samuel Adams. Not because of an expensive campaign, but because they capitalised on what was right in front of them.

Of course, we could wax lyrical about how the best performing brands are making the most of the event, but it’s just hours before the England match and we’re keen to get this on the website ahead of time.

If you have one takeaway from this, it’s that relevance can’t be bought, it’s earned. The businesses remembered at the end of this tournament will be the ones who became part of the conversation their audience was already having.

Come on England!