Why brands are bringing creators to the World Cup sidelines

July 02, 2026 Three weeks into the 2026 FIFA World Cup, brands aren’t just buying media around the tournament – they’re building entire creator-led activation machines, from local microcreators selling host cities to influencer-heavy sidelines content that turns every match into a days-long stream of social posts Advertisement TOP STORY The Sports Marketing Playbook Why brands are bringing creators to the World Cup sidelines  Brands are bringing creators to the World Cup sidelines to boost engagement, tap into new audiences, and be a part of the cultural conversation. OTHER THINGS TO KNOW Join us in Miami, September 14-16 at the Digiday Publishing Summit to hear how media companies are building and adapting their business models to address and overcome current industry challenges. Pass prices rise after July 6th. With generative AI, teams that once produced five creatives per campaign are now producing 50. This only works if the team has structured creative analysis in place to extract what those ad variants reveal. Partner insights from Celtra. Brands that invest in creative marketing outperform the competition and grow. Apple, known for its creativity, consistently reports remarkable growth, like a 36% increase in monthly engagement on Apple TV. Partner insights from Cannes Lions. MEDIA & PLATFORMS Member exclusive Media Briefing: ‘Surveillance pricing’ laws are coming for dynamic subscription strategies  How a ‘surveillance pricing’ lawsuit and new New York legislation could reshape publishers’ subscription pricing strategies. PARTNER INSIGHTS FROM PATIENTPOINT How health and wellness businesses can apply skills they already know to new inventory Traditional channels often mean choosing between scale and audience quality. Using existing programmatic strategies, companies can expand into new inventory, such as doctors’ offices, to reach qualified audiences at the most ideal moments of heightened relevance. MARKETING The Programmatic Marketer The rise of pharma ad tech Insiders say it comes at the cost of legacy platforms such as DSPs and SSPs. Navigating Economic Instability Nike says it expects $986 million in IEEPA tariff refunds The company said its North America business expects to recover $965 million in tariff refunds from the U.S. government. PARTNER INSIGHTS FROM ADJUST How Tripledot Studios managed a migration without disruption Tripledot’s internal business intelligence systems serve as the central source of truth for performance, and any disruption to data pipelines or cohort tracking would have had downstream effects across teams. Advertisement PARTNER INSIGHTS FROM TALON.ONE How brands can make loyalty actionable for AI agents Agentic readiness means getting the fundamentals right. When a brand’s loyalty and promotions data foundations are in place, connecting to agentic commerce platforms becomes a straightforward integration, not a replatforming effort. ICYMI The Creator Economy ‘A Super Bowl every two days’: Inside Unilever’s 50,000-creator World Cup play 50,000 creators activated globally, massive in-person pop-ups in host cities, and more are all part of Unilever’s World Cup creator push. Marketing on Platforms OpenAI looks beyond a single ad format with image, video and conversational ads in the works OpenAI is hiring San Francisco-based software engineers to build text, image video, native, conversational and interactive ads. Written by Jim Cooper and Sara Jerde Were you forwarded this email? Sign up to get it daily. Advertise | Digiday+ | Events | Awards Update your email | Unsubscribe | Privacy policy