By Steven Dennison, Managing Partner, Commercial, DOOH.com
Few global events command attention like the FIFA World Cup. It is one of the rare occasions where emotion, culture and audience attention come together on a truly international scale. For advertisers, it is much more than an opportunity to reach millions of people. It is a chance to become part of a shared cultural experience.
Today’s audiences are not simply watching football. They are travelling to matches, gathering in pubs and fan zones, sharing reactions on social media and celebrating together in city centres. Brands that can connect with those moments in a relevant way have the opportunity to build genuine engagement rather than simply deliver impressions.
This is where Digital Out of Home (DOOH) has become increasingly valuable.
The World Cup is experienced just as much in the physical world as it is on television or streaming platforms. Fans move through transport hubs, stadium surroundings, shopping districts and entertainment venues throughout the tournament, creating highly engaged audiences beyond the screen. OOH gives brands a strong public presence in these environments, while Dynamic DOOH allows campaigns to adapt in real time. Instead of relying on static creative planned months in advance, advertisers can update messaging based on match schedules, live scores, team progression and local audience behaviour, ensuring campaigns remain relevant throughout the competition.
This represents a significant shift from how World Cup advertising worked a decade ago. Previously, success was often measured by securing the biggest billboard or producing the most memorable television commercial. Today, campaigns are far more flexible, data driven and content led. Rather than simply advertising around the tournament, brands are increasingly participating in it.
Technology has driven that evolution. Live sports data, programmatic media buying and dynamic creative now allow campaigns to respond as events happen. Creative can evolve throughout the tournament to reflect what fans are experiencing in real time.
Dynamic creative is central to this approach. Campaigns are built around creative templates and rules prepared before the tournament begins. As matches unfold, approved content can automatically update to reflect kick off times, live scores, team progression or other key moments. The objective is not simply to react quickly, but to deliver messages that feel relevant.
While these campaigns appear spontaneous, much of the work happens before the first match. Successful execution requires media planning, creative frameworks, live data integrations and clearly defined approval processes. Teams monitor match data, validate creative triggers and ensure the correct message reaches the right screens at the right time. With the right infrastructure, campaigns can be updated within seconds. More often than not, the greatest challenge is not the technology itself but the speed of creative approval.
The most successful World Cup campaigns understand that football is about much more than the game itself. Rather than simply using football imagery, they connect their products and services to how fans experience the tournament. Whether that is helping supporters order food during a match, promoting drinks for a watch party, highlighting last minute grocery deliveries or tapping into conversations around the game, the strongest campaigns feel contextually relevant rather than opportunistic. Brands such as DoorDash, Tesco Whoosh, Sky Bet and tournament partners like Volvic all have opportunities to add value because their messaging naturally aligns with what consumers are doing at that moment. By becoming part of the matchday experience instead of simply borrowing football’s popularity, brands can build stronger engagement and greater relevance.
Achieving that balance requires careful planning. Instead of developing every execution in advance, brands should create flexible frameworks that include creative templates, tone of voice and decision making processes. This provides enough structure to remain consistent while allowing campaigns to feel live and spontaneous.
A recent example is DoorDash’s campaign, “Deliver Us to Fútbol”, from our team at DOOH.com, GUT LA and WPP Media OOH US.
Designed around the pace of the FIFA World Cup 2026™, the campaign uses real time data to keep creative relevant across all 104 matches during the 39 day tournament. The DoorDash logo became part of the action, transforming into a live scoreboard that updated instantly at the final whistle to reflect the latest result.
The campaign appears across landmark DOOH locations including New Tradition’s The Reef in Downtown Los Angeles, premium placements throughout Times Square and the innovative Pivot Digital Barges sailing round Miami in one of the tournament’s host cities.
By combining precision planning with dynamic creative, DoorDash maintained a consistent brand presence while ensuring every placement reflected the latest tournament action. The campaign demonstrated how DOOH can move beyond scheduled advertising to become a genuinely responsive communications channel that mirrors the pace of live sport.
Looking ahead, three trends are likely to shape advertising around major sporting events. The first is continued growth in real time creative driven by live sports data and audience behaviour. The second is greater localisation, with campaigns tailored by city, venue, audience and moment. The third is deeper integration between DOOH, mobile, social media and commerce, allowing campaigns to move audiences seamlessly from awareness to action.
The brands that succeed will be those that combine careful planning with the flexibility to respond when sport delivers the unexpected. In a tournament already defined by unforgettable moments, the most effective advertising will not simply capture attention. It will become part of the experience itself.
