The WARC Podcast Football fever: why this year's World Cup will be different
Mar 31, 2026
Omar Oakes, founder of Oomph and author of the Global Ad Trends: FIFA World Cup 2026 report, explains how the 2026 World Cup will reshape advertising. He highlights the shrinking TV-driven uplift, media fragmentation and shifting budgets across host markets. He also explores new inventory, streamer and creator deals, and how live sport still delivers rare mass cultural reach.
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World Cup Ad Impact Is Large But Declining
- The World Cup still injects substantial ad spend but its relative commercial impact is shrinking over time.
- WARC estimates an incremental $10.5bn for 2026, down from $12.6bn in 2018 after adjusting for media fragmentation and market context.
Media Fragmentation Erodes Tournament Uplift
- Media fragmentation has weakened the tournament's uplift on overall ad growth despite large audiences for individual moments.
- Stripping out the World Cup reduces forecast global ad growth from 9.1% to about 1.1% in 2026.
US Host Effect Can Be Surprisingly Small
- The US demonstrates a different pattern where host-market uplift can be minimal even for big events.
- Even in 2018, with the US not qualifying, uplift in US ad spend barely hit 1.5%, showing host effects vary by market.