Amid sports equinox, MLS bets rivalries and celebrity will drive viewership

Some nights in October and November have what is referred to as a sports equinox, when different leagues’ simultaneous playtimes leave American sports leagues fighting for the fleeting attention from fans. Amid NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL games, Major League Soccer is betting that star power and storytelling can drive viewers to its postseason games.

The league’s latest campaign, “All for the Cup,” stars actress, entrepreneur, and San Diego FC part-owner Issa Rae in a TV spot and social videos that focus on MLS rivalries. The content is meant to “make the postseason this must-watch national occasion,” CMO Radhika Duggal said.

“This year, we’re starting to really push into storytelling so that we can help our fans understand the rivalries and the players, and who the players really are,” Duggal told Marketing Brew. “You see that throughout the year, but it’s meant to culminate here.”

Have some fun

MLS rolled out the campaign on Oct. 21 with a 30-second ad featuring moments of high drama from the season like goals, tackles, and celebrations, with Rae’s voice-over throughout. It’s set to run across MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, linear partner networks, and MLS-owned digital and social channels up until the MLS Cup Final on Dec. 6.

When Duggal joined the league last year, her team started redeveloping MLS’s brand strategy based on data and consumer insights, an area of expertise for Duggal from her pre-MLS days. They landed on the idea of “fun and entertainment” as a focal point for the brand, she said, themes that have been emphasized since the start of the season with campaigns like “Game On” starring Grammy-winner Doechii. “All for the Cup” is designed to follow that pattern while also spotlighting the high intensity and quality of play that happens during the postseason, Duggal said.

Own it

Beyond demonstrating the entertainment value of MLS, “All for the Cup” was designed as an invitation to draw new fans to the league, Duggal said, which is where Rae comes in. Rae has “credibility across multiple audiences” and is known as a “master storyteller” from her projects like the HBO show Insecure, Duggal said. Additionally, Rae is part of the ownership group of San Diego FC, which secured a spot in the playoffs this year during its first season of play, making her a natural fit for the campaign.

“It’s really hard to ever get anyone of that kind of stature [if] they don’t have some skin in the game,” she said. “It neither makes sense for the person, nor for the consumer, if the connection isn’t there.”

Rae is also fronting a three-part social series as part of the campaign to help the league reach fans who might not be watching sports on linear TV, and allows for retargeting, Duggal said. The social videos lean heavily into rivalries, which Duggal said builds on a research insight that those kinds of stories tend to drive fandom. In the first video of the series, for instance, Rae talks about San Diego v. Los Angeles, Miami v. Orlando, Portland v. Seattle, and Columbus v. Cincinnati team rivalries.

MLS has been growing its social footprint this year, increasing impressions on league and club accounts 17% year over year to about 13.7 billion, according to data shared by the league.

The other cup

Between action shots of stars like Messi, cinematic clips like LA Galaxy mascot Cozmo lying in a field of confetti, and Rae’s wide-reaching audience appeal, Duggal said she hopes the campaign drives enough interest in MLS for people to not only watch the playoffs through the final over the next month and a half, but also get excited about the sport in general.

Recent viewership and attendance metrics from the regular season indicate they already are: Gross live match viewership on streaming and linear platforms increased 29% year over year to an average of 3.7 million viewers per week, and this season had the second-highest total match attendance in MLS history, according to the league.

With the FIFA World Cup coming to North America next summer, Duggal said her team is already “aggressively thinking about” their role in that event. She declined to share exactly what MLS has in the works for the tournament, but said upcoming campaigns will place some emphasis on individual clubs to target local markets.

“I’m super excited about this idea that we’re testing some of those tools and capabilities to measure, to invest smartly, to be very targeted, [and] to drive full-funnel fandom,” Duggal said. “We’re testing a lot of those tools in 2025 so that we’re set up to be successful with that bigger swing in 2026.”