Inside Unilever’s World Cup sponsorship strategy

There’s no product in higher demand than an ice-cold beverage at a World Cup stadium in the middle of June—expect, perhaps, a stick of deodorant.

Enter CPG giant Unilever, which owns brands including Axe, Dove, and Degree, and is activating its World Cup sponsorship in several host cities across North America. And while the 360-degree marketing effort includes pro athlete endorsements, influencer partnerships sit at the center.

“In a cynical world like today, the influencer, or the creator—people who people relate to and understand or appreciate from different walks of their life—they have much more power,” Ryu Yokoi, chief media and marketing capability officer for personal care and North America, told Marketing Brew at Unilever’s House of Fresh content hub and activation in Manhattan.

The space, which also has iterations in Mexico City and Miami, was designed as an invite-only experience for influencers that includes a small indoor soccer pitch, manicurists, and several stations to snag personalized merch like jerseys and deodorant sticks.

Though the World Cup is already the “biggest spectator event” in the world, creator hubs are meant to be “immediately shareable” and “immediately content-worthy” to extend the reach and impact of Unilever’s sponsorship as far as possible, Yokoi said, demonstrating the important role influencers are playing in the tournament.

In the house: At House of Fresh, guests are greeted by stations where they can design custom soccer jerseys, pose for pictures to be turned into collectible Panini trading cards, put charms on trendy phone slings, and play foosball. Further into the space, creators can team up for organized games like 3-on-3 soccer on an LED pitch. On Tuesday morning, three-time NBA champion JaVale McGee stopped by to join in on a game of soccer-themed curling.

There have been between 200 and 250 creators passing through the space each day, and “not all of them have paid deliverables,” Sarah Potter, influencer and media director for personal care, told us. Naturally, creators are going to create content, but not everyone on the list has a massive following.

“The VIP talent is really important to us, our mega-creators, but also our nanos…are really driving that credibility online,” Potter said.

The Unilever team tracks sales and ROI “really religiously,” Yokoi said. Growing the reach and audience for each of the company’s brands through influencer and athlete partnerships that touch many different communities help create those business outcomes, he added.

The deodorant brand Rexona (which is known as Degree in the US) was the focal brand for the first three days of the house, June 13–16, with Dove Men+Care set to take center stage on June 18, and Dove on June 21. As of June 11, the first day of the World Cup, the tournament had generated over 58 billion views on YouTube alone, with brand videos accounting for 7.5% of those views, according to data from social video intelligence platform Tubular Labs. Axe Mexico had 241 million views by then, while Rexona had 172 million, per Tubular Labs.

In the arena: As an official World Cup sponsor, Unilever is also able to have a presence at the stadiums. Outside New York New Jersey Stadium, the company’s activation includes a space where fans can get the same personalized Panini cards as the creators, lockers displaying branded jerseys with the names of sponsored athletes like USMNT captain Christian Pulisic, free product samples, and much-needed misting showerheads to help fans cool off.

Beyond demand for freshening up in the summer heat, Unilever has the credentials to show up at the world’s biggest soccer tournament. The beautiful game has been a lynchpin of the company’s summer sports marketing efforts around the world for years, and it also has struck deals with Gotham FC, who play out of New Jersey, with its Dove and Grüns brands appearing on the backs of the team’s jerseys. The multiyear Dove deal, signed in February of last year, is reportedly one of the biggest back-of-kit deals in the NWSL.

And since the company’s deal with FIFA lasts through 2027, Unilever marketers across brands are already thinking about the Women’s World Cup in Brazil next summer.

“Each brand has really embraced the power of the partnership with FIFA,” Ben Curtis, global brand VP for Rexona, told us. “We’re building a world, basically, around each of the brands, and there’s many entry points into that world.”