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Copa América kicked off a summer of soccer in 2024, but it’s the start of a long road to the North American World Cup in 2026 for marketers, broadcasters and brands.
As the United States hosts 16 teams from North, Central and South America and the Caribbean during the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol)’s quadrennial soccer tournament, which culminates in a final on July 14, brands have lined up to court both U.S. soccer fans and the event’s primarily Spanish-speaking field.
During matches in the Atlanta, Dallas, San Francisco, Houston, Miami, Los Angeles, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Orlando, Austin and New York metro areas, marketers and brands have launched campaigns either establishing or confirming their place in soccer during the lead-up to the 2026 World Cup in the U.S., Mexico and Canada.
However, even as Copa América yields to this year’s Leagues Cup between Major League Soccer (MLS) and Liga MX teams and next year’s Concacaf Gold Cup and FIFA Club World Cup, brands are trying to grab fans’ attention and hold it through numerous big-tent events.
Major League Soccer’s Attitude and Access Scored It a New CMO
As creative agency Boden pointed out in a recent report, Copa América, in particular, presents brands with a unique opportunity to support fans’ teams of choice while connecting with the Spanish-speaking U.S. soccer market that’s helped drive the game’s growth. Boden acknowledged that Argentinian star Lionel Messi alone brought more than 1 million new viewers to MLS after his U.S. arrival last year, aided by the presence of Inter Miami teammates and former FC Barcelona colleagues Luis Suárez, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba.
While Hispanic fans contributed to the 3.5 million-strong audience that watched Messi’s Argentina defeat Brazil at Copa América in 2021, Boden noted that they’ve also influenced the 65% of non-Hispanics who prefer to watch the Spanish-language broadcast of soccer matches on Copa América’s TelevisaUnivison and other outlets. As a result, brands approached Copa América—and their two-year soccer sojourn—with a multicultural, Messi-heavy message.
Here’s how brands are getting involved in the Copa América tournament.
Since its formation in 2002, SUM has served as the marketing branch for MLS and has played a pivotal role in the sport’s marketing throughout the United States. Just ahead of handling promotion and event sales for Copa América—and operating 130 international matches across North America in 2024—SUM refreshed its brand and logo as it refined its mission.
While SUM’s responsibilities also include Concacaf Nations League Finals, Leagues Cup and exhibitions, including those featuring the Messi-led Argentinian National Team just before Copa América, its rebrand stresses the evolving makeup of soccer fans in MLS territories and their importance to new sponsors such as Strauss, WSS and Western Union.
It also stresses the broader, more cosmopolitan marketing importance of MLS, which used the track “Sacúdete” by Gotopo and Don Elektron to punctuate the league’s “Summer Is Calling” ad running during Copa América.
“When you have all these great new builds and activity and all this interest, we’re in a position where the corporate community knows to come to us,” Carter Ladd, SUM’s chief revenue officer, told ADWEEK. “We’ve got a long story, and a long history of Soccer United Marketing helped put us in position whereby we can add the success that we’re having and welcome so many new brands to the sponsorship family here.”
The Messi march begins in the home & garden section.
“Fútbol, much like home improvement, is all about teamwork and the assistance between people,” Messi said in a statement from Lowe’s.
Messi joined the Lowe’s Home Team of NFL and NBA athlete endorsers as the brand partners with Inter Miami during Copa América. As a result, Lowe’s loyalty club members earn 10 times as many points when Messi assists on a goal during the tournament.
Certain Lowe’s locations also hosted Copa América watch parties, while Lowe’s red vest associates helped kids build their own soccer goals.
A longtime sponsor of Copa América, Mastercard went into the tournament with multiple campaigns across regions and languages. It recruited actor Cristo Fernandez from the Apple TV+ series Ted Lasso to infuse its commercials with some Dani Rojas-level intensity.
The brand also featured Messi in a longform ad, “Giving Back,” that shows him paying forward the multiple times clerks and shopkeepers have given him items for free. Messi noted in a Q&A with Mastercard that this happened to him in a restaurant in Argentina, with the owner refusing to take payment, which made him more appreciative of that restaurant owner as a fan.
“This ad highlights the love fans and small business have shown me over the years and how much I want to pay them back with gratitude,” Messi said. “It’s me who was truly appreciative for his support, and the support of all my fans, over the years. I’m deeply touched by their love and generosity, and when Mastercard presented the idea, I immediately jumped on board.”
The official global beer sponsor of Copa América finds itself in a tough position: It supports the U.S. Men’s National Team, but also the Mexico Men’s National Team. What do you do?
Sell to everyone.
Along with its “Summer of TeamUSA” messaging, Michelob Ultra is touting its Ultra Pitchside platform that includes Copa América hospitality packages, merch signed by Michelob Ultra Super Bowl pitchman Lionel Messi and tickets to Copa América matches.
And while it’s launched a limited-edition apparel collaboration with fellow Copa América sponsor Puma and U.S. Men’s National Team captain and AC Milan midfielder Christian Pulisic, its packaging for the tournament features both the U.S. and Mexico shield logos. It’s a smart play, as Michelob Ultra’s soccer commitments run through the World Cup in 2026 and the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028.
We gave away Pulisic’s role in Puma’s Copa campaign, but he’s just part of the apparel brand’s multi-year partnership with Conmebol, its creation of the official Copa América match ball—the Cumbre—and its own run-up to World Cup 2026 that also included this year’s Euros.
After launching its first brand campaign in 10 years back in April—”Forever. Faster. See the Game Like We Do.”—Puma split it off especially for Copa América, with a focus on Pulisic and Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior, who each have special Copa América collections for the brand.
Puma has activations in Miami, New York, Los Angeles and Houston throughout the tournament that include community runs, viewing parties and player appearances. Puma also has a number of athletes in action, including Team USA’s Weston McKennie and Yunus Musah; Uruguay’s Luis Suarez and Jose Maria Gimenez; and Paraguay’s Miguel Almiron and Julio Enciso.
An official Conmebol and Copa América partner, Degree used Pulisic to anchor its “Bring the Heat” campaign of ads and store and stadium placements. Focusing on its vaunted 72 hours of uninterrupted antiperspirant protection, the campaign also featured a sweepstakes offering fans tickets to games for displaying solidarity with their side.
Though Pulisic was heavily featured in Degree’s U.S. ads, the brand also linked itself to player ambassadors, including Mexico’s Santiago Giménez, Argentina’s Julian Alvarez and Brazil’s Vinícius Junior.
The German automaker teamed with creative agency Johannes Leonardo to celebrate Volkswagen’s 75th anniversary, its partnership with U.S. Soccer and Copa América’s lead-in to the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup and the 2026 FIFA World Cup with a campaign that dubs the United States the “Home of Soccer.”
Though Team USA’s first-round struggles indicate otherwise, Pusilic, his predecessor Landon Donovan and Emily Spreeman of the U.S. Women’s Deaf National Team make their case in both a series of ads and a social-heavy program that saturated Volkswagen’s YouTube TikTok and Facebook channels and got fans involved on Instagram.
The official hard seltzer of U.S. Soccer teamed with Goodby Silverstein & Partners and Golin to launch two creative campaigns with help from U.S. players Weston McKennie and Tyler Adams.
The first features McKennie turning a Truly seltzer into a shower beer, which allowed the brand to offer a questionably hygienic “Trufah” slim can cooler and loofah combination at trulyoriginals.com.
The second brought back the brand’s Truly Orange Slices flavor with help from new mascot Slicey. The flavor was only available at Américan Outlaws supporters game day prematch parties in Dallas and Atlanta.
“My teammates know they can always count on me to rally the team for a good time after a game,” McKennie said. “When Truly approached me about Shower Trulys, I said, ‘That’s great. I think I invented them. Let’s show the fans.’”
Jason is an Adweek staff writer covering the business of marketing.
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