How Unilever is pushing sports marketing beyond broadcast convention

"For marketers adrift in a sea of media fragmentation, sports have remained a dependable - if pricey - anchor, representing one of the few remaining pillars of monoculture. Look no further than the Super Bowl, which continues to draw record ratings and diverse audiences on linear TV despite the acceleration of cord-cutting. That said, sports are as dynamic and fast-changing as other content types, and deep-pocketed companies like Unilever are adjusting their marketing strategies to recognize growing digital- and social-first consumption habits."

"As part of its sponsorship of FIFA World Cup 26, for instance, Unilever's Dove Men+Care personal care brand recently launched a campaign wherein former NFL player Marshawn Lynch attends a "super fan training camp" with U.S. soccer star Trinity Rodman, bridging two different interpretations of football with humor. The effort, running primarily on Meta and TikTok, promotes a sweepstakes to secure tickets to the highly coveted tournament, which will be played across North America starting in June."

Sports continue to provide a rare source of cultural unity for advertisers even as media fragments and cord-cutting accelerates. The Super Bowl still draws record ratings and diverse linear-TV audiences. Consumption habits are shifting toward digital and social platforms, prompting companies like Unilever to nearly double U.S. sports marketing spend between 2024 and this year with further activity planned for 2026. Unilever used its FIFA World Cup 26 sponsorship to run a Dove Men+Care campaign featuring Marshawn Lynch and Trinity Rodman, primarily on Meta and TikTok, promoting a sweepstakes for tournament tickets. Unilever frames such events as a move from one-to-many broadcast marketing to many-to-many engagement aimed at building "desire at scale" while facing price-sensitive consumers, emerging CPG disruptors, and corporate restructuring. CEO Fernando Fernandez stated Unilever would allocate half of its total ad spend.

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