As Unilever credits the World Cup with driving a 5.5% sales increase, its chief growth and transformation officer for Personal Care, Rani Al Hajji, shares what the company learned from activating in over 120 markets during the tournament.
Since the last Fifa World Cup in 2022, the sports sponsorship playbook has changed dramatically. Broadcast visibility, fixed messages and audience counts have given way to fans moving fluidly between stadiums, streams, feeds, group chats and stores in real time.
The Fifa World Cup 2026 was the largest edition of the tournament in history and its most socially connected. That raised the bar for sponsors. Showing up at scale was no longer enough. Brands had to earn relevance in the moments, communities and conversations where fans were already participating. As The Drum reported before the tournament, marketers needed to prepare for live moments rather than rely entirely on fixed campaigns.
As the official personal care sponsor, Unilever delivered its largest sports partnership activation, involving more than 35 brands across more than 120 markets and engaging more than 50,000 creators.
The opportunity was enormous, as was the pressure to make the most of it.
Give every brand a clear role
Rexona, Dove, Dove Men+Care and AXE each needed a role that felt true to the product while adding something to the fan experience.
For Rexona, confidence under pressure showed up on the touchline, quite literally under the arm. Rexona branding featured on fourth officials’ armpits and substitution boards, a Fifa World Cup first. With every substitution and added-time decision putting officials under scrutiny, the placement was a natural expression of Rexona’s ‘It Won’t Let You Down’ platform.
Dove put the next generation of women’s football fans and players front and center, championing every girl who loves the game. The ‘Game Is Ours’ activation began with a film built entirely from the sounds of girls’ bodies as they played the sport they love. The activity also built on Dove’s long-running effort to connect its social mission with commercial growth.
Dove Men+Care built its tournament activity around the physical reality of fandom: painted faces, long hours in the sun, sweat and celebration. ‘Care for Your Skin Like You Care for the Game’ gave the brand a natural place in match-day rituals.
Meanwhile, AXE leaned into the wilder side of football fandom, including costumes, crazy hats and full-body paint, encouraging fans to “smell your best when you look your worst.”
At the England versus Argentina semifinal, creators including Rio Ferdinand and Deji brought that idea to life through their own content, generating a reach of more than 50m.
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The shared platform of freshness held the portfolio together, while each brand found its own way into the tournament.
Build around the people who carry the story
Once each brand had a clear job, the next question was how to make its activity feel authentic within football culture.
Football stars, freestylers and micro-influencers all brought different strengths. A football legend can command mass attention, while a smaller creator can build a more personal and trusted connection with a particular community. As The Drum has argued, brands can gain greater cultural relevance around major sporting events by working closely with existing communities and adding something useful to their experience.
Rexona’s New York Sweat Club, part of House of Fresh, brought that range together in one place. It connected creators and media through football challenges and a 360-degree content experience, giving people space to create as the tournament unfolded.
It generated more than 1bn in reach, while content from Roberto Carlos, Kerolin, Daniel Sturridge and Ben Foster added over 36m. During the first six weeks, Rexona ranked fourth for social share of voice among all global sponsors.
Across Mexico City, New York and Miami, House of Fresh gave creators physical spaces in which to meet, make content and respond to the tournament in real time. The Locker Room, our 24/7 social content operation, connected that activity across markets and helped teams identify conversations that were gaining momentum.
One important lesson was knowing when to step back.
Centrally scripted content did not travel as far as work made in creators’ own voices, so we gave them more freedom to shape the message for their communities. Unilever has applied a similar principle elsewhere, allowing communities to reinterpret briefs in ways that keep established personal care brands culturally relevant.
That freedom still needs to sit within a coherent brand strategy. Research into creator effectiveness suggests brands achieve stronger results when they treat creators as a serious part of the broader marketing mix, rather than viewing them as an isolated social channel.
Let the idea travel to the shelf
Fans encountered our brands across many touchpoints, so the store shelf had to feel like part of the same story.
Across the portfolio, more than 180 limited-edition products reached millions of stores. Rexona featured its football ambassadors on collectible cans. AXE tapped into the Gen Z habit of switching scents to suit the moment with three limited-edition Fine Fragrance launches. Dove used its Palo Santo & Sage body-care range to drive QR-code ticket entries and donations supporting girls in sport.
Together, those products turned attention into something tangible. They gave fans a way to take a little of the tournament home and made an everyday routine feel more special.
Sponsorship measurement, therefore, cannot stop at reach. Reach shows how far the work traveled. Engagement, search, trial and new-buyer recruitment indicate whether it prompted people to act. Longer-term penetration will tell us whether that effect lasted.
Make the model last beyond the moment
What do we carry into the Fifa Women’s World Cup 2027? We will build on a model that worked while allowing the tournament’s own energy and communities to shape what happens next. Brands considering that competition should already be thinking about how their strategies can connect the 2026 and 2027 tournaments as part of a longer-term platform.
For me, 2026 showed that the Fifa World Cup can give a brand the biggest stage in sport. Whether it truly belongs there is determined by the thousands of choices made alongside fans and creators.
Rani Al Hajji is the chief growth and transformation officer at Unilever Personal Care.
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