Lay’s Follows David Beckham and Thierry Henry to World Cup
Lay’s highway to the World Cup has been paved in potato chips, or an absence thereof.
At the moment, PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay introduced that its Lay’s model will function an official sponsor of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Mexico, Canada, and america and the 2027 FIFA Girls’s World Cup in Brazil.
The potato chip model offered a regional sports activities advertising help throughout World Cup occasions in 2022 and 2023, however this step up was worthy of an official launch video that includes two of the model’s largest faces—world soccer superstars David Beckham and Thierry Henry.
Henry began pitching for Lay’s in early 2023, when he went door-to-door in Barcelona through the UEFA Champions League event, providing to look at a match with followers if that they had a bag of Lay’s potato chips in the home. The spot kicked off the model’s “No Lay’s, No Recreation” marketing campaign and ultimately introduced in Beckham as Henry’s Lay’s-seeking sidekick.
The 2 crashed a UEFA Champions League match between Paris Saint-Germain and AC Milan in February, trying to find chips earlier than translating “No Lay’s, No Recreation” into subsequent advertisements for Frito-Lay’s U.Ok. model Walkers.
“By sustaining a constant fashion and messaging, manufacturers can improve their total effectiveness and be sure that their campaigns resonate extra deeply emotionally with viewers,” mentioned Vanessa Chin, svp of selling for inventive effectiveness platform System1.
With just a little greater than two years to go till the 2026 World Cup, there’s nonetheless a little bit of a highway forward for Lay’s and different occasion companions. Nevertheless, in keeping with Adam Warner, world head of sports activities and leisure partnerships for PepsiCo, its expertise with longtime companions like FIFA and the UEFA Champions League ready the model for the rhythms of the worldwide soccer schedule.
On this case, planning for Lay’s World Cup launch started nearly a yr in the past and took roughly six months to finish.
“We’re fairly aware of the necessity to hold issues contemporary, hold forward, be trying nicely prematurely,” Warner mentioned. “However on the identical time, recognizing the tradition strikes quick and that you must be agile and nimble within the second to make it possible for something you’re placing in entrance of our audiences and our customers goes to resonate.”
Pitch and chips
A altering World Cup advertising panorama offers its personal challenges. The 2026 occasion would be the first hosted throughout three international locations and the primary to function 48 groups—up from 32 in 2022. The 2027 Girls’s World Cup, in the meantime, marks the occasion’s first foray into South America.
With Frito-Lay’s sponsorship position involving not solely Lay’s however a complete portfolio, together with Doritos, Cheetos, Tostitos, Ruffles, Cracker Jack, PopCorners, Quaker, and Gamesa, the spots with Henry and Beckham kick off its work addressing disparate followers and markets.
The “No Lay’s, No Recreation” marketing campaign itself has already offered the model with some choices, complementing Beckham and Henry with appearances by Argentine, Barcelona, PSG, and Inter Miami star Lionel Messi. PepsiCo’s Warner mentioned these participant ambassadors have helped the model maximize its attain and improve its effectiveness. It’s additionally made the model take into account how every is utilized in a approach that’s acceptable to the marketing campaign.
With roughly 5 billion soccer followers across the globe and fandom transcending geographies and generations, a World Cup sponsorship requires tapping right into a fandom that Warner considers “all the time on.” It’s why Lay’s preliminary World Cup advertisements might be adopted up by digital and in-store promotions throughout different main soccer occasions.
As soon as the tournaments start, Lay’s plans to transcend LED stadium shows, press convention backdrops, and fan-zone snacks to reward the “Fan of the Match” at every match for his or her efforts.
“There’s a saying that soccer, or soccer, by no means sleeps,” Warner mentioned. “In the event you actually wish to personal this house as a model, you possibly can’t simply dip in and dip out.”
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