While World Cup watchers are counting points, waiting for the knockout stage and — if major marketers have anything to say about it — engaging with ad campaigns, Major League Soccer and the National Women's Soccer League are preparing to keep the summer of soccer going after the tournament ends.

The two highest U.S. soccer leagues, currently on pause during the World Cup, are leveraging their marketing channels to capture attention during the height of tournament frenzy, encouraging fans both old and new to stick around in July and beyond. While only 27% of U.S. consumers identify as fans of soccer, 37% of the general population expects their interest in the game to increase, per a Nielsen report reviewed by Marketing Dive.

“It is obviously a big cultural moment, but also it's a massive customer acquisition moment,” said MLS CMO Radhika Duggal. “If you are falling in love with the World Cup energy and excitement and the sport that's played on the pitch, it's our same players, our same fields. It is endemic to Major League Soccer, and when the World Cup leaves, we're still here.”

To connect the World Cup to the MLS, the league is developing a full-funnel marketing campaign that spans traditional advertising, creator amplification, experiential channels and more. The effort represents its first enterprise-wide campaign, with league and clubs going to market together.

“This is the most crowded marketplace that there's ever been for consumer eyeballs and attention [around soccer], and if we don't go together, we will not break through,” Duggal said. The campaign will also be integrated with local market affiliates of Fox, which is broadcasting the World Cup.

The campaign will debut later during the tournament, with MLS returning from its summer pause days before the World Cup final. From there, the league will have its all-star week, the Leagues Cup with Mexico’s La Liga and a sprint season at the beginning of 2027 as it prepares to shift its calendar to align with European soccer.

“Once we restart our season, it's nonstop for the next two years, and we're super excited that this is the moment that supercharges that,” Duggal said. “[The campaign] is the bridge to the next thing — it's not the end point.”

On the road with creators

For its part, the NWSL is looking to piggyback on the World Cup to prime soccer fans for the return of the women’s game in the U.S. during the middle of the tournament. The league in May launched a “Summer of Soccer” campaign that spans fan activations, creator integrations, community programming and more as the league — which sits at the intersection of women's sports and soccer narratives — looks to benefit from the excitement around the tournament.

“We built a platform that allows us to embed the NWSL in the broader soccer conversation during this moment for the country and the world,” said CMO Rachel Epstein, who joined the NWSL in April. “We want to be in that conversation in a really organic way, so that as the men's World Cup comes to a close, they see our league as this next natural destination for their soccer fandom.”

At the center of the effort is the “Summer of Soccer Road Trip,” which will see a branded bus hit the road in June and July, connecting with fans in NWSL markets and at major soccer destinations. Overall, the campaign is the start of a five-year opportunity that will culminate with the 2031 Women’s World Cup, which will be partially hosted in the U.S. 

“It might not always look like a bus, but with a women's World Cup [in 2027], we have a really unique position to be the destination for soccer fans, new and current, coming out of these global tournaments and moments,” Epstein said. 

The road trip and overall campaign present an opportunity for NWSL to tap into the growing creator content space, which the IAB now describes as a “core media channel” on track to hit $44 billion in spend next year.

“The way we're tapping into creators is not who has the biggest reach, but who can show up really organically in that space. There's going to be a lot of voices, brands and personalities, and we have a unique position to be very authentic,” Epstein said.

The NWSL has two goals with creators: to increase the frequency of content served to core fans and to bring new fans down the marketing funnel by creating content that attracts its target audience of young, female “vibe shifters.” For MLS, where the league and club social channels now reach nearly 113 million followers globally, the use of creators acknowledges that most people are not entering the league’s audience by turning on Apple TV, navigating to a game, watching 90 minutes and emerging as fans.

“Increasingly, you are scrolling through YouTube, TikTok or Instagram, and you are happening upon MLS because someone is talking about us,” Duggal said. “We think that sports fandom increasingly is starting with players and creators. People are discovering us in particular through stories that creators and more upper-funnel folks are putting out into the world.” 

Brand, platform partners

As part of its social and creator marketing, MLS has partnerships with platforms like TikTok that gives the league access to new ad products and features. Plus, the league last year launched a custom creator network as part of its partnership with Walmart.

“What better partner than Walmart, which has 80 to 9095% of household relationships in the U.S., and what an incredible way to amplify the MLS message by being part of their story and part of their marketing,” Duggal said of the partnership.

MLS, which also has partnerships with major marketers including Adidas, Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Kellanova, Chevrolet and Allstate, to name a few, is working to attract sponsors that bring more than scale to the table. The league in February named Chime its official retail banking, credit credit and debit card partner.

“[Chime is] trying to be part of the fabric of culture in a way that most financial services companies don't or can't, and we love being associated with that, because that means they want to do the types of things that we want to do,” Duggal said of the partnership. Prior to joining MLS in 2024, the executive worked in marketing at Chase and fintech company Super.com.

That type of culture-driving partnership has been key to the growth and awareness of the NWSL, which launched in 2012. Tylenol and Yeti will sponsor the Summer of Soccer tour, while Ally sponsors Rivalry Week and E.l.f. sponsors the Challenge Cup. In addition, Tylenol recently signed on to sponsor a partnership around Pride Month.

“What's so important and distinctive is the opportunity to create — to not logo slap — but to create really organic ways in for partners that helps them drive their business goals,” Epstein said. “They're vital and they are a big part of the amplification around this window.”