Leveraging World Cup momentum: A guide for modern advertisers

The world’s biggest football tournament is just weeks away from kicking off, and in Hong Kong, the competition for attention is already underway—and it is anything but concentrated. 

According to The Trade Desk Intelligence and Appinio, 58% of Hong Kong consumers say they will watch or follow this year’s FIFA World Cup, confirming the scale of engagement the tournament continues to generate. Importantly, this attention is highly resilient: 60.8% say they will continue watching even if their preferred team is eliminated, reinforcing the tournament’s ability to sustain mass interest beyond team loyalty. 

However, this attention is not concentrated in a single channel or moment—it is distributed across a structurally fragmented viewing ecosystem. 

While traditional television remains the largest single viewing channel at 50%, Connected TV has already emerged as a critical digital environment at 42%—the second-largest digital viewing channel in Hong Kong. This signals a structural shift in how premium sports content is consumed: increasingly through connected, addressable environments rather than linear broadcast alone. 

Beyond this, audiences are distributed across online video (28%), sports streaming apps (25%), radio (20%), and streaming audio (9%). Viewing is also highly social and context-driven, with 31.5% of respondents saying they will watch matches in bars, underscoring the continued importance of shared viewing environments. 

Layered on top of this is fragmented consumption behavior driven by time and format: only 9.2% of respondents watch all matches live, while 17.9% rely exclusively on replays, with most alternating between live and on-demand viewing depending on context. 

Taken together, this is not simply multi-platform consumption—it is a structurally distributed attention system. 

For advertisers, this fundamentally reshapes the challenge. The World Cup will not concentrate attention in one place; it will distribute it across screens, spaces, and moments. 

Moving beyond the sponsorship playbook 

Traditionally, sports marketing was reserved for major sponsors with stadium-scale budgets. That model has evolved. 

In Hong Kong, matches will be broadcast on Now TV and ViuTV, supported by The Trade Desk’s media ecosystem, with content extending across CTV, mobile, and digital out-of-home environments in pubs, transit hubs, and fan zones. 

This fragmentation is not a barrier—it is the opportunity. Success is no longer about buying isolated TV spots, but about sustaining presence across the full fan journey on the open internet. 

Building a full-funnel strategy: From awareness to advocacy 

Winning campaigns require a full-funnel approach across pre-match, in-match, and post-match phases. 

In the pre-match phase, brands build awareness and prime audiences through interest-based targeting, driving traffic to owned channels and strengthening first-party data. This enables more precise segmentation beyond generic sports fans, including traveling supporters, fantasy league players, and team loyalists. 

During the tournament, omnichannel activation becomes essential. Coordinated execution across CTV, online video, display, and digital out-of-home ensures consistent reach. CTV delivers scale and precision on the big screen, while DOOH captures live energy in bars, transit hubs, and fan zones—creating a surround effect that turns awareness into intent. 

Post-match, the focus shifts to conversion and retention. Advertisers can retarget highly engaged audiences with tailored messaging, driving them from interest to action while extending campaign impact beyond the tournament through measurable outcomes such as footfall, online sales, and brand lift. 

This reflects a core reality: brand building and performance marketing are deeply interconnected. Upper-funnel activity builds trust, mid-funnel drives consideration, and lower-funnel converts intent. 

Sports marketing should therefore not be viewed as a one-off activation tied to a single tournament. The most effective brands build repeatable strategies around key sports moments throughout the year, using each event to systematically move audiences from awareness to conversion. In doing so, they strengthen brand equity while driving measurable business outcomes. Without brand equity, performance becomes short-term and discount-driven. With it, performance becomes more efficient and sustainable. 

The final whistle: Building a playbook for every major sports moment 

The quadrennial football tournament is a rare convergence of global attention, cultural relevance, and shared emotion. But its significance extends beyond a single event. It offers blueprint for how advertisers can engage audiences around major sports events moments throughout the year – whether global tournaments, regional competitions, or local events such as the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens. 

For brands, the opportunity is not limited to one championship cycle. Every year brings predictable, high-engagement moments that capture consumer attention and create opportunities to build relevance, connection, and business outcomes. 

By adopting a full-funnel, omnichannel strategy powered by data and executed across the open internet, advertisers can move beyond participation. They can become part of the experience—transforming fragmented attention into sustained engagement and short-term excitement into long-term brand growth in Hong Kong and beyond. 

This article was written by Stella Leung SVP, North Asia, The Trade Desk.