“In a noisy ecosystem where consumer attention is constantly being pulled in different directions, it’s crucial that brands who invested substantially in their partnership with the Olympics extend their messaging beyond the Olympics to ensure it sticks and their investment isn’t wasted,” Dahan said.

Ways to the World Cup

While System1’s Chin noted that Olympic sponsors’ forward-looking strategy can keep viewers and fans locked in over a longer period, Olympic brands don’t necessarily need to align campaigns perfectly to look ahead.

Global Olympic partner Anheuser-Busch InBev focused on Team USA in its U.S. Michelob Ultra campaigns but teased the 2026 World Cup in the brand’s Super Bowl spot with Lionel Messi and Jason Sudeikis earlier this year. Chin said there’s a chance that theme continues as the 2026 event draws closer. 

Just using familiar faces and a consistent story can help tie disparate events together. Frito-Lay brands Lay’s and Walkers brought in global soccer legends Thierry Henry and David Beckham for an ad during a UEFA Champions League match between Paris Saint-Germain and AC Milan in February featuring the players searching for more chips.

The “No Lay’s, no game” theme carried into subsequent ads for Walkers, where the continued use of Beckham and Henry made the campaign more memorable.

“With athletes, teams, and nations coming together on the world’s largest stages, ads that show human interactions (such as spoken and unspoken communications, knowing glances, and so on) through characters and devices develop emotions from viewers,” Chin said.

“This strategy of using one event to set up future promotions not only leverages the initial event’s excitement but also builds a cohesive brand narrative that can engage audiences over time.”