This year’s World Cup in Qatar doesn’t start until Nov. 20, but Coca-Cola is already trotting the World Cup trophy around North America like it’s 2026.

For a major event sponsor like Coca-Cola, it pays to plan nearly a half decade in advance. After all, the soft drink giant contributes part of the $1.35 billion that soccer governing body FIFA expects in marketing revenue for the World Cup. 

Coca-Cola has a long history to uphold here as well. The brand-turned-conglomerate has sponsored every World Cup since 1978. It’s also sponsored every Olympics for the last 94 years. 

Since June 2021, it’s served as sponsor for large-scale, quadrennial events including:

• The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Euro 2020 (delayed to 2021 by Covid-19 lockdowns)
• The 2020 Summer Olympics in Beijing (also delayed by the pandemic)
• The 2022 Winter Olympics in Tokyo
• The UEFA Women’s Euro 2022

Because of FIFA’s decision to hold the World Cup during the somewhat cooler winter months, Coca-Cola will sponsor the 2022 World Cup and 2023 Women’s World Cup within roughly seven months of each other. Before either of those events kicked off, however, Coca-Cola put the World Cup trophy onto a branded jet and flew it to 51 countries, including the 32 nations that qualified for the 2022 World Cup.

For the tour’s last leg, the trophy will make its way to the 2026 World Cup host sites in North America. It lands in Los Angeles on Nov. 5. For that day, the trophy will visit the LA Live entertainment complex next to Crypto.com Arena. From there, it’s on to Dallas for two days at the Lighthouse Artspace on Nov. 6 and 7. It spends Nov. 8 at the American Dream Mall next to MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. Its journey ends at BMO Field in Toronto on Nov. 9.

Coca-Cola is offering fans free tickets when they scan QR codes of World Cup-branded bottles of Coca-Cola and Coca-Cola Zero Sugar. The marketer has other plans in store for the next phase of its trek toward 2026. 

Adweek spoke with Brad Ross, Coca-Cola’s vp of global sports and entertainment marketing, about the brand’s road to the 2026 World Cup and the planning required to sponsor a global, quadrennial sporting spectacle.

Adweek: How have Coca-Cola and FIFA mapped out the North American legs of the World Cup trophy tour to focus on the upcoming World Cup in 2026?
Ross: With popularity of the sport on the rise in the United States, and as the U.S., Canada and Mexico will be the hosts in 2026. We wanted to ensure that the stops for the FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour by Coca-Cola aligned with the future host cities to help drive anticipation for this and the next tournament.  

When planning the FIFA World Cup trophy tour, Coca-Cola and FIFA worked closely to select which countries and cities the original trophy will travel to. We want to ensure that as many fans as possible are able to experience the magic of the FIFA World Cup. This year, for the first time, we are visiting all 32 qualified nations and, together with FIFA, are working to meet the goal of visiting all 211 member associations by 2030.  

Coca-Cola has a more than 40-year history with the World Cup and has sponsored the Olympic Games since 1928. When does the company begin planning for these quadrennial events in earnest?What other ads and activations will we see in North America that might allude to the 2026 World Cup?
We are incredibly proud of our longstanding relationship with both the International Olympic Committee and FIFA, and plans to support both these events begin many years in advance. 

As one of the lead partners—and also as one of the host countries—plans for 2026 are already underway across the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Welcoming the original FIFA World Cup trophy to three of the 11 host cities in the U.S., as well as host cities in Mexico and Canada, will help create excitement for 2026 and give fans an idea of what’s to come. We won’t be sharing any additional information at this stage, but there will be plenty to come. 

Twenty years ago, Coca-Cola sponsored a World Cup hosted by two different countries. What did it learn from its experience in Japan and South Korea that it can apply across the three different countries and four different official languages awaiting in 2026?
The FIFA World Cup is a global platform. And we are organized as a networked organization. Whether the tournament is hosted in one country or multiple, there are always unique sets of opportunities and challenges. 

One key learning from previous tournaments is the need for collaboration and planning—and noting that no two events are exactly the same. We are very fortunate to have such an experienced team that are well versed in managing the complexity of these global events, and working with rights holders like FIFA. 

As we look at the FIFA World Cup  2026, we are already in the process of planning. Starting early ensures our teams identify challenges well in advance of the tournament’s beginning. It also builds system excitement and strong collaboration with partners like FIFA so we can deliver an exceptional experience for consumers. 

Are there any marketing advantages to quadrennial events that aren’t shared by annual championships for the NFL, EPL, UEFA, NCAA, NASCAR and others? Are there unique challenges posed by the preparation time and the breadth of Olympic and World Cup events?
We don’t view these quadrennial events as “one offs.” We use them to complement our brand strategies and act as major tent poles within our brand calendar planning. 

Given the global scale of these events, one advantage is that they truly resonate across the world where we have over 180 countries activating this at one time. When it comes to quadrennial events, fan anticipation is one of the strongest factors for support. 

The Olympic Games, FIFA World Cup and the FIFA Women’s World Cup  are truly global events and ones that capture the imagination of sports fans everywhere. From a marketing perspective, having more time to plan is always better, and as we know what these events mean to our consumers, it’s great to have as much time as possible to create activations and experiences that they will be excited about. 

Coca-Cola also sponsored the last North American World Cup in 1994. Though that seems incredibly distant given advances in media and technology, were there portions of that process that may prove useful to Coca-Cola in 2026?
We were also fortunate to have the last North American Summer Olympic Games in the city of Atlanta – the home of Coca-Cola – in 1996, so we have some experience in activating big events in our backyard. 

There are always learnings we take forward from every global event we activate, and this is no exception. We are always building on the previous events and learning and iterating each and every time. We know that there will be a lot of changes since ‘94 and we are excited to see the new, and ever-growing, level of football (soccer) fandom on show in the U.S. since they last hosted the FIFA World Cup.