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Soccer, football, futebol, voetbal. Whichever moniker the worlds favorite games 3.5 billion fans use to describe this mega sport, this beautiful game is going through a cultural evolution creating more impact beyond the game than ever before. When I joined Manchester City FC in 2009, soccer clubs and the broader sport were just starting to open their eyes beyond the traditional rules of category marketing for the game and its impact was felt in soccer only. At Manchester City FC, we saw an opportunity to do something different. Very quickly we went on a journey from being a soccer club that sold entertainment to strategically pivoting to be an entertainment brand that sold soccer, winning the Premiership, becoming a global football brand, and kick-starting a journey for all clubs to evolve beyond the game. Looking back now, this sounds like an obvious nuance. But the unlock reframed everything we did through this entertainment lens. From the match day experience to community involvement to purpose-led endeavors to new market expansionthinking of ourselves as an entertainment property with a soccer capability created a new way to connect to fans, creating meaningful impact on and beyond the field of play. More than a game Cut to today. This thinking is now deep within the game at every level, and with the record breaking three consecutive promotions by Ryan Reynolds, Wrexham FCthe Hollywood epitome of an entertainment story that sells soccerwe see a trend of clubs, players, and brands gaining as much money and influence from their off-field controllable entertainment revenue as from traditional on-field football activities. As we near the one year mark until the World Cup lands in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico (June 2026), it feels like soccer is entering its next stage of evolution in how it resonates and creates impact globally. We are seeing that soccer is much more than the game that it represents on the field. The game, its players, and its global influence are transcending into culture and creating a deeper societal impact than ever before. From driving their local and global economies, to leading the fashion and music industry, to creating new rules for the celebrity economy, to partnering with brands to create real consumer connections, and even to shaping politics and broader society, we are on a journey to a World Cup where soccer will be more than just a game. The best example of the games growing large-scale economic impact is with the Messi effect raising the value of Inter Miami to over $1.2 billion and helping the club become the most followed U.S. sports team, while bringing economic prosperity and sky-rocketing real estate to the area. We also see this economic impact spreading around the world with the rise of destination football. The purchase of and growing relevance of football clubs in tourism geographies impact and make revenue from their destinations like Como 1907 and Venezia FC. Football and impact Venezia FC is a helpful segway into understanding how football is leading fashion and music as it counts the musician Drake as an investor and it was recently crowned the coolest brand in football. We also see more players stepping off the field into the recording studio creating music, led by Alex Iwobi, or players stepping out of the changing room onto the catwalk, leading fashion with the deep cultural influence of the footballer fit. The front row of most fashion weeks looks like a players bench at a top tier game, culminating in brand Labrum London debuting its collecting at the Arsenal FC stadium. This fashion and music resonance is creating a new mindset for Gen Z fandom to express themselves in new ways, paving a way for a new generation shaping a fresh version of soccer as channeled by the likes of Adama and Awa in partnership with Nike and soccer culture platform Versus. The games power stretches beyond the players to the brands, creating meaningful impact in the purposes they challenge together and creating real resonance for consumers with brands via the game. UK telco brand EE created an amazing example of this at the last Womens Euro, challenging the UK Parliament and bringing fans and players together to change a safety bill against online hate. So did cosmetic brand e.l.f. with its recent U.S. National Womens Soccer League partnership to empower more women in sport helping raise a new generation of future industry leaders. We also see the cultural impact and power of the game with the immense value of the player celebrity platform wielding more power and influence than the traditional sporting brands they used to rely on for a broadcast voice. The most startling example is comparing player and sporting brands social reach. Nike-sponsored Ronaldo has 652 million Instagram followers, double sponsor Nikes 301 million. And the most followed female footballer, Alisha Lehman, playing for Italian team Juventus, has 17 million Instagram followers, 17 times more than traditional soccer brand Umbro. This is leading clubs and brands to rethink how they partner with playersand beyond to fansto create content. A great example is Juventus FCs creator lab, capitalizing on this impact. Football shapes culture and society We also see the rising power of the game as it truly stretches into shaping culture and society as these platforms and influence are used way beyond the beautiful game itself. Football can shape the political spectrum, judging from Marcus Rashfords social activism that during COVID-19, extended free school meals for vulnerable children in the UK. His actions forced the government to reverse its decision, impacting millions of lives. His efforts earned him an Order of the British Empire MB award. It extends to a greater impact on politics, with a move from former football players becoming politicians, ranging from George Weah moving from World Player of the Year to Liberian president, to the more recent Georgian ex-Manchester City player Mikheil Kavelashvili becoming a prominent political leader in his home country. Its this power of the fandom, the players, the clubs, the brands, and the category itself coming together to harness an evolving and growing cultural impact that makes this coming World Cup a moment where the game and its impact will extend beyond the game itself. Maybe it will even breathe new life into the famous Liverpool manager quote from Bill Shankly, who said that Some people think football is a matter of life of death. I can assure them its much more serious than that. Chris Kay is the international president of 72andSunny.
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E-Commerce
The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more. Data is everywhere, but insights are rare. I know this firsthand from years working agency-side in digital marketing and analytics for global brandsoptimizing billions in media spend, tracking behaviors across platforms, and measuring every available data point across the customer journey. We operated inside complex martech platforms, developed and owned by big tech companies, designed to automate and optimize a massive online ecosystem of messaging and signals. Managing these systems required deep expertise and continual training. Entire agency teams were dedicated to client accounts, structured by campaign and channel. Being data-driven was tablestakes. We continually optimized ad copy, inventory sources, channel mix, tactics, spend ratesyou name it. We endlessly reviewed ad exposure reports and conversion models, aiming to give clients a clear view of campaign performance. Yet, year after year, many media plans looked remarkably similar, and many of the dashboards and reports we built went largely unused. It wasnt for lack of effort or interestit was because the sheer volume of information (and competing priorities) made it difficult to extract clear, actionable insights. Clients didnt need more information; they needed more direction. Heres the truth: Most dashboards are dense, nuanced, and missing the context or causality needed to drive strategic change. Clients arent looking for more charts. Theyre looking for clear answers. Our brains are wired for clarity, not clutter A recent Caltech study found that while our sensory systems can intake up to 1 billion bits of information per second, our conscious minds can process only about 10 to 60 bits per second. This staggering gap highlights the brains limited capacity to consciously manage the flood of incoming data. Our sensory systemsoptimized for speed and pattern recognitionoperate largely automatically and unconsciously. In contrast, higher-order cognitive functions like decision making and reasoning, managed by the prefrontal cortex, are slow, effortful, and resource-intensive. Dashboards often overload our fast, automatic brain systems without effectively supporting the slower, more deliberate systems we rely on to make meaningful decisions. The real competitive edge: Turning data into insight Over the past few years, Ive combined my background in architectural design, marketing, and cloud technology to create solutions that bring new visibility into built environments. Brands today are seeking tools to power and measure their in-person spaces and many existing platforms fall short. They often fail to integrate critical variables like behavioral patterns, emotional sentiment, geography, time of day, affect heuristics, and even weather. By weaving deeper, real-time context into physical spaces, brands can create more responsive, more personalized, and ultimately more valuable experiences. Were entering a new phase where platforms must go beyond trackingthey must deliver strategic, insight-rich functionality. They must act like trusted confidants: capable of processing vast amounts of data behind the scenes and surfacing simple, powerful next steps. In this new era, decision making should feel more intuitive and more informed at the same time. Welcome to the age of answers The online dashboard era is ending. Were entering what I call the age of answerswhere the next generation of tools, especially in the real world, will surface context, causality, and clear actions. These tools will make us feel smarter, fasterunlocking new forms of value, new competitive edges, and a better relationship with the flood of data surrounding us. James Chester is cofounder and CEO of WVN.
Category:
E-Commerce
If youve ever felt like your pet knows exactly when to pull you away from the stress of your computer screen, you arent alone. A landmark study surveying over 30,000 pet owners in 20 different countries found that 78% of dog or cat owners report that their pets remind them to take breaks during work or tasks, with 50% of the participants saying this happens daily. The study, which was conducted by YouGov on behalf of Mars, is the largest international survey of its kind in the world. The findings resonated deeply with David Reilly, global VP at Mars. If my dog’s at daycare, I don’t take a break at lunch time, he says. But if my dog’s not at daycare, somehow miraculously, I find the space to create up an hour to take my dog on a walk. Knowing that his relationship with his own pet had such an impact on his mental health, Reilly was excited by the data. I think 46% of people globally report their mental well-being is their number-one health priority and 56% of the population of the world has a pet. So if we can help unlock this idea that the pet could be your well-being superhero . . . then theres a real opportunity there, he says. To do this, the Mars team needed to seek further expertise. We have a deep knowledge of pets and we actually have a deep knowledge of the bond between people and pets. But we aren’t experts in human mental health, says Reilly. The solution was to collaborate with consumer mental health company Calm. Together, Mars and Calm collaborated on a collection of content meant to help pet lovers think about their bond with their pets as ways to improve their own well-being. Its launch marks the first pet-inspired collection featured on Calm. [Image: Mars, Calm] The content on Calm will include: A series of sleep stories inspired by the emotional connection between people and their pets. A series of guided meditations meant to help listeners reflect on the ways pets support their mental wellness. A series of breathing exercises. On Marss pet advice platform Kinship, Mars and Calm are launching the interactive quiz My Pet Guru, which helps pet owners learn which of six wellbeing superpowers their pet has based on questions about their personalities and behaviors. Together, were helping more peopleand their petsexperience the proven benefits of the human-animal bond through real stories, science-backed tools, and supportive content, says Greg Justice, chief content officer at Calm. Once the insights are rich . . . it doesn’t need to be overly clinical says Reilly. The researchers, pet experts, and content creators, worked together to find the sweet spot of ensuring that the content was true to what we’d heard, but also really accessible and also engaging for pet owners or other people who love pets. Mars and Calm are also seeking touching stories from pet owners to inform the wave of pet stories from Calm. What I’m looking forward to, honestly, is hearing the stories that people share. Pets genuinely make a really incredible impact on people’s lives, says Reilly.
Category:
E-Commerce
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