This week on Beyond the Noise, we hear from Pitch Marketing Group founder and chief executive Henry Chappell, who discusses why FIFA World Cup 26 looks set to eclipse all previous global sporting events, according to a new report from the sports marketing agency.

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With exactly one year to go until FIFA World Cup 26 kicks off, the Pitch report predicts the tournament will have a global reach of more than five billion people, equivalent to about 63 per cent of the world’s population. A staggering 711 billion combined engagements across all media platforms are also anticipated.

Speaking to PRWeek editor-in-chief Danny Rogers, Chappell – who has topped the PRWeek UK Power Book Sports (Agency) list for the past two years – said the scale of the tournament was unprecedented, with 104 matches across 16 cities converging sport with culture, music and technology.

Sandy Doran, strategy director at Pitch, stated: “Geopolitics and legacy aside, the real winners will be the brands who use the ‘human intelligence’ of content creators the best, or at least bother to check that their AI content isn’t going rogue. And also the brands that represent football fans, first and foremost, and don’t get suckered into the ‘Super Bowl-isation’ of the tournament.”

The podcast also hears why brands will have to be decisive about the role of artificial intelligence in their campaigns, and how the report warns that authentic content from ex-professional footballers could prove more popular than anything produced by traditional broadcasters.

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