The AI Advertising Podcast: S2
Episode 10
AI Targeting for Sports Fans Ahead of the 2026 Soccer World Cup
About This Episode
The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be the biggest ever—48 teams, 104 matches—and it’s the ultimate test of reaching the right fans at scale without intrusive tracking.
This episode breaks down how AI-driven contextual targeting separates intent (not just interest) to reach both hardcore soccer fans (tactics, lineups, odds, analysis) and culture/moment fans (national pride, watch parties, travel, lifestyle/celebrity), with different creative, timing, and KPIs.
Martin Perelmuter | Regional Agency Development Manager (LATAM), StackAdapt
Transcript
Diego Pineda (00:00:00)
The FIFA World Cup is the biggest attention market in sports—and 2026 will be the biggest edition ever. FIFA’s official schedule confirms 48 teams and 104 matches, running June 11 to July 19, 2026.
To appreciate what that means for marketers, look at Qatar 2022: FIFA reported around 5 billion people engaged with tournament content across platforms and devices, and the Final reached close to 1.5 billion viewers. FIFA also cited Nielsen data showing 93.6 million posts, 262 billion cumulative social reach, and 5.95 billion engagements.
If attention is the scarce resource, the World Cup is the biggest attention market in the world—so the question is: how do you target the right fans at scale without relying on intrusive tracking?
Most TV and CTV buyers get lean-back—that means, the sit-back, big-screen moment. But lean-forward is what happens around it: the same person grabs a phone to search, scroll, chat, or shop while the game is still on, and that’s where contextual targeting can do a lot of the work.
Today’s guest is Martin Perelmuter, Regional Agency Development Manager for LATAM at StackAdapt.
We’ll talk about how AI—especially contextual intelligence—helps brands separate intent, plan omnichannel, and measure lift in a way executives trust.
Podcast Intro (00:01:45)
Welcome to the AI Advertising Podcast, brought to you by StackAdapt. I’m your host, Diego Pineda. Get ready to dive into AI, Ads, and Aha moments.
Diego Pineda (00:02:00)
Most plans still start with a single audience label—“World Cup fans.” But that approach breaks the moment you try to scale it globally.
Martin Perelmuter (00:02:10)
So I feel that the first misconception and what I believe something that we as marketers need to make sure we understand is that the World Cup audience is not one audience. And it’s important to understand that the hardcore soccer fan differs very much from someone who’s not hardcore or someone who’s really not interested in the actual game itself, right? if you buy And the issue is that if you buy one segment of hardcore fans, you’re deluding the relevance among other ah audiences and also the creative impact, which is a big problem. So the real opportunity is segmenting and the real opportunity is really to find the intent and not the interest.
Diego Pineda (00:02:45)
That “intent vs. interest” line matters because the World Cup is not a single media moment—it’s 104 separate matches, plus pre- and post-coverage, plus culture and celebrity conversation that takes on a life of its own. So when we say “hardcore,” we’re really talking about what people consume—and what they do next.
Martin Perelmuter (00:03:07)
So hardcore fans. We consider them for what we are bringing to market. Someone who consumes tactics, lineups, transfers, what are the odds of one game versus the other, fantasy game, for example, or really deep analysis. Those are the users or the users who really follow the qualifiers, they follow the game, they follow each, even if it’s their own team or someone else’s team or or or country, and they do it throughout the, before, during, and even after the tournament. So for those, they expect performance-driven campaigns, and then it’s very important to do utility-based messaging.
Diego Pineda (00:03:42)
And then there’s a second, massive cohort: people who show up because the World Cup becomes culture.
Martin Perelmuter (00:03:49)
Meanwhile, we have, for example, what we could consider cultural or moment fans, which are more engaged around nationalism. So they care about what’s going on with their country. For example, Mexico’s playing against someone else. So they’re going to be involved if they’re Mexicans in this specific game. They’re going to go to watch parties. They’re going to travel, they’re interested in fashion, celebrities.
Those users tend to consume soccer content closer to match dates, or specifically on the day off or during the game. So the double screen, or right before or right after watching the you know what’s going on with the game before, or our what the goals that they that they made after. And they respond more to emotional, they’re more of a community-based storytelling. They’re a little different than the hardcore fan.
So mainly the difference in the two are the context clusters, the timing window, like I said, and also we need to really differentiate the KPIs. One is more performance-based and the other one is more of a brand building opportunity.
Diego Pineda (00:04:55)
Here’s the practical issue: the same names, teams, and keywords show up in wildly different types of content. A player, like the French star Killian Mbappe, can live in tactics coverage, and also in lifestyle coverage. So if you’re using old-school keyword targeting, you’re going to blend audiences that should stay separate.
Martin Perelmuter (00:05:18)
So, when we talk about contextual targeting in this case, we’re using it in a very precise way. It’s not just about identifying a keyword like Mbappe or Messi or football or anything like that, but it’s more about understanding why this person or this topic is being mentioned or what those signals about the audience. For example, if the context is breaking down Mbappe or Messi, like we said, any of those people or topic, or names, performance, analyzing tactics, discussing the 32 goals he scored, or even if it’s previewing the match or reporting on an injury, that’s one type of user. That’s a performance-driven fan who’s deeply engaged with the sports, the sport itself, but if the context is about Mbappe, in a lifestyle context, for example, what he’s wearing, where he’s vacationing, what kind of car he drives, what kind of shoes he wears, or even the way he cuts his socks in the back, that’s completely different audience. It’s a broader audience, more cult driven and often more entertainment focused.
So Page Context AI allows us to distinguish between those nuances. It classifies intent, sentiment, and thematic relevance. We are able to understand whether the conversation is tactical, cultural, commercial, and it adapts dynamically, picking up on evolving slang, memes, and trends, that’s so, that’s what’s so important about it. It keeps us aligned with what the context actually means in the moment.
Diego Pineda (00:06:48)
That “dynamically update” point is a big deal during a tournament because language changes fast: nicknames, chants, memes, and storylines shift match by match. Meanwhile, brand teams are trying to stay adjacent to the conversation without stepping into the wrong one.
Diego Pineda (00:07:12)
Even without cross-site tracking, there’s still a strong signal stack available: contextual signals, first-party audiences, and the moments people raise their hand through behavior—search, planning, and real-world mCup scale, the hard part is keeping relevance without shrinking reach.
Now, if you’re listening and you’ve got first-party data—site visitors, CRM, app behavior—the temptation is to make that a hard gate. But for the World Cup, gating too hard can cut you off from the “World Cup curious” audience that only appears during peak moments.
Martin Perelmuter (00:07:48)
We need to first start with a contextual cluster that’s very broad, right? And then what we do is once we know that this is our universe, what are we gonna do to then go specifically into our audience with first party data? So we have a contextual cluster we created. We know these are the different signals that we want to have within the audience or within the cluster. And then we overlay first-party as a prioritization layer. It’s not a restriction layer, but more prioritization. We want to first hit these users, and then we want to inform creative sequencing, for example. We want to not over limit delivery. And then we want to create tiers, right? Like first tier, maybe first-party plus context.
The second tier, maybe just context only, right, for scale. um And then the idea is to maintain and scale ah size while we can continue being relevant. So we want to use first party data really to layer on top or maybe to start from, but always create exponential reach, whether it be lookalike or whether it be through contextual expansions and so and so forth.
Diego Pineda (00:08:57)
World Cup attention isn’t just “what you watch”—it’s how you watch. FIFA’s own recap of 2022 describes an ecosystem of platforms and devices; that’s a polite way of saying: fans bounce between big screen, mobile, and social constantly. So omnichannel is the only way to match the behavior.
Martin Perelmuter (00:09:18)
The second screen or the idea of being on the phone while watching something is not new. That’s something that’s been happening even since the past World Cup or maybe even one and a half, two World Cups ago, like eight, 10 years, right? The other day I read that there’s production companies who are really making sure that the overall message of the movie they’re producing resonates three times in the movie because people are not really paying attention, but they’re with the phone. So the same thing happens when you’re watching a game, when you’re watching TV. So the CTV captures an emotional lean back moment. But then you you want to leverage your phone to maybe reach out to a person, reach out to your friend, or so on and so forth. So we need to make sure that we capture both the emotional and also the active um lean forward behavior that the person has with the phone. So during matches, it’s important to have an impact ideally on the TV, but also on the phone or maybe on other screens. right Really, this omnichannel approach is super important during the World Cup times. And not only during matches itself, but during the whole time. Because like I said, people may be watching a repeat of the game, or they may be watching the analysis that they’re doing about it. And the goal is to really use contextual targeting during those mobile synced moments, to really engage with the user and reinforce the CTV message with a tactical port opportunity with the phone. right So the context will ensure that we are aligned with what they’re trying to capture from the game or from what they’re watching. And this double this double ah approach or this double opportunity will really resonate a lot stronger than just doing one or the other.
Diego Pineda (00:11:01)
And 2026 adds another layer: physical movement. Three countries, multiple host cities, airports, transit—this is one of those rare tentpole events where digital plus real-world context can be planned together.
Martin Perelmuter (00:11:18)
Digital performance is going to play a big role within this World Cup in different ways. It will, of course, all depend on where the user is based. There’s three countries right now during the World Cup. So it’s going to differ whether you are in the market in the country or if you are, for example, in other parts of Latin America or in Europe, we’re just watching it, right? And also will depend on what time of the day the games happen. So the strategy will be different depending on where you are or what you do or what you see or who you’re targeting. But we need to consider that now we have access to programmatic transit hubs, airports, right You may be a brand from Europe, from Latin America, but you want to impact those users who are going to the World Cup. So you want to show out-of-home ads within the airport, right, whether it’s when they leave or when they come back, whether it’s on the, right? So it’s important. Also in stadiums, fan zones, retail corridors, bars, hospitality districts, and that’s going to help us really connect with the user.
So what we’re going to see, ah of what i or i for what I foresee that we’re going to end up seeing is that sure targeted exposures are going to create audiences, and then we’re going to sing the message across mobile, CTV, digital out-of-home. We’re going to use geo-leaf testing to prove incremental impact. We’re going to be able to measure the impact not only in terms of the number of people reached, but also what happened after. Did the person ever go to the store? Did the person ever go to the dealership to buy a car because they saw the ad? So we’re going to be able to really create this omnichannel campaign uh of course based on the strategy so it’s very hard to talk about specifics that will really allow us to measure and take action in life.
Diego Pineda (00:13:00)
Now, creative is where campaigns usually underperform at big events—because brands try to run one message for everyone, for the entire tournament window. And that’s where Dynamic Creative Optimization or DCO becomes a serious lever. DCO is basically the system that helps rotate and tailor creative variations based on signals like audience, context, and timing, so you don’t burn people out with the same ad 40 times.
Martin Perelmuter (00:13:30)
A lot of times we think that something such as DCO is only for a retailer or someone who has a very big broad number of products, right? But sometimes we want to really make sure that we understand that one message does not fit everyone or one ah one is not for all, right? And also we need to make sure that we understand that over frequency during a short period of time, this will come to not be what a month, month and a half.
Maybe we add a little bit of time before, a little bit of time after. If we show the same creative or the same um campaign during the whole time, it’s going to create more frequency, right? We’re going to show it too many times to the right user. They’re going to ignore it. um And that’s not what we want. So not rotating creative based on context is also an issue. So we want to make sure that we leverage things such as DCO. That could be a good way or really like shifting creatives across the times that we are… delivering the campaign, understanding who we’re using this creative for.
Diego Pineda (00:14:52)
One of the traps of tentpole events is reporting like it’s a normal campaign: CTR, viewability, maybe completion rate—and that’s it. But the World Cup is where you should expect a mix of outcomes: brand movement, engagement movement, and in some categories, real conversion impact.
Martin Perelmuter (00:15:11)
We need to make sure that whatever we do impacts the overall company strategy and we need to align with that. So we need to make sure that we measure everything. We need to make sure that we do brand list studies. If it’s an awareness campaign, for example, or that we focus on an engagement lift. If you’re looking for a behavioral change and act accordingly during the campaign and not when it’s over and we just report it, we can look into conversion lifts wherever applicable and wherever we can do it in terms of whether it’s an opportunity. Understand really like Is the effort that we made really make a difference in terms of sales? Can we do this test? We can also do a geo-based incrementality test. And ah really another one that I think that we’re gonna see a lot of is the pre, during, and post readouts. Understanding who the user, before the World Cup, understanding who the user is, understanding who our customer really is, or what is it gonna look like during the World Cup.
During the World Cup, really leveraging the previous campaign’s data that we have and tweaking it to make sure it performs correctly. And then at the end of the day, when the World Cup’s over, leverage those insights to continue throughout maybe a month, a month and a half, because that’s gonna continue happening. So really understanding the ultimate economic or business goal, will really help us go beyond just a click or CTR or viewability metric, which end up being metrics, not really performance goals.
Diego Pineda (00:16:43)
And there’s one more piece marketers can’t ignore during the World Cup: volatility. When the conversation shifts—politics, controversy, tragedy—brands need controls that protect them without wiping out the scale they came for.
Martin Perelmuter (00:16:58)
So there are concerns. These concerns always exist in different ways. Now it’s politics. It used to be many other things. It’s like, for example, with airlines, when there’s an accident, they don’t want to be showing their ads next to content that’s related to that, for example. That’s a very well-known old trick. But what we’re going to do is we’re gonna use AI to stay close to relevant conversations and avoid hard explosions that eliminate scale, right? We’re going to make sure that we use AI and use contextual AI to really understand what the context of the page is, really understand if you’re talking about politics, what kind of politics is it? Is it local? Is it international? Is it negative? Could be positive, right? They could be talking about politics. the government’s building a a park, and it could be a positive thing. So really understanding that and monitoring the volatility in real time will help us really update context clusters dynamically, be able to shift from one place to the other, block or not block the content, and really leverage targeting capabilities and technology, especially in this world of AI, like we were just saying, to understand what the user is consuming online.
Diego Pineda (00:18:10)
Let’s turn this into a plan you can actually run.
First, don’t buy “World Cup fans.” Build at least two intent cohorts: Hardcore and Culture fans.
Second, make contextual intelligence your default spine. At World Cup scale, it’s the cleanest way to stay relevant without creeping people out.
Third, treat first-party data as a priority layer, not a hard gate—so you don’t miss the “World Cup curious” audience that shows up mainly during peak moments. Plan omnichannel around behavior: CTV for lean-back, mobile for lean-forward, DOOH for physical moments.
Fourth, use Dynamic Creative Optimization to rotate creative by cohort, context, and tournament phase, so frequency doesn’t turn into fatigue.
And fifth, measure like it’s a tentpole: lift + incrementality + pre/during/post readouts. The goal isn’t to win a CTR chart—it’s to prove business impact and learn fast while the world is watching.
Podcast Outro (00:19:24)
Thanks for listening to this episode of The AI Advertising Podcast. This podcast is produced by StackAdapt. Visit us at stackadpat.com for more information about using AI in your advertising campaigns. If you liked what you heard, remember to subscribe, and we’ll see you next time.
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