MLS Bets Its Biggest Campaign Ever on the World Cup Afterglow
The 2026 World Cup gave North America a month of soccer at full volume. Major League Soccer wants to keep that going after the final whistle.
This week the league rolled out the largest coordinated marketing campaign in its 33-year history. The tagline: "Thanks World, We'll Take It From Here." It launches on Fox during the semifinal and final broadcasts, then runs across Amazon, Apple TV, Tubi, and social platforms.
The talent list ranges from faces of the league, Lionel Messi and David Beckham lead. LAFC star Son Heung-min appears with team owner Magic Johnson. Matthew McConaughey (Austin FC) and Kevin Durant (Philadelphia Union).
Amazon Music produced an original cover of A Tribe Called Quest's "Can I Kick It?" made exclusively for the league. DJ Premier produced the cover while Samara Cyn delivered new vocals and lyrics. For a campaign chasing culture, a Preemo beat show's the league's effort to stay tapped in.
The league's chief marketing officer, Radhika Duggal, said The World Cup will pull millions of new fans into the game, and MLS wants to hold onto them past the tournament. She pointed to club, community, and the weekly rhythm of a season as the hook.
All 30 MLS clubs are featured in the campaign. Twenty-two of them are running "first match on us" promotions with free tickets, a straight path from casual curiosity to butts in seats.
MLS launched off the back of the 1994 World Cup, the last one staged on US soil. Thirty years later the league is running a similar plan with a bigger budget and a streaming footprint built for a different era.
The work starts now. The World Cup is creating the attention. The league has to turn it into a habit.
