If your life has been completely consumed by the World Cup these past few weeks, same.
It is on every TV, in every group chat and somehow sneaking into conversations that were definitely supposed to be about work. That is the beauty of sports. They take over. They turn casual viewers into experts, quiet fans into loud ones and ordinary days into moments people plan around.
Sports have always been bigger than the game because they are not just watched. They are felt, argued over, celebrated and woven into the way people gather.
For CPG brands, sports create a way into the rituals people already care about.
That is what makes this such an exciting time for brands. Food and beverage brands are often already there, in the cooler, on the table, at the tailgate, in the bar and in the routines fans build around the game.
The goal is to understand that connection and make it more meaningful.
That is where brand strategy matters. The brands that connect successfully with sports culture are not just chasing visibility. They know what they stand for, understand how fans actually live the moment and translate that meaning across every touchpoint, from campaign to pack.
At LPK, this is the kind of work we love: helping brands turn cultural energy into something ownable, distinctive and real.
Sports Give Brands Something to Join
Fans can tell when a brand gets it. They can also tell when a brand is borrowing the colors, language or reach of a major event without understanding the culture around it. The difference is usually in the details: the pre-game routine, the favorite bar, the lucky shirt, the family text thread and the emotional math of believing your team still has a chance.
That is especially true for CPG brands because the product often already has a job to do in the moment. It is part of the planning, the gathering and the celebration. The work is not always about inventing a new place for the brand. More often, it is about recognizing the connection that already exists and making it easier for consumers to see, feel and repeat.
A brand can move from being something people buy for the game to something that helps define the ritual around it.
Modelo Shows What Authentic Participation Looks Like
Modelo’s relationship with fútbol is a strong example of what authentic participation can look like.
The brand is not using soccer as a seasonal backdrop. It is building from a cultural connection that already exists between the brand, the consumer and the sport. After more than three decades of activating around soccer, Modelo is deepening its position as the “Cerveza for Fútbol” with its “Best Seat in the House” campaign.
That history is worth noting because in sports, permission is not something a brand can fake its way into. Fans know the difference between a brand that has been part of the culture and one that showed up because the media calendar looked good.
Modelo can credibly participate in the fútbol conversation because it is already part of how fans gather. Fútbol is watched in stadiums, but it is also lived in homes, bars, airports, hotels and family gatherings. The emotion of the game travels into everyday spaces. That is where Modelo fits.
The “Best Seat in the House” idea works because it understands a simple truth: the best seat is not always in the stadium. Sometimes it is the couch with your family, the packed bar with the big screen or the airport gate where everyone suddenly becomes part of the same match. The campaign celebrates the places where fandom actually happens, wherever your people, fútbol and Modelo come together.
That is what strong cultural participation can do. It helps a brand move from appearing around a moment to belonging within it.
Packaging Makes the Moment Tangible
In sports culture, packaging is often one of the first signs that a season, tournament or event is beginning. A limited-time beer can or retail display can cue the feeling of football season before the first kickoff. It signals that the thing fans have been waiting for is finally here.
That emotional tie matters. Sports are built on anticipation and repetition. Fans return to familiar routines because those routines are part of the fun. The same house. The same cooler. The same pre-game debate. The same belief that this time, somehow, it is all going to work out.
Packaging can tap into that feeling. It can make a brand feel less like part of the promotion and more like part of the experience.
For Modelo, that connection is especially important. The brand’s limited edition packaging for Modelo Especial and Modelo Negra brings the energy of fútbol into the aisle, giving fans a visible cue that match day is already beginning.
That turns the pack into a bridge between shelf, culture and participation. It is not just something fans buy. It is something they bring into the moment.
LPK has partnered with Modelo to translate fan energy into LTO packaging for NFL and NCAA teams, creating cans that connect the brand to the emotional rhythms of fandom while still protecting what makes Modelo distinct. While the World Cup design referenced in this article was not created by LPK, it reflects the same strategic challenge we help brands solve: how to make a cultural moment visible, ownable and emotionally connected at shelf.
The best sports packaging does not just dress a brand in team or event codes. It finds the overlap between the brand’s equity, the fan’s passion and the feeling of the season.
That is where design becomes more than decoration. It becomes the bridge between brand strategy and lived experience.
Every Brand Has to Find Its Own Way In
Modelo is a perfect example because its relationship with fútbol is rooted in a long-standing cultural connection. But every brand has to find its own way into sports culture.
Saratoga Spring Water’s 2026 campaign with professional basketball star Skylar Diggins shows how a premium brand can use sport to sharpen cultural relevance without losing its own codes. Gillette’s 2026 partnership with Audi’s Formula 1 team offers another kind of fit, connecting the brand to a sport built around precision, engineering, performance and control.
The sport should not have to do all the work. The brand has to bring something true to the relationship.
For Modelo, fútbol connects to community, pride and shared celebration. For Saratoga, sport can intersect with premium lifestyle and cultural presence. For Gillette, F1 sharpens a world of performance and precision.
Each brand has a different way in. The common thread is permission.
That is the question every CPG brand should ask before entering a sports moment: What does this sport unlock in our brand that is already true?
Strong Cultural Moments Need a Brand Point of View
Sports moments move fast. One play, one post, one reaction can change the conversation in real time. That is part of what makes sports culture so fun. It is also why brands need a clear point of view before they enter.
A strong brand platform gives the work something to ladder back to. It defines the place a brand can credibly own in people’s lives, then creates space for campaigns that can bring that idea to life across touchpoints.
For sports, the strongest ideas usually come from the intersection of brand truth, fan truth and product truth. What does the brand stand for? What does the fan care about? Is the product already part of the ritual?
When those answers line up, brands can move beyond borrowed attention. They can create work that feels ownable, emotionally resonant and commercially useful.
This is where LPK helps brands make the leap from positioning to participation. We help define what the brand stands for, where it has cultural permission to play and how that idea can show up across campaigns, packaging, retail, social, experience and commerce.
Fans do not need another generic “game day” message. They need to feel like the brand understands why the moment matters. That takes curiosity. It takes listening. It takes understanding what fans will welcome, what they will ignore and what they will absolutely roast in the group chat.
Brands that do not go deep enough risk creating work that feels like a costume. Brands that do the work can create something fans recognize as true.
From Moment to Momentum
Sports moments are temporary. Brand meaning is cumulative.
That is why the goal should not be to win a single event window. The goal should be to use cultural moments to strengthen what the brand already stands for. When done well, sports become a stage for brand equity, not a substitute for it.
Modelo’s presence in fútbol is powerful because it is not starting from zero. The brand has a reason to be there, a connection fans understand and a platform that can stretch from the shelf to the places people gather to watch.
CPG brands must identify the moments where they can participate with authenticity and depth, understand the emotional cues that make those moments matter, and build ideas that can carry beyond the event itself.
At LPK, we help brands find their role in consumers’ lives. We connect brand strategy, positioning and packaging design to create brand worlds that perform in culture. Because when a brand knows what it stands for, understands what fans care about and translates that into meaningful creative expression, it does more than show up.
It belongs.
ABOUT LPK
LPK is a branding agency that helps brands show up with clarity, distinction and cultural relevance through strategy, positioning, packaging design and creative expression. We partner with leading brands including Modelo, Titleist, Franklin, Saratoga and Gillette.
