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Unilever Personal Care is launching its biggest-ever sports partnership as Official Personal Care Sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 2026™.
Over 39 days, the most socially connected event on the planet will see 48 football teams play 104 matches. Some 10 million people are set to attend matches, with live programming and streaming expected to reach a global audience of 6 billion passionate fans.
More than 35 Unilever brands including Dove, Dove Men+Care, Rexona and Axe will be activating in over 120 markets, tapping into cultural moments, delivering premium experiences and connecting with fans to bring freshness, confidence and care to every stage of the tournament.
Beyond its scale, Unilever’s Personal Care sponsorship is an opportunity to turn global visibility into commercial impact.
“This activation reflects how we’re engaging with sport not just as sponsorship, but as a platform to build brand desire and cultural relevance to drive superior growth,” says Unilever Personal Care’s Vice President of Integrated Brand Experience, Afke van de Klashorst.
Evolving from a reliance on logos and traditional media spend, Unilever is leveraging a diverse network of influencers and content creators and social-first storytelling to tap into fan culture and conversations online.
“Our ambition is for our brands to show up in spaces where fandom lives and in ways that are authentic, native to social, and meaningful by bringing freshness and confidence to match-day moments that matter most for fans, players and spectators,” Afke says.
Unilever has ensured its personal care products will be available in millions of retail stores around the world, with 180+ limited-edition products, powered by unmissable displays, prime shelf space and on-pack promotions delivering premium experiences, driving Desire at Scale, increasing brand relevance and unlocking superior growth.
Dove is showing up with a social-first campaign that puts the next generation of female football fans and players front and centre by championing every girl who loves the game and aims to be a movement to keep them playing. ‘The Game is Ours’ campaign kicks off with a film built entirely from the sounds of girls’ bodies playing the sport they love, to show girls’ joy live from matches across social, out of home and more.
Bodies go through a lot in the heat of the game: hugs, sweat and tears from wins, losses and last-minute penalties. And Dove Men+Care is here for it, inviting men to care for their skin like they care for the game.
Every World Cup is full of emotional highs and lows and sweat-inducing emotions. On-pitch dramas, disappointment and unexpected moments of match-day joy. True to its brand promise to provide 24/7 odour protection, Rexona’s activation has a simple message – it won’t ever let you down.
Not all World Cup heroes wear their team kit. With its trademark humour, Axe’s campaign taps into fandom that’s grassroots and fun, featuring real supporters, leveraging social to share stories of their dedication and questionable costumes, all while ensuring they smell good.
For the FIFA World Cup 2026™ Unilever is calling on the social-first storytelling skills of sports fans, players and sportscasters, as well as creators in the lifestyle, fashion and beauty space, with more than 50,000 creators activating for our brands during the 39 days of the tournament.
“Football today lives in real time, in culture and on social platforms,” acknowledges Romy Gai, FIFA’s Chief Business Officer. “And this tournament is designed to be experienced, shaped and shared by fans wherever they are.”
To enable creator advocacy, Unilever has built House of Fresh™, in-person experiential hubs in three host cities: Mexico City, New York and Miami.
Branded and designed for content creation that’s social-feed ready, these spaces provide influencers with the environment and technology they need to turn live fan experiences into social storytelling for native platforms, seizing the opportunity to capture cultural moments with content that connects Power Brands like Dove, Dove Men+Care, Rexona and Axe with the football community to drive brand engagement and social selling.
To complement House of Fresh’s physical activations, The Locker Room is a 24/7 social media hub where creators, community experts and football strategists can deliver reactive content across platforms like TikTok and YouTube in real time, at the speed of culture.
“Working with partners like Unilever helps turn moments on the pitch into meaningful conversations off it, reaching new generations and making the power of football more accessible, inclusive and impactful than ever before,” says Romy.
And that’s a win–win for FIFA, football and Unilever, giving its brands the chance to extend engagement beyond live matches and stay relevant with fans long after the final whistle.
Equally important to driving Desire at Scale is having the tech infrastructure and supply chain to deliver on it.
Personal Care’s AI Content Studio and Social Studios created more than 18,000 assets for 120 multi-brand, multi-market campaigns.
Unilever’s supply chain team has used data and AI-driven forecasting to lock in production cut-offs for 180 limited-edition products to ensure that the right products reach the right markets at the right time.
And a global tech and digital infrastructure providing cloud hosting, data analytics, cyber security and compliance are the backbone that allows Unilever Personal Care’s FIFA World Cup 2026™ activations to operate on a global scale and with real commercial impact.
By combining the emotional reach of live sport with the engagement and shareability of social media, Unilever Personal Care’s sponsorship of the FIFA World Cup 2026™ is redefining how brands show up at global events.
From pitch to purchase, every touchpoint is designed to convert attention into action, delivering growth, strengthening brand relevance and proving that modern sponsorships can drive both cultural impact and measurable ROI.
Unilever is the Official Personal Care Sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 2026™. The five-year partnership, signed in 2023, covers men’s, women’s and esports competitions as part of an integrated global agreement. It includes the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027™ in Brazil and is the largest sports partnership in Unilever’s history, with 35+ brands activating across 120+ markets. The collaboration is designed to enhance the fan experience on and off the pitch while driving brand desire and cultural relevance across Unilever’s Personal Care portfolio.
Unilever’s activation includes more than 35 brands, led by Power Brands such as Dove, Dove Men+Care, Rexona/Degree, Axe/Lynx, LUX, Pepsodent and Closeup, all tailored with market-specific campaigns and limited-edition products.
Desire at Scale is Unilever’s strategy to build brand desirability through premium design, cultural relevance and superior consumer experiences across every touchpoint. The FIFA World Cup 2026™ activation brings this to life through three pillars: driving desire through limited-edition products and social-first content; embedding brands in football culture and fan rituals; and winning in commerce by converting intention into purchase via retail, bundles and digital channels. Together, these pillars turn the world’s biggest sporting event into sustained growth and commercial impact.
For Rexona, sports isn’t just a marketing play – it’s in the brand’s DNA. Here Rexona’s Global Engagement Director, Em Heath, shares how the brand has built one of the most authentic partnership programmes in the game.
Herrish Patel, President of Unilever USA and CEO of Unilever Personal Care North America, shares how sports partnerships and marketing are helping grow brand equity by capturing consumers’ attention with engaging content on and off the pitch.
The final whistle may have blown on FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™, but our Personal Care brands’ sponsorship of FIFA is just getting started with more still to come. Discover four ways it’s proving to be a win–win for attracting women to the sport and engagement for our brands.
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