Scarcity value v the 2026 World Cup; Nike x Corteiz; The UP Big Idea Hall Of Fame; When footballers try to act; Skills challenge schtick; Billie Jean King; The secret of a great sports film; UP300
Overthinking the sports business, for money
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The Big Idea - Scarcity
This week’s podcast we dissected Nike’s new ad, plugging its collaboration with Corteiz, the British streetwear brand.
The ad is here:
Everything you need to know about Corteiz is in this piece.
Fun fact: Two years ago Nike sued Corteiz because the name is close to Cortez, which is the Nike trainer Forrest Gump wore.
Clint419 of Corteiz was ordered to pay Nike £1,850 on March 16, 2021.
Spoiler: they’re really good at marketing.
Today, it’s rarer to see hordes of shoppers mob city streets to buy a limited edition drop from any streetwear label. Drops are usually more organized thanks to raffles or scheduled online releases. The scarcity factor has also diminished as more brands vie to be sold in department stores or other retailers outside of their own. Today, it feels that many streetwear brands follow the same playbook. Design a seasonal collection, slot an online release date, hold physical pop-ups to promote the collection, and then continue selling items via stockists or other retail partners.Â
Then there’re brands like the bubbling British streetwear label Corteiz, which has employed unconventional guerilla marketing tactics to capture hype and allure unseen within streetwear in sometime.Â
So, scarcity creates value. Who knew?
That’s not an idea familiar to FIFA, which has expanded the already expanded 48-team, six week 2026 World Cup.
The six-week World Cup will start one year after FIFA launches a 32-team Club World Cup, which could also be staged in North America to test tournament logistics. The Champions League in Europe also has a new format with more teams and games in the 2024-25 season.
Football. Masses of it, all the time.
See also: Saving the planet, one massive football tournament at a time
Some interesting nuggets in Graham Dunbar’s report:
A further 24 games adds ‘about 1.5 million more tickets will also further fuel FIFA's expected record revenue of at least $11 billion US through 2026 from a tournament that will rely on using high-revenue NFL stadiums’.
Increasing the World Cup's lineup was first floated in 2015. It was proposed then as a way to sweeten FIFA's 200-plus member federations into accepting much-needed governance reforms in the wake of American and Swiss investigations of corruption.
The expansion comes despite FIFA's own research in 2016 suggesting that the highest quality soccer was achieved by the 32-team format.
A theme of the 2026 hosting city bid process was the need to mitigate sustainability challenges inherent in a bigger, longer event. More teams, more fans, more journeys.
How this works with FIFA’s commitment to ‘Deliver innovative environmental solutions’ is not entirely clear.
Sport in films v Sport in ads
Some themes are emerging from The Big Idea.
The use of Phil Foden in the Nike ad prompted this point:
There’s never been a great sports film or TV show featuring a sport I like.
Working theory: I’m unable to suspend disbelief when watching actors pretending to be professional sports stars.
The actual sport gets in the way. My wife says something similar re Call the Midwife.
Whereas, when I’ve no lens on the quality of the sport I’m free to enjoy the story.
So:
Football no - Ted Lasso, Escape to Victory.
Baseball yes - Field of Dreams, Bull Durham, The Natural
Golf no - Tin Cup, Legend of Bagger Vance
Motorsport yes - Ford v Ferrari, Rush
And so on.
Never let footballers act
Footballers acting is its own sub genre.
This week Paddy Power put out this.
Then people started sending other examples.
Here’s my top three:
Bryan Robson (nominated by Simon Banoub)
Michael Owen (nominated by Kieran Maguire)
Giggs and Rooney (nominated by Paul Whitehead)
You’ll have others.
Skills challenges as creative mechanic
The Corteiz ad has Foden doing the crossbar challenge.
We’ve seen it many times before of course.
A question for the group: what was the first one? (Ronaldinho?)
Sidekick Simon Moore dug up this beauty, from 1984:
In the next episode of The Big Idea we’ll go deep in to Burger King and Stevenage Town.
So we’re looking for classic examples of the underdog in sports marketing.
Thoughts welcome.
The Unofficial Partner Big Idea Hall of Fame (#UPBIHOF)*
* The hope in that hashtag is quite touching; thwarted ambition is one of my favourite genres.
Nike x Corteiz didn’t make it in.
Too derivative, thin story, not their best work, see me and are you wearing white socks?
Meanwhile, subscriber nominations for UPBIHOF are welcome.
There’s no entry fee. The only rule is that you’ve nothing to do with the work you're putting forward.
Final decision rests with me, Sean, Sidekick Simon and a small coterie of hangers-on.
This is in, obvs:
UP Yours
From the Unofficial Partner guest blog:
Rebecca Sowden on 5 ways to unleash the women’s sport opportunity
Personal Bests
Fiona Conroy, Director of Media Rights and Sales, Pitch International
Talking of Billie Jean King…thought this was a nice piece of work from the US Open
Job of the Week
The Job: PR Account Manager at MatchFit
Blurb: MatchFit is an award-winning ,independent sports PR and sponsorship activation agency, on a mission to make everyone love sport as much as we do. We’re looking for a creative and media relations-loving Account Manager to join our fast-growing team at an extremely exciting time.
Apply Here:  Email hello@matchfit.biz with your CV and relevant information.