About this episode

Brad Ross discusses Bank of America's sponsorship of the World Cup and the challenges and opportunities it presents.

Brad Ross worked on four Fifa World Cups during more than a decade with Coca-Cola, but he likens the expanded 2026 edition to having 104 Super Bowls in five to six weeks. Now, as managing director of global marketing partnerships at Bank of America, he is overseeing the financial services giant’s first-ever sponsorship of soccer’s flagship international tournament. In this episode of the SportsPro Podcast, Ross sits down with Head of Editorial Sam Carp to discuss the strategy underpinning Bank of America’s World Cup debut and what opportunities and challenges the expansion of the tournament creates for sponsors. Recorded at SportsPro London, the conversation also explores how the bank will activate the partnership across its 100 US markets, what it takes to cut through in a noisy tournament environment, and how it is tracking ROI. There’s also time for Ross to reveal what it’s really like to work on a World Cup and share his key piece of advice for sponsors.

People in this episode

Host: Sam Carp

Guest: Brad Ross

Topics covered

• World Cup
• sponsorship
• marketing strategy
• financial services
• sports events
• ROI tracking

Keywords

• World Cup
• Bank of America
• sponsorship
• marketing
• Fifa
• sports
• ROI
• Coca-Cola
• 2026 edition
• Super Bowls

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Coca-Cola, Fifa

Places: US

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