Earn Your Place or Buy Your Space: ‘Authentic’ is the Most Expensive Word in Sport

Global sport had stopped being a branding exercise a long time ago. Every four years, the world’s biggest brands spent nine figures to show up at the Olympics or a World Cup—and most of them ended up looking and sounding identical. Same montages, same emotional beats, same five rings. The brands that mattered didn’t just sponsor the moment; they changed how people experienced it, spent during it, and remembered it long after the closing ceremony. The 2026 Winter Olympics and FIFA World Cup would reward the brands that were disciplined, authentic, and honest about what they uniquely brought. Every brand would claim they belonged. Almost none would have earned it. The gap between those two was the most expensive line item in marketing. Hilary Knight, 5x Olympian, 2x Olympic Gold Medalist and 10x World Champion; Jeff Cha, SVP, Global Brand, Visa; Erin Silvoy, SVP of Global Marketing and Channel Development, Starbucks; Karina Wilsher, Partner & Global CEO, Anomaly