Philadelphia Soccer 2026
Experiential Marketing & Local Community Integration
Client: Philadelphia Soccer 2026, the local host committee for FIFA World Cup 26™ Philadelphia
The Challenge
PS2026 needed to turn its top corporate donors from supporters into visible, activated fans — not with one flagship event, but with fifteen. Each at a different location, each different in size, layout, and audience, all stacked into a roughly six-week window leading up to the Fan Festival™ at Lemon Hill.
They needed a partner who could design the experience once, execute it fifteen times without losing energy or brand consistency, and make it feel bespoke every time, inside corporate lobbies, hospital campuses, university walkways, and a Wawa in Folsom, PA.
Concept
B-Side built a rally concept around Philadelphia's identity as a top-tier sports city, adopting the host committee's "How Do You Phan?" campaign theme. Employees were invited to wear the colors of the national team they support, share who they're rooting for, and turn a work break into a pep rally.
It did three things at once: celebrated the diverse fandom already sitting inside every donor's workforce, built awareness for the FIFA Fan Festival Philadelphia and match schedule, and gave each donor a moment to publicly plant their flag as a Host City Supporter.
The Model
A standardized kit of parts and a four-act run-of-show, droppable into any environment.
Pre-Rally Promotion. Save-the-date emails, facility signage, and a "Wear Your Country's Colors" campaign.
Pre-Ceremony Engagement. A live DJ, branded signage, "I Phan For…" badge stations, and a Prediction Wall left behind as an office keepsake.
The Ceremony. Donor leadership voiced their support, a PS2026 rep covered the Fan Festival and match schedule, and employees shared what "Phandom" meant to them.
Post-Ceremony Send-off. The Gooooal! photo moment, a Grand Prize drawing, and the DJ picking back up.
Same inventory every rally — staging, backdrop, sound, DJ, badges, prediction wall, photo booth, ambassadors. New venue every day; same quality every time.
Why It Worked
Repeatable by Design
One creative shape across fifteen venues, with leadership remarks and local plus-ups making each rally feel custom.
The Takeaway
Low Client Lift
PS2026 owned donors and messaging. B-Side owned site planning, insurance, staffing, logistics, and on-site execution.
High-energy branded experiences that need to be repeatable, executable across wildly different environments, and unmistakably on-brand every time. If you've got a sponsor, donor, or partner activation program that has to scale across venues, weeks, or an entire city we'd love to talk.
The Roster
Between April and June 2026, B-Side produced rallies for a who's-who of Philadelphia and mid-Atlantic corporate life:
Wawa · Independence Blue Cross · FMC · PNC Bank · Five Below · Penn Medicine (Philadelphia and Princeton) · PECO · Highmark Health · Cencora · Drexel University · Delaware Tourism · Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau · Airbnb x Mural Arts · Philadelphia Union
The program closed out with a fifteenth rally at Subaru Park, staged around one of the pre-tournament World Cup team public practices — taking the "How Do You Phan?" energy out of the office and into the stadium.
A Leave-Behind That Lasts
Every Prediction Wall stayed in the donor's office, a standing reminder of the World Cup coming to their city.