How Coors Light Is Owning Goal Celebrations at the World Cup

‘GOOOOAL!’ It’s a sound as synonymous with football as the referee’s whistle, the crowd’s groans at missed sitters, and – how could we forget? – the humble vuvuzela.

Well, the FIFA World Cup is almost here, and with North America playing host to international fans of the world’s game, one of America’s biggest beer companies is turning that celebratory ‘GOOOAL’ into an ownable branded moment – through TV spots, experiential activations, and even its own brand identity.

Created with agency Droga5 New York, Coors Light has launched ‘The Coooors Call’, hoping that when the roar of ‘GOOOOAL’ echoes around stadiums, bars and households this summer, that fans are thinking about an ice cold beer from the Molson Coors brewer.

To kick things off, Coors Light launched a hero film starring legendary commentator Andrés Cantor. Directed by Guy Shelmerdine and produced by SMUGGLER, the spot takes his iconic ‘GOOOAL’ call and turns it into a rallying cry for Coors Light.

However, fans won’t just hear ‘The Coooors Call’ during matches and through the TV ad – Coors Light is leaving it all out on the field for this tournament and embodying the call in a number of ways.

The brand is even changing its name. As fans celebrate with ‘The Coooors Call’, submitting videos online, the brand will keep adding more Os to its name across campaign touchpoints, from digital to social to retail to brand activations – and give away beer money and other prizes. Molson Coors’ CMO, Sofia Colucci, has also joined in the fun, changing her title to CMOOOO.

“Our starting point was finding something genuinely ownable rather than just buying space around a big moment,” says Matt Carpenter, VP of marketing at Coors Light, speaking with LBB. “The letter 'O' has been at the centre of Coors Light since day one – on every can, pack, and tap handle – and it's the same sound that's defined soccer celebration for generations. It gave us a platform that no other brand could credibly claim.”

Droga5 New York’s creative team also share that the idea was always to develop a broader platform based on the call. “We wanted Andrés to be the entry point into a campaign system and celebration that could grow over the course of the tourney. That’s what led to the added O’s – stretching the Coors Light name as the celebrations get bigger.”

They add, “That gave us a simple mechanic that could extend well beyond film into social, PR, retail, OOH, partnerships and captivating reactive executions.”

The campaign will run across TV, and all these channels throughout the tournament, including limited-edition, soccer-themed packaging and retail displays, exclusive merchandise drops, branded in-car Uber integrations and OOH placements in tournament host cities, in-stadium and other match-day activations, and an exclusive sponsorship of ‘Unfiltered Soccer’, the US’ top football podcast.

“The priority was making sure the idea travelled everywhere fans are actually watching and celebrating, and not just on screens,” says Matt. “We also wanted fans to be participants, not just an audience, which is why the ‘Coooors Call’ consumer promotion is central to the campaign. The whole platform is designed to stretch out the celebration all summer long, not land as a single moment.”

According to the Droga5 creatives, this is achieved by showing up in ways “rooted in universal soccer behaviours” – for both local and visiting international fans.

“For in-person activations, that means showing up where fans naturally gather (bars, watch parties, and retail) with tools that feel native to soccer culture, like scarves, pennants, LED signs, table-top games… For OOH, it meant building around a visual system that could travel easily.”

And with online activations like the Unfiltered Soccer sponsorship, the aim was all about “credibility and proximity”. They explain, “It’s a category-exclusive partnership that gives Coors Light a way to show up inside real soccer conversation through in-show reads, custom segments, social/video extensions, and live fan events in key cities. The point was not to bolt the brand onto soccer culture from the outside, but to embed the ‘Coooors Call’ in a space fans already trust and choose to spend time in.

“So overall, the plan was to make the campaign feel legible and welcoming to a broad soccer audience… not just core, long-lasting US fans -- which of course are our main base -- but anyone coming into those cities to celebrate the tournament.”

While the 2026 World Cup certainly is a monumental moment for football in America, the sport’s rise Stateside – and subsequent brand interest – hasn’t come out of the blue. As Matt explains, “Soccer's growth in the US has been significant, particularly among the 21-35 demographic, and Coors Light has had a front-row seat to it.

“We've been a proud sponsor of the Leagues Cup since its launch in 2023, so our evolution has been about moving beyond just showing up as a sponsor to showing up as a brand that genuinely understands soccer culture from the inside.”

He adds, “This summer felt like the moment to go all in. Hosting the tournament on home soil is a once-in-a-generation moment. The enthusiasm around it is unlike anything we've seen. ‘The Coooors Call’ is our most ambitious soccer campaign to date, and it's built on a platform – the O, the cheer, the celebration – that we can continue to build on well beyond this tournament.”

What also prompted Coors Light to buy-in fully to this cultural moment was the idea itself from Droga5 – a creative platform “genuinely rooted in something true” about the brand which Matt says created as much energy internally as externally. “Sofia going by CMOOOO isn't a stunt bolted onto the campaign,” he explains. “It's the brand team actually living the idea, which is what you need when you're asking consumers to do the same.

“As Sofia put it: ‘The ‘Coooors Call’ is our way of leaning all the way in by extending our name with the most iconic letter in soccer. Heated matches call for cold beers’. That is what drives the scale of the activation. This summer is a once-in-a-generation opportunity with the tournament on home soil and soccer at its peak cultural relevance in the US… We didn't want to show up halfway.”

In addition to the marketing efforts, there is a product story which adds another dimension to ‘The Coooors Call’ this summer. Coors is adding a different kind of O – or rather, a zero – to its brand. Launching in select Northeast markets from May, the company is introducing its first-ever 0.0% beverage, Coors 0.0%.

“The regional launch this May in the Northeast is intentionally timed to this summer,” says Matt. “We wanted Coors 0.0% to have its first real test at scale during a moment when millions of people are gathered around the sport in stadiums, bars, watch parties and living rooms, and the full range of drinking occasions is on display. Coors 0.0% is for every fan who wants to be fully in the moment, whatever that moment calls for.”

Following the regional rollout, Coors is planning a nationwide release of Coors 0.0% in 2027.