Panini Launches U.S. World Cup Sticker Campaign With Coca-Cola

Panini America launched a significant push into the U.S. market for its FIFA World Cup sticker collection, leveraging a first-of-its-kind collaboration with Coca-Cola. This initiative aims to introduce the long-standing European and Latin American collecting tradition to a new American audience as the World Cup is set to be hosted in the U.S. The campaign involves placing special edition FIFA stickers underneath the labels of nearly 400 million 20-ounce Coca-Cola bottles sold nationwide.

Collectors can peel back the film on these specially marked Coke bottles to reveal a sticker, with the goal of completing a 112-page album featuring 980 unique stickers. This partnership extends to major retailers such as Walgreens and CVS, and stickers will also be available at World Cup matches and fan events. Panini America's senior vice president of marketing and athlete relations, Jason Howarth, stated that the company "set our sights on something bigger" for this year, anticipating widespread attention beyond just dedicated soccer fans.

The scale of the Coca-Cola collaboration, involving "400 million 20-ounce Coke bottles," highlights the strategic importance of the U.S. market for Panini. Coca-Cola's senior director of marketing activation for the 2026 World Cup, Miguel Saucedo, acknowledged the logistical complexities of integrating the stickers into the high-volume production line, emphasizing the precision required for the "perfectly executed" campaign. Panini has a history with FIFA dating back to the 1970 World Cup, and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar saw immense demand, with Argentina selling out presale stickers in just one hour.