Cole Palmer is one of the most recognisable faces of the England team. Serial trophy winner at club level, trademarked ‘cold’ celebration, widely popular on social media for his blunt and comedic interview style. It’s no surprise to see him in multiple World Cup campaigns. However, Palmer, alongside other big names such as Phil Foden and Trent Alexander-Arnold, was left out of Thomas Tuchel’s squad for the tournament. Which begs the question: is there such a thing as a ‘safe’ pick for a brand ambassador?
The honest answer is that risk is inherent in any ambassadorial relationship, but the difference between mitigating this risk and ignoring it begins with understanding the kind of deal you’re actually in.
Choosing a brand ambassador
Brands do not always choose their ambassadors. Partners of national federations like The FA/England will be allocated a selection of players of varying profiles to use in commercial content, often filmed months before a tournament begins. Brands are able to flag preferences for ambassadors, but the final choice is out of their hands.
This is flipped when making a deal directly with an athlete. You do have complete control over who you’re getting; however, you’re still at the mercy of a player’s form, fitness and off-field conduct. Mitigating that starts with proper due diligence: social metrics, engagement data, performance trends.
But the edge that genuine sports specialists bring isn't the data itself – most decent marketing teams can pull out a stats sheet. It's the interpretive layer on top. Understanding why a player's numbers have dipped, what a change in tactics means for their chances of inclusion, whether a new manager is likely to trust them. That contextual reading is what separates a considered recommendation from an educated guess.
All sports are different
Each sport has its own nuances. Football is quite structured: team deals, player allocations, clear commercial windows. But in sports such as golf, athletics or tennis, these mechanics shift. For event sponsorships such as Wimbledon or The Open, deals don’t come with player rights attached. Here, brands need to go out and do individual deals on top of their event partnership or find creative ways to produce content without featuring athletes directly. For brands newer to the industry, this can come as an unwelcome surprise as it requires significant time and negotiation. There are several ways to protect yourself if your key assets are left out.
Poor sporting performance isn’t enough to stop a campaign from running
Remember, a player of Palmer’s stature doesn’t become irrelevant overnight, and poor sporting performance isn’t enough to stop a campaign from running. Behavioural incidents can be a bigger cause of concern. Lauren James’ red card at the last Women’s World Cup led to campaigns being pulled back, allowing brands to let the temperature drop and other ads rotated into the schedule. But a squad omission shouldn’t be overthought.
The shift away from the single 30 or 60 second TV spot towards a bank of shorter-form social content has quietly changed the risk calculation here. A brand shooting individual pieces across two or three players, creating separate assets, separate stories, through a varied content approach catered to different platforms means you are also hedging against any surprises in the squad selection.
Looking to the future
Advances in production technology will push this even further. AI has cut turnaround times from weeks to hours. Open up a scenario where campaigns can be built reactively once the squad is announced. It’s not there yet, but it could be a real possibility of the 2030 World Cup. What needs to catch up in the meantime is contract architecture – deals flexible enough to swap direction after announcement day, not just dissolve if a player pulls out.
Sports marketing done well is a specialism
Sports marketing done well is a specialism. It requires people who know the sport who can tell you not just who fans recognise, but who's on form, who travels well commercially across markets, who the manager trusts and why. The brands that navigate this well share one thing: they treat sport as a specialism worth investing in, not a channel to be managed by whoever's available.
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