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May 9, 2026
When major sporting events like the World Cup approach, brands plan for growth.
For many categories, these moments represent one of the biggest opportunities of the year to drive incremental sales and category uplift.
But capturing that opportunity isn’t guaranteed.
Between the plan created at head office and what actually happens in store, a gap emerges. And during high-pressure retail moments, that gap becomes impossible to ignore.
We explored this broader dynamic in our recent article, “The World Cup Is Won in Store”, which looks at how in-store execution ultimately determines performance during major retail events.
From a commercial perspective, this will feel familiar.
You already track:
On paper, everything is measurable.
But the most critical layer — what actually happens in store — is often missing.
These are the questions that ultimately determine whether a promotion delivers the expected uplift and they are also the questions most teams struggle to answer in the moment when it matters most.
Under normal trading conditions, execution issues already exist but during major sporting events, they accelerate.
Several factors contribute to this:
When these pressures combine, even small execution issues can have outsized impact but when execution is strong, these same moments can become powerful drivers of incremental sales and category growth.
Trade promotion plans are designed to drive incremental volume, not just maintain base sales. However, for that to happen, execution needs to be consistent across stores.
In reality, breakdowns can occur at multiple points:
The result is that brands often can’t distinguish between:
This is where significant value is lost but also where the biggest opportunity exists to recover incremental sales by improving execution visibility.
Without visibility into execution, teams rely on delayed signals.
In many cases, this means relying on syndicated data, which typically provides a view of performance several weeks after the event.
Sales data shows what happened, but not why.
A drop in performance could mean:
By the time this is understood, the opportunity has passed.
But the inverse is also true.
When execution is strong and aligned with demand, these same moments can drive significant revenue growth and category share gains.
The difference is visibility.
With more granular, near real-time visibility into what is happening across stores, teams can move from reacting to results weeks later to identifying execution issues and acting while campaigns are still live, protecting trade promotion spend and capturing incremental sales as demand unfolds.
The most effective organisations are no longer relying solely on:
Plan → Sales data → Post-event analysis
They are shifting toward:
Plan → Reality → Action
This means:
This shift transforms major retail moments from reactive exercises into controlled commercial opportunities.
When brands gain visibility into execution, several things change:
Most importantly, teams can act.
Instead of discovering problems after the event, they can fix them while it still matters.
Major sporting events don’t just expose execution gaps, they amplify them.
But they also amplify the upside. When planning, execution and visibility are aligned, these moments can become:
The brands that succeed are not just the ones that plan well.
They are the ones that can see what is happening in store and respond in real time.
Because in retail, performance isn’t determined by the plan. It’s determined by what actually happens on the shop floor.
For a broader view on how execution visibility impacts performance during major retail moments, you can read our full article on how in-store execution determines retail performance during the World Cup.
Most brands invest heavily in planning, forecasting and trade promotion strategy.
Far fewer have visibility into whether those plans actually executed in store.
Execution Intelligence provides a single, granular view of what is happening across stores from pricing and promotions to availability and display execution, allowing teams to act while campaigns are still live.
Learn more about Execution Intelligence
Or if you'd like to explore how this applies to your organisation:
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