Nike v Adidas - the World Cup brand battle

The World Cup is all about numbers. Which team has scored the most goals? Who's got enough points to make it to the knockout stages?

The same is true in marketing - which brand has the biggest market capitalisation? Put simply, who's selling the most stuff?

It always comes down to the numbers.

Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland, Cristiano Ronaldo and LeBron James are just some of the names who feature in Nike's Rip the script World Cup advert.

Adidas' Backyard Legends offering doesn't scrimp on A-List talent either with Lamine Yamal, Jude Bellingham, Lionel Messi and Zinedine Zidane all included. Even an AI David Beckham makes an appearance.

They look more like Hollywood blockbusters than traditional adverts and those stars don't come cheap.

The German brand spent a whopping £50m making theirs, according to reports. Neither company will disclose exactly how much they spent (we did ask), but you can be sure that the bills will run into tens of millions.

Eye-watering budgets are nothing new, but this year both Nike and Adidas have gone bigger and bolder than ever before.

If we're judging purely on YouTube views, there's only one winner at the time of writing.

Nike's has pulled in 76 million views with Adidas' ad on about seven million.

Camilo Andrade, the vice-president and general manager of Nike Global Football, said: "What has changed is the speed and shape of culture. In the digital age, stories travel faster, fragment faster, and get reinterpreted faster. That means the old model of one polished film doing all the work is no longer enough.

"With Rip The Script, we've built something broader: a football universe that lives both digitally and in real life.

"With this campaign in particular, success was never going to be measured only by how many people watched a film, but rather how we open the world up to give fans, players and creators something they could interpret, remix and take further themselves.

"When that starts happening, you know the work is moving beyond advertising and becoming part of football culture."

Adidas have been associated with the World Cup since 1970 when they created the iconic Telstar match ball for the tournament.

Florian Alt, their vice-president of marketing communications, brand and performance, said: "Our campaign, Backyard Legends, featured a scene familiar to anyone who has played football – a local pitch, an unbeatable crew and some stories that become legends.

"And with that campaign we meet consumers where they are – whether they are watching on TV, following their favourite athletes on social media, or engaging with the culture created by the sport."

With the battle for World Cup attention well under way, Adidas appears to have made the stronger early impression in New York.

In Soho, the contrast between the two sportswear giants is striking. Adidas and Nike's flagship stores sit opposite each other, but only one feels fully immersed in the tournament.

Adidas has covered its store in World Cup branding, with football shirts and tournament merchandise front and centre. Across the street, Nike's focus remains, understandably, on the New York Knicks following their recent NBA title success.

However, that difference does extend beyond both stores.

Around Manhattan, Adidas branding has been hard to miss, from dedicated World Cup pop-ups to smaller promotional stands and adverts across the city. Its activations have also felt more ambitious, creating a stronger sense that the tournament is here.

Part of that may be down to how Adidas has tapped into football culture beyond the pitch.

Its recent away shirt designs have found an audience in fashion and streetwear circles, particularly among younger fans from football diaspora communities.

Shirts such as Japan's and Curacao's have become statements of identity as much as team merchandise, helping Adidas blur the line between football apparel and everyday fashion.

On the ground, those shirts appear more visible than Nike equivalents, even with the Oregon-founded company producing the US national team's jersey.

It is only an early snapshot but in Nike's home country, Adidas currently looks ahead in the race for attention.

World Cup adverts have entertained us - and helped boost brand revenue - for years. There was the Brazil team's memorable airport scenes ad from France '98, not forgetting Adidas' Jose +10 offering from 2006 in which two children built their dream teams by selecting their favourite footballers.

Sports brand strategist James Kirkham says adverts like these still resonate with fans.

"We talk about those older ads like long lost friends, like films or TV shows - we have nostalgia around them," he explained.

"Nowadays it is completely normalised that we're seeing Hollywood actors like Timothee Chalamet driving the cab in the Adidas spot.

"Football is the ultimate common denominator. It sits right there with music. It's the ultimate connective tissue. It can be incredibly uniting, but at the same time it sits at the heart of popular culture. Right now music, fashion, basketball, gaming and design - they all sit around and orbit what football is."

Social media plays a huge role too.

"Everyone says TV is dead but the reality is that TV is everything. TV is everywhere. Now it's like we have a million micro TVs. With Instagram reels, shorts, YouTube, TikTok etc we have a clip culture.

"It used to all be about duration and watch time. I think it's different now. You get something passed on to you and now you'll probably just see parts of it."

When it comes to World Cup kits, Adidas just have the edge with 14 compared with Nike's 12. Puma are one behind with 11, with other brands such as New Balance making up the numbers.

"It's very normal that young fans follow at least four different nations - they definitely pursue individual players and that translates into shirt sales." says Kirkham.

"Football and fashion are now completely entwined. Whether players are stepping out in Hugo, or whether it's Jude Bellingham with Gucci or whatever, that crossover is everywhere. It's expected and normal - and football shirts are at the heart of it."

Boot endorsements (or shoes if you're in North America) are huge business with both brands - and indeed many others - keen to get the biggest names signed.

All of this equates to massive pay cheques for the top players.

According to financial information and media firm Bloomberg, Cristiano Ronaldo has a decade-long deal with Nike worth almost $18m a year.

"The Fifa World Cup is the biggest sporting event on the planet so it's very important to us as a sports brand to perform at our best." said Adidas' Alt.

"But success for Adidas is supporting athletes in different sports, from the grassroots to the big stage."

For Nike, football clearly matters.

"When the biggest football tournaments begin, the data is always a reminder of the same thing: football is still the world's clearest universal connector. Billions versus millions." said Nike's Andrade.

"The world pauses when these moments start. So in pure global scale, emotional intensity and cultural reach, the football remains in a world of its own."

Let's not forget, both Nike and Adidas are businesses with market share and revenue at the heart of what they do.

The question of who's selling the most sportswear is something we can't accurately measure just yet. Finding that out won't be possible until long after the World Cup trophy has been presented.

Ultimately it always comes back to the numbers.

Image production by Nathan Edwards