Even if one is not a football fan, they must have definitely heard Shakira’s Waka Waka and this year’s Dai Dai. The Colombian singer has been the official voice of the FIFA World Cup not once or twice, but three times. So why am I comparing a carbonated soft drink to the singer? While most brands focus on advertisements, getting themselves on billboards and hogging up our Instagram feed, Coca-Cola has done something different for this year’s World Cup. The soft drink is so synonymous with its iconic red colour, but for the FIFA’26 World Cup, the company took a bold move by saying goodbye to the red by launching not one or two but 48 new packaging designs! Packaging is something consumers interact with more than they do with advertisements or billboards, so maybe the move wasn’t bold but just practical, and also maybe they can become as inseparable from the FIFA World Cup as Shakira is.
48 countries, 48 Designs
48 new packaging designs for 48 participating countries in the World Cup. Go to your nearest grocery store, and you will see a plethora of cans of vibrant and bold colours for you to pick. In this limited edition packaging, each design represents a country with elements such as national colours, team-inspired graphics and player photography, along with a three-letter country code like USA, MEX, COL, FRA, BRA, etc. This gives the fans something personal to connect to, even though the product is as common as a soft drink. So yeah, the PR girlies and the Marketing reps should be taking notes from Coca-Cola’s team.
The fans
We all have a friend or two who collects soft drink cans, and this campaign is a dream come true for them. What was once just another drink-and-throw can has now become a collectible thanks to its unique design and limited-edition status. Along with jerseys of their favourite football players, fans can now also buy Coke cans with their favourite players’ faces on them. Coca-Cola is certainly fitting the world onto a cylinder! Designed by Studio Golden, Coca-Cola shows how packaging becomes a powerful platform for storytelling, collectability, and global brand connection on one of the world’s biggest stages.
Coca-Cola Panini World Cup partnership
Since 1970, Panini has done an officially licensed sticker booklet for every FIFA World Cup. Collecting the Panini stickers is a badge of honour for the football fans. Along with its interactive packaging, this year, Coca-Cola has also partnered with Panini to put its stickers on its packaging. These stickers feature twelve international football stars competing in the FIFA World Cup 26. Eager fans can now buy the Coca-Cola bottles to complete their sticker collection.
What about India?
India has never qualified for the FIFA World Cup. Yet every four years, millions of Indian fans are glued to their screens, cheering for their favourite teams during the football World Cup. Though Coca-Cola cannot make an Indian version of the limited-edition FIFA World Cup cans, it has done something equally thoughtful. Coca-Cola is celebrating the most passionate fans, the ones who have lost their voices cheering and screaming for their favourite teams, by making them the voices of their “LOST VOICES” campaign.
References:
https://www.designweek.co.uk/coca-colas-vibrant-visual-identity-and-packaging-for-fifa-26/
https://www.cocacolaep.com/news-and-stories/how-were-bringing-the-fifa-world-cup-2026-to-life-for-customers-and-consumers/
https://dzinrstudio.com/blog/how-coca-cola-designed-for-48-nations
https://pentawards.com/live/en/node/newsarticle-coca-cola-launches-fifa-world-cup-2026-campaign-and-packaging-system?type=NewsArticle
https://www.coca-cola.com/us/en/offerings/fifa-world-cup-26/panini
