The strongest crossovers borrow culture before they borrow fans.

During the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Sony released a Spider-Man: Brand New Day promo starring Lionel Messi and Tom Holland.

Instead of putting Spider-Man into a soccer match, the ad starts with Messi searching for Spider-Man in New York before Peter Parker transforms and takes him web-swinging through the city.

The campaign wasn’t really about football. It used Messi’s existing audience to introduce Spider-Man to one of the world’s biggest cultural moments.

Most movie promotions stay inside entertainment through marketing campaigns, publicity events, and interviews.

Sony built this campaign around Messi’s world instead. The World Cup already had billions of viewers paying attention, so the collaboration made Spider-Man feel organic to that conversation instead of interrupting it.

It worked because Messi wasn’t acting like an endorser. He became part of Spider-Man’s story.

The biggest collaborations don’t just borrow audiences. They move brands into new cultural worlds.

Sony used Messi’s reach to make Spider-Man relevant to a massive global soccer audience during one of the world’s biggest events.

For creators, the opportunity is to think beyond traditional brand deals and ask:

What world can my audience give a brand access to that it couldn’t reach on its own?