How do we tell football fans that football unites the world? Show them

Every football fan knows who FIFA is, but how many know what FIFA does? And how it makes football better through multiple global initiatives, from driving the women’s game forward to using the sport to fight childhood obesity and protect the rights of indigenous peoples? In short, helping football unite the world.

Not enough, said our client. So they asked us to create a showcase visitor experience that would demonstrate their work in promoting and developing football programs around the world.

To echo the single-mindedness of “Football Unites the World” as a statement, we created a single, standout structure for the exhibition. Inside, fans took a fascinating experiential journey revealing how FIFA has developed football across the globe.

Filmed interviews with football legends showed the impact of FIFA’s initiatives at the highest level. Physical skill testing booths were used to demonstrate FIFA’s campaign to improve childhood fitness and health. Interactive screens featured key data and stats from the competition. Numerous mini-exhibitions showed the reach and depth of FIFA’s initiatives to make the game more and more inclusive around the world. Crucially, it was education through fun. Visitors could even pit themselves against VAR (video assistant referee) to see how they would fare.

Over the 31 days of the tournament, nearly 300,000 people came to visit. The content we created has become part of a permanent catalogue of FIFA initiatives, to be used at other global events, including the Women’s World Cup 2023. And the data we collected generated over 32,000 new contacts for FIFA.

“We engaged Catapult as the creative and production partners for the FIFA Q22 brand experience in Qatar. Their unique perspective on fan culture and audience entertainment, combined with creative, design and production smarts resulted in a standout fan programme that truly demonstrated FIFA’s legacy and purpose in driving the development of football around the world. The team was outstanding and the delivery of such a distinguished event was on target.”

Anji Bizri, Special Events Lead Q22