It’s game on for Major League Soccer, and the league, which kicks off its 30th season on Saturday, is making marketing and partnership moves to accompany the milestone.
MLS rolled out its 2025 brand campaign in one of the biggest ways possible, debuting it earlier this month during Fox’s pregame coverage of the Super Bowl across nine local markets where the league plays. The TV spot, called “Game On,” is meant to be high-energy, according to MLS SVP and CMO Radhika Duggal, and is also designed to build on the league’s “Our Soccer” brand platform that’s been in place since 2018. The new campaign is aimed at capitalizing on the growing popularity of the sport in the states leading up to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will be jointly hosted by the US, Canada, and Mexico.
“We have experienced tremendous growth, but we're just getting started,” Duggal said. “‘Game On’ was meant to highlight, ‘What is that MLS energy?’ and it is these four things: entertainment, momentum, belonging, and quality play.”
Press play
The “Game On” ad, which premiered Feb. 9 and is set to continue running throughout the year, is narrated by Doechii, who this month won her first Grammy for Best Rap Album. MLS announced the ad on Jan. 30, just a few days before the Grammys, so the timing was especially fortuitous, but there were other reasons why the league wanted to work with Doechii, Duggal said.
The rapper played soccer when she was younger, and that connection to the sport combined with her climbing popularity is rare, Duggal said, which is part of the reason MLS incorporated Doechii as the narrator on camera instead of just using one of her tracks.
“Having her be a prominent part of our brand campaign means she's going to bring her fans into the fold,” Duggal said. “She's going to bring in new populations of people that maybe would otherwise not necessarily be interested in our sport. Having her be featured prominently is the one way to do that.”
The ad also features MLS talent like Leo Messi and 15-year-old Philadelphia Union midfielder Cavan Sullivan, and is interspersed with shots of on-field action chosen to emphasize the high level of play and entertainment factor of the league, Duggal said. The spot includes some scenes of crowds at MLS games, too, which she said was intended to convey the “welcoming spirit” of the league.
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The campaign, which will run on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, linear networks, and MLS’ digital and social channels, is meant to “drive brand awareness, consideration, and perception,” which the league tracks month over month, Duggal told us.
“Our best hope is to see those numbers spike,” she said.
Patchwork
In honor of MLS’s 30th season, the league has some new projects in the works with Apple TV. The two organizations are currently in their third year of a 10-year partnership that makes Apple TV the exclusive streamer of MLS, and this year, that content offering will expand to include a docuseries called Onside: Major League Soccer, which Duggal described as “Drive to Survive, but for Major League Soccer.”
Apple TV is also upping its work with MLS with branded sleeve patches, customized to each of the 30 teams’ game jerseys, as well as running an MLS ad of its own in partnership with the league, Messi, Inter Miami CF, Adidas Football, and Inter Miami jersey sponsor Royal Caribbean.
MLS/Apple TV
There are other brands leaning into MLS this season, too. Century 21 Real Estate recently announced a multi-year partnership with the league that VP and Head of Marketing Tori Keichinger said is meant to “capitalize on that momentum” of the 30th season, the upcoming World Cup, and the sport’s growing popularity, to bolster brand sentiment.
“We know that folks that follow Major League Soccer in particular are passionate fans,” Keichinger said. “They're engaged…Also, you'd be hard pressed to find any community here in the United States that doesn't have a soccer field. It's just very accessible.”
Last year, MLS added 18 corporate partners to its roster, according to the league, and sponsorship revenue between 2023 and 2024 increased 13% (although the league did not share raw figures). With this season’s sponsors and brand campaign locked in and play beginning this weekend, Duggal said her team is already in talks about marketing plans for 2026, which she wants to be massive in light of the World Cup.
“We've got 31 marketing machines,” she said. “We have 30 clubs, and we have a league office. How do we harness the power of the 31 marketing machines to tell the story of MLS and every one of the local markets from which our clubs are born? So my goal is: How do we work together to create the biggest campaign that actually breaks through?”