The sports marketing agency will build international campaigns for Seattle, showing how host cities are using football to shape destination identities before the tournament.
B-Engaged will lead Visit Seattle’s global football strategy ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, developing campaigns intended to connect the city with international fans. The London-based sports marketing agency will work across Europe and Asia as Seattle prepares for its role as one of the tournament’s official host cities. Its remit covers media partnerships, football-focused content and fan engagement designed to present Seattle as a destination linked to the wider World Cup experience. The appointment places football at the centre of the city’s international destination marketing activity.
The work reflects the position of Seattle within a tournament being staged across the United States, Canada and Mexico. Visit Seattle, the official destination marketing organisation for Seattle and King County, has operated for more than 50 years and promotes the region through destination branding, leisure travel marketing, convention sales and overseas tourism development. Football gives that established tourism platform a specific cultural focus, connecting the city’s host-city status with audiences whose interest extends beyond match attendance.
B-Engaged is expected to develop and activate football-led campaigns in international markets, with media partnerships and original content forming the core of the programme. The agency was founded in 2016 by professional footballer and environmental advocate Héctor Bellerín, and describes its work as focused on humanising athletes and connecting global audiences with sport. Visit Seattle’s marketing team said the partnership will help introduce the city to fans from around the world while highlighting its culture, creativity, natural scenery and football following.
The strategy gives Visit Seattle a way to frame the World Cup as more than a sporting fixture, although the available details do not specify the campaigns, partners or media platforms that will be used. For B-Engaged, the assignment extends its athlete- and sport-centred marketing model into destination promotion, where the task is to connect a place with the emotional and social dimensions of football. For Seattle, the brief links tourism messaging to a globally recognised event without reducing the city’s identity to the stadium.
The partnership will therefore be judged on how effectively it turns Seattle’s host-city role into reasons for international visitors to explore the wider destination. The stated focus on Europe and Asia gives the programme a defined geographic scope, while the emphasis on authentic content and partnerships leaves room for football culture to carry the message across different markets. As the tournament approaches, B-Engaged and Visit Seattle are positioning the city’s sporting profile as one part of a broader invitation to experience Seattle on and off the pitch.
