CMO Doug Sweeny unpacks Oura’s winning bet on the World Cup — and what it means for his 2027 roadmap

Meanwhile, the tournament has made global superstars out of several players, including Norway’s Erling Haaland, who collected an estimated 25 million new followers during the tournament, according to Forbes, and Cabo Verde goalkeeper Vozinha, who shot from 50,000 followers on Instagram to more than 29 million, according to the BBC. 

But it’s the wellness brands that bet big — like Unilever, Therabody and Oura — that should be feeling like winners this summer. 

“We’re [all living] in this very fast-paced, divisive world with AI and political division and unrest, [but] sport takes all that away and brings everybody together in a really nice way,” Doug Sweeny, chief marketing officer at Oura, told Glossy. “We wanted to be a part of that.”

Oura rolled out several tournament-related campaigns and partnerships over the past few months, including a partnership with U.S. Soccer to become the official wearable of Team USA, announced in April. It positions the brand as a founding partner of the forthcoming Arthur M. Blank U.S. Soccer National Training Center outside Atlanta. 

However, Oura’s buzziest bet this summer came through hiring Harry Kane and Declan Rice, the co-captains of England’s national team, as official ambassadors. As reported by “Variety” this week, more than 15 million viewers watched the match between England and Argentina on July 15, the largest World Cup semifinals telecast in English-language history. 

The campaign focused on how the two prepare and recover for matches — highlighting pillars of performance like rest, training and sleep — and launched on the first day of the tournament. Oura’s messaging in the ads with Kane and Rice is simple: If it’s good enough for an elite athlete, it’s good enough for a consumer. “It definitely gets translated like that [for consumers],” Sweeny said. He considers these ambassador appointments as top-of-funnel awareness on a consumer’s path to the eight to 10 touchpoints it takes to sell a $399 or $499 Oura ring, he said. 

Sweeny told Glossy that the Oura team wanted to sign U.S. players to similar ambassador roles to better highlight the Team USA partnership, but it ultimately didn’t happen. “We were scrambling,” Sweeny said. “We need to work across multiple teams, with the medical staff and the training group [for the team], and it was hard to get in front of that for the men’s side beyond supporting the overall team.” 

Luckily, Oura’s bet on England paid dividends. Like standout players Haaland and Vozinha, England captain Kane has been one of the top performers throughout the tournament. He scored six goals and one assist — making him a contender for the top-scoring honor, FIFA’s Golden Boot — and led his team into the third-place playoff this weekend. He also grew his fandom, as evidenced by the 1.2 million followers he amassed on Instagram during the tournament, according to Yahoo Sports. 

Naturally, the Oura team leaned deeply into the U.K. market for Kane’s and Rice’s ads. The U.K. is a top three market for Oura. The U.S. is the biggest. The company wrapped the ads around Harrods department store in London, where it has a dynamic, “white glove” counter for customers to learn about and buy the product, and ran ads in every global broadcast of England’s games. Oura’s web traffic surged with every ad.

“The sheer volume of the eyeballs and impressions that [we’re] getting is just through the roof, and they keep over-delivering, which is great,” Sweeny told Glossy about Oura’s multi-pronged investment in reaching World Cup viewers. 

Overall, these World Cup activations have been one of Oura’s biggest investments in its 11-year history. Sweeny compared it to the advertising it does during Q4, the most important selling season for consumer electronics. “This [World Cup campaign] sort of rivals that in terms of the investment,” he said. “I mean, the World Cup is expensive.” 

At the end of the day, teams lose and athletes get hurt, so betting on sports is inherently risky for brands. For example, Rice missed a full game and another half due to an illness, which may have kept him from the type of viral moment that propels an athlete onto the world stage in a bigger way. 

Meanwhile, English striker Jude Bellingham had a standout tournament, scoring six goals and adding 8 million new social media followers, according to Yahoo Sports. Does Oura wish they’d hired Bellingham, too? “I think probably yes,” Sweeny said with a laugh. “[Plus,] he’s so charming.”

Still, Oura seems to be stacking the winning bets. The company became the official sponsor of the New York Knicks in 2023, winning attention when the Knicks took home the NBA Championship this year. Then there was its April announcement that Oura had become the official wearable of the U.S. Tennis Association. Oura is also the official wearable of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams. 

Sweeny will now take these learnings into 2027 as he creates the company’s plan for the Women’s World Cup next year in Brazil and the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028. 

While the U.S. Men’s National Team has never made it to a World Cup final, the women’s team has already won four World Cups, in 1991, 1999, 2015 and 2019. Oura first partnered with the U.S. Women’s National Team in 2020 and, according to Sweeny, will deepen that investment next year. 

“Given how bullish we are on that team [we plan to do a lot next year],” Sweeny said. “That team is formidable!”