BBC Creative reimagines football's great moments through fans' everyday objects in its new campaign for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The film, titled “Let’s Make It Iconic,” transforms familiar items of football culture—scarves, badges, flags, drums, face paint, and bobbleheads—into animated scenes. Developed by BBC’s in-house creative agency BBC Creative, the campaign was created in collaboration with Blinkink, illustrator Dan Evans, and BAFTA-winning director Nicos Livesey.
The film announces the 2026 World Cup broadcasts while stepping away from classic sports promotion language. Instead of stadium shots, close-ups of star players, or big-match atmosphere, it opts for a handmade world built around fans' celebratory objects. This brings past World Cup memories and the tournament's new stars together in the same visual universe.
Fan Objects Transform into “Fanvases”
At the heart of the campaign lies the idea of “fanvases.” BBC Creative turns the objects fans use while experiencing a match into small narrative surfaces. A scarf is no longer just an accessory worn around the neck; it becomes a stage where football memories are embroidered. Badges, flags, drums, and face paints similarly become part of visual transitions linking the past and future.
The film combines live-action, 2D animation, stop-motion, handmade production, and tactile techniques executed in-camera. This blend gives the campaign a physical texture rather than a digital sheen. The visuals lean not toward an overly polished world but toward a handmade, mark-bearing production process.
The production involved knitting experts, enamel badge manufacturers, and stop-motion animators. A significant portion of the film's transitions was designed according to each object's material and movement capabilities. Thus, each object behaves differently: the fabric of the scarf, the surface of the badge, the shape of the drum, and the motion of the bobblehead each create their own visual language.
A Handmade World Cup Film
In an era of increasingly synthetic and overly polished visuals, the campaign highlights craftsmanship. BBC Creative's approach tells the story of a major sports event like the World Cup through fan labor, objects, and textures rather than technological spectacle.
Nicos Livesey from Blinkink describes the film as one of the most technically demanding shoots they've ever undertaken. He notes that each object behaves differently, the transitions required a complex production process, and the sense of vitality largely comes from these imperfections, textures, and fingerprints.
Tom Espezel, creative director at BBC Creative, says that in a time when AI-generated images are proliferating, celebrating the effort and craft behind fan expression has become more important. This approach elevates the film beyond a mere tournament promo, turning it into a narrative focused on the physical and emotional objects of football fandom.
The music used in the film also supports the campaign's atmosphere. Tomora's track “Somewhere Else,” crafted in collaboration with Aurora and Tom Rowlands of The Chemical Brothers, brings the soundscape to the campaign.
BBC's 2026 World Cup Broadcasts Intro Film
“Let’s Make It Iconic” serves as the main campaign film announcing BBC's 2026 FIFA World Cup broadcasts. The tournament coverage will reach audiences via BBC TV, iPlayer, 5 Live, BBC Sounds, the BBC Sport website and app, the new BBC Sport Football YouTube channel, and social media accounts.
The campaign approaches the 2026 tournament—positioned as the biggest World Cup ever held—not just from a match broadcast perspective but through football's memory and fan culture. Iconic moments from the past, future stars, and fan objects all converge within the same film.
BBC Creative's film brings not only the players to the screen but also the way fans experience the match when telling the story of a major sports event. This time, scarves, badges, flags, and face paints are not mere decorations; they become the carriers of the World Cup story.
