MLS CMO Radhika Duggal: World Cup Lessons in Data and Creativity
MLS CMO Radhika Duggal says a July 13 campaign spotlighting 45 World Cup players is lifting viewership and ticket sales. In 2026, a CMO has to be both artist and scientist, she argues.
Updated
The brief
- MLS CMO Radhika Duggal was under two years into the role when the FIFA World Cup kicked off; she previously worked at Deloitte, Pfizer and Chase.
- A campaign launched July 13 highlights the 45 MLS players who competed in the World Cup and is driving upticks in viewership and ticketing.
- Duggal speaks at the Marketing Brew Summit on September 30; MLS launched its 31st season kickoff campaign in mid-February with a humanity-focused approach.
Major League Soccer is coming off a World Cup summer, and its marketing chief says the results are showing up in viewership and ticket sales.
Radhika Duggal, CMO of MLS, was less than two years into the role—her first in the sports industry—when the FIFA World Cup kicked off. Before joining the league, she consulted for Fortune 500 companies at Deloitte and held marketing leadership positions at Pfizer and Chase.
That background shaped a data-driven approach to MLS marketing, aligned with broader efforts across soccer and other sports to capitalize on fan intelligence. But Duggal argues data alone doesn't win fans. Modern marketers, she said, need to weight creativity just as heavily as metrics and measurement.
"Marketers feel like they still have to be, 'I'm the artist,' or 'I'm the scientist.' I care about data, or I care about creativity," Duggal said. "In 2026, a CMO has to be both."
People first
Duggal carried that philosophy into the league's marketing around the World Cup. MLS's kickoff campaign for its 31st season, launched in mid-February, focused heavily on humanity—spotlighting players, celebrities, and team owners.
"People fall in love with other people," Duggal said at the time.
Coming out of the World Cup, Duggal and her team doubled down on the athletes. A campaign launched July 13 highlights the 45 MLS players who competed in the tournament. So far, it is driving the results she targeted.
"We're seeing an uptick in viewership and ticketing, which were the primary quantitative outcomes we were trying to drive," she said. "That was our goal, because we knew that when we get people to watch our product—whether it's in-stadium, whether following us on social, whether watching our broadcast on Apple TV—we know that's when people fall in love with our product, because it's just such a fun experience."
Duggal is set to speak at the Marketing Brew Summit on September 30, where she plans to discuss lessons from the World Cup and her career outside of sports.
Based on Marketing Brew; privacy.morningbrewinc.com
Filed under mls, cmo, radhika-duggal, sports-marketing, world-cup
Tom Whitfield
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Staff writer covering consumer brands and retail at Marketing Herald.
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