Summer 2026 was an incredibly important time for sports in the US. The Knicks won their first championship in over 50 years, and many vibrant cities became home base to host the World Cup. Sports bars were at capacity as people from all over the world flooded cities like Boston and New York City, and people from across the country, even those who don’t follow professional sports, found themselves immersed in the fandom the World Cup brought. But for PR professionals, the event brought something else: a new understanding of how dramatically the media landscape is changing, and what it takes today for brands to be visible.
Now, the fact that the industry is shifting is nothing new, from the rise of social media and influencer marketing to shrinking newsrooms and the growth of freelance journalism, generative AI is just the latest disruption in a long line of change for PR. But disruption isn’t always a bad thing. And in this case, the World Cup taught me more about PR than I expected. (But at least I know what being offsides means now!)
Here are six important takeaways from MuckRack’s FIFA World Cup 2026 Media Intelligence Report:
Media visibility and AI visibility are becoming two different communications objectives
PR professionals have been told for years that securing the right story in a top-tier publication would shape how audiences understand a brand. But now with AI, that concept is becoming much more nuanced. Turns out, the media dominating coverage of the World Cup were often not the same sources AI platforms, such as ChatGPT, relied on when answering questions people had about the game. In fact, prominent publications like USA Today and The Athletic did not even appear among AI’s citations at all. Now, with that said, that does not mean earned media is becoming less valuable; it means communications strategies are becoming more complex and brands need to be aware of this shift.
While this takeaway is interesting, it’s not shocking. At The Pollack Group (TPG), we have already recognized this change and have implemented it into our client offerings. Our solutions such as Sited help us understand and strengthen a brand’s broader digital presence, while Audience IQ allows us to examine how brands, executives, and key topics are represented in AI-generated answers.
In short, AI and earned media shouldn’t compete for attention. Rather, the two can coexist and complement each other well. This exciting new evolution of PR will now require us to influence both the stories people read and the answers they receive.
Brand messaging isn’t necessarily AI messaging
There is nothing more sacred to a PR pro than brand messaging. We develop talk tracks and communications materials, and at TPG, we even have our own Message DNA solution, designed to create a brand matrix that keeps all messaging on-brand and relevant to audiences. So, what happens when AI doesn’t get the memo? That’s precisely what happened during the 2026 World Cup. FIFA introduced sponsor-free tournament names for its World Cup venues, yet AI continued using the stadium names already familiar to fans. While earned media used FIFA’s official tournament name alone in roughly 26% of mentions, AI did so just 2.6% of the time. Instead, AI defaulted to the local or commercial stadium name nearly 82% of the time.
So, what does this mean for brands?
In simple terms, you can decide what to call your company or product. But you can’t control how AI conveys it.
For PR professionals, this reinforces the point that messaging can’t exist in a vacuum. Introducing a new narrative is only the first step; agencies must build a foundation of credible, consistent third-party and owned content that supports it. The objective isn’t simply to tell audiences what a brand wants to be known for, but to create sufficient evidence within the information ecosystem for that positioning to be repeatable across all AI platforms.
Repetition alone doesn’t create narrative ownership anymore
Repetition is a core necessity in PR. Agencies create a brand message or story and deliver it far and wide to garner earned media. Eventually, this builds an association between the client and their known reputation. But something interesting happened during this year’s World Cup event. PR professionals saw that volume and consistency alone may not be enough to own a narrative.
As mentioned earlier, throughout the event, FIFA repeatedly used its official, sponsor-free names for host stadiums. However, AI rejected the new names, challenging the idea that saying something often enough will make it stick. Now, repetition still matters. But what we now know is that repetition without third-party influence, such as earned media, is no different than telling one person at a party you changed your name and hoping it sticks.
The outlet with the biggest audience may not be the outlet with the biggest downstream influence
Every PR professional has had a client who insists the bigger the outlet, the bigger the win. The FIFA World Cup event proved that is not always the case, forcing agencies to rethink what influence really means.
MuckRack’s report points to a few interesting examples; most intriguingly is Sports Illustrated’s Ben Steiner. He ranked only eighth among journalists based on the volume of earned coverage analyzed in the report. Yet when researchers looked at the journalists cited by AI, Steiner ranked first with 881 citations. Even more interestingly, none of the other nine journalists in the earned-media top 10 appeared among the 50 most-cited journalists by AI.
In short, what this tells us is the person whose work was getting the most coverage was not necessarily the same person whose work was traveling the furthest. For agencies, this adds another dimension to how we should counsel clients on evaluating media opportunities. Audience size, monthly unique visitors, and publication prestige still matter, but they may not tell us the full story. A highly relevant story in a specialized publication can have a much longer shelf life, particularly if its reporting becomes a source that search engines and AI platforms repeatedly draw upon. The value of a media placement can no longer be measured solely by its potential audience size; its real value is how far the placement travels.
Owned media may be becoming earned media’s strategic partner rather than its lesser cousin
Traditionally, PR professionals have placed earned media at the top of the credibility hierarchy. A company can say whatever it wants about itself on its social media profiles or its official website but having a notable reporter from a top-tier publication saying the same thing – that’s where real credibility comes into play. Now, that hasn’t changed. What has changed is the number of places audiences now turn to for information and the sources those platforms use to provide it.
The World Cup report found that only three of the 10 most-cited domains by AI were journalism outlets. The rest were sources such as Wikipedia, YouTube, and Getty, with FIFA itself being the most-cited domain in the study.
For brands, this information should elevate the role of owned content. White papers, research reports, blogs, or thought leadership articles are just as important as earned media coverage, as they help establish authoritative information that exists about an organization.
Now, is owned media replacing earned? Not a chance. One isn’t more important than the other. The two become more powerful when they work together. Earned media establishes what others say about you. Owned media establishes what you can prove about yourself. In the age of AI, brands need both working from the same playbook.
Journalists and AI don’t necessarily decide what’s important in the same way
Agencies and PR professionals spend a lot of time thinking about what’s newsworthy. Is there something trendy in the news? A compelling human-interest story? An intriguing statistic? Something else? Those questions help the pros identify what is important to a reporter and ultimately, to their client’s target audience.
But AI isn’t a journalist, and the World Cup report demonstrates that it doesn’t necessarily prioritize information the same way.
Across the 16 stadiums studied, affordability was the most common No. 1 theme in earned media, leading coverage at seven venues. Ticket prices, concession costs, and the expense of attending the tournament gave journalists a timely, consumer-focused story. AI, however, more frequently prioritized topics such as atmosphere and transportation.
A compelling media pitch might emphasize a surprising price increase or cultural trend. But supporting content could address the practical questions audiences are likely to have afterward, such as transportation help and information on ticket and stadium costs. Now, this doesn’t mean we should try to make every piece of content accomplish everything. Some stories are meant to just generate conversation, and that shouldn’t change. Maybe others are meant to just answer crucial questions. A strong PR professional now knows the role of each and makes sure they reinforce one another.
The Final Whistle
The World Cup was exciting, but for PR and marketing professionals, it was also incredibly informative. We now know that the fundamentals of the industry aren’t changing, but the playing field is getting larger. PR is and always will be about influence. But it’s just the first step. What’s changing is where that influence happens, how far it travels, and how long it lasts. The agencies that understand that distinction won’t just adapt to the age of AI; they’ll help define what effective communications looks like within it.
Want to know how your brand shows up across earned media and AI platforms? Get in touch, or learn more about Audience IQ, Sited and Message DNA and how to put them to work for you.
