Scoring New Fans for Your Business During the World Cup

Meg Kane (00:00)

I think sometimes when you see something like FIFA World Cup, it feels so big and it's like, well, how can I possibly get involved? Right? So, what I've always shared when I've been out and gotten this question from small business owners is don't worry so much about tying yourself directly to FIFA and the World Cup and the trophy and the logos and those things, but really focus on the, you know, how do you take advantage of the moment? That is, you know, that is kind of all the celebration.

Announcer (00:35)

Welcome to THRIVE, a Paychex Business Podcast. Your blueprint for navigating everything from people to policies to profits. And now your host, Gene Marks.

Gene Marks (00:45)

Hey, everybody, it's Gene Marks. And welcome back to another episode of the Paychex THRIVE Podcast. It is soccer season. FIFA is coming to the United States as well as Mexico and Canada. Meg Kane is my guest today. She is the host city executive for Philadelphia Soccer 2026. Philadelphia being one of the host cities. She's also president and CEO of her own small business, a PR firm called Signature 57. So for starters, Meg, thank you for joining. I'm so excited to have you.

Meg Kane (01:17)

Thanks so much for having me, Gene. It's a pleasure to be here with you.

Gene Marks (01:20)

Yeah, I'm glad you're here. You're from Philly, and I'm from Philly as well. And I'm interested in, like, hearing your story a little bit. Tell me just a little bit. You know, give me like that one or two-minute bio, including Signature 57, and how you wound up taking this job that I'm assuming nobody else wanted to take, and then we'll talk about what the job is about. Anyway, give us a little background on yourself.

Meg Kane (01:39)

Well, I have no doubt that many people would feel very lucky to have this role, and certainly I feel very privileged to serve for Philadelphia Soccer 2026. I am born and bred Philadelphia native and I've long loved the city and feel like it's one of its biggest fans. So, for me, the opportunity to be able to promote Philadelphia on the global stage and to play a small role in helping to lead this monumental effort, FIFA World Cup in Philadelphia is really a dream come true. My background is in public relations. I have a master's degree from the University of Maryland at College Park. That is my only time away from The City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection. I'm a LaSalle University graduate, so my communications background is really steeped in what I learned at LaSalle, and I've been working in agencies since 2007. I've had an opportunity to work on some very legendary Philadelphia brands, such as Tasty Cake. I helped to lead communications for the Papal visit in 2015 for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Obviously, as a good Catholic schoolgirl does. And then I actually decided to take a break from agency life. And evidently I'm the only person that didn't know I was going to have a small business. And so while I was busy planning my next chapter, I started doing some consulting. And that ultimately led to Signature 57. But one of the first three consulting jobs that I had was with the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau in 2019, and that was specifically focused on helping to support Philadelphia's bid for FIFA World Cup. And so ultimately, the pandemic happens, and the bid itself is extended by almost two and a half years. So there was a sort of concurrent things happening at the same time. And so ultimately, when we were selected as host city in 2022, at that point I had seven people working at Signature 57. As a small business, I'm very lucky that we have a wonderful team here at Philly Soccer, led by our Chief Operating Officer, Lauren Lambrugo, but certainly have to thank Dan Hilferty and Michelle Singer of the Comcast Universe. Dan is CEO of Comcast Spectacor and Michelle is the senior vice president of Government Affairs for Comcast. They're our co-chairs of our board and they were really the ones that encouraged me to be able to find a way to do both. And so here I am with us 14 days until World Cup begins and the FIFA Film Festival opens. And, you know, very lucky to have a team around me that is just so excellent that allows me to do this work and chat with you today.

Gene Marks (04:30)

And what is the work? Like what is your job as a host city executive? Tell me a little bit about your day.

Meg Kane (04:37)

Sure. Every day is different, and every day truly, you have no idea what may come up. You think you have a schedule and then you have a little bit of a different schedule. My job is really to be the advocate, the Pied Piper of soccer for Philadelphia and to get everyone excited and engaged in this incredible event that's about to happen. We have an excellent operations team, as I mentioned. We're very blessed to have a great COO in Lauren Lambrugo. So when we think about all of that, the work that the team is doing behind the scenes around transportation, mobility, safety and security, external affairs, community engagement, social impact, all of that work, youth engagement, we have a small and mighty team of 15 that is doing this work day in and day out and have been since, you know, the last two years. But my job is to really help keep the public morale up and get everybody excited. I still find it fascinating when I walk into rooms and people like, oh, is the World Cup this, this summer? It is this summer. It's in two weeks. And even more, I think, you know, there's been a lot of education about how big of a sporting event this actually is. In Philadelphia, you're a native Philadelphian, you know that we measure everything by the Philadelphia Eagles. It is our, it is the, it is the only ruler, measuring stick that we use. Is it a big, like an NFC Championship game? Is it bigger than a Super Bowl parade? Like everything is within those, that realm. And I always share with people that in 2025, when the Eagles won the Super Bowl and beat the Chiefs, which I never tire of saying, right, that we, that there were 240 million people around the world that watched that game. And you know, when we think about the FIFA World Cup Final that will happen on July 19, it's expected that 3 billion people will tune in around the globe to watch that single match. So, I think it's so interesting from a Philadelphia perspective of the education that we've had to do to really talk about how big of a sporting event this is, even though we are probably one of the best sports towns in the United States.

Gene Marks (06:44)

It's a great job. I'm sure it's a thankless job as well. And I am sure, you know, like you just said, I mean, you probably wake up in the morning with your plan for the day and then when you go to sleep at night, you're like, okay, today was nothing that what I was expecting it to be. Right?

Meg Kane (06:58)

It changes. And I was going to say the to-do list is ever-changing, ever-evolving. A lot of voice memos. But I wouldn't say. I think in many respects, you know, I probably have the opportunity to hear the thank yous more often than the team that is pounding the payment every day and doing so much of the behind-the-scenes work. So I do my best to make sure that they hear those thank yous from others because the work is, it's been tireless and, you know, everyone is just working toward a singular vision. And it's not just Philadelphia Soccer 2026, but really, you know, and I think uniquely, this is a great example of a true public-private partnership. FIFA World Cup doesn't happen if you don't have the partners of the City of Philadelphia, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. If you don't have the Philadelphia Eagles, if you don't have the Philadelphia Union, if you don't have Visit Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau. So, when about all of the people that need to be around that table for a multi-year period, we've been incredibly lucky that there's just been consistency of people in their roles, which really allows us to have, you know, kept focus on mission and vision in such a, in such an important way, especially led by our board of directors.

Gene Marks (08:18)

So, our listeners and our viewers on YouTube are small business owners, you know, I mean, not all of them are from Philadelphia. So we'll expand this question, but first let me focus on Philadelphia. Let's assume that you are talking to a Philadelphia audience. What is unique, and they're business owners, what advice would you have to take advantage of the World Cup matches? And you know, what is unique about Philadelphia, I think that you can, that you can help to market? Go ahead.

Meg Kane (08:48)

Sure. So, Philadelphia, I'll take the second question first. Because Philadelphia has been such an essential part, almost a character, if you will, in the story of FIFA World Cup 26 and in our bid. We really positioned Philadelphia to, in a way that was very different than we'd ever had to. We had to bid mostly to FIFA, with FIFA, over the course of the pandemic. So, two and a half years and you know, there's only one nine-hour period that FIFA is in Philadelphia physically for meetings to see the city. Right. And as a city, we recognize that people often view us as a surprise and delight when they are here. Right. When they're here, they're like, wow, Philadelphia. But if they don't know anything about it, it's very much, it's the city between New York and Washington D.C. So, it's a, it was really about positioning Philadelphia and letting its authenticity shine through, of which our small businesses and neighborhoods are such a critical component of that. When you think about Philadelphia and the diversity of the city, that was something that we wanted to elevate in the bid and really focus on, because when you're inviting the world to come, you need to reflect the world that you're inviting. And Philadelphia not only does that, but over the past 10 years, the increase in small and diverse businesses has rapidly increased. So, Philadelphia plays a really important role in not only the story we tell the world, but also in the work that we are putting forward and in the focus on economic inclusion. It's one of the reasons that we are having a Philly festival marketplace outside of FIFA Fan Festival for artisans and craftsmen and small business owners so that they can position and sell their wares in during the 39-day festival outside of the FIFA, if you will, controlled area. But it's also why we based our food and beverage program in food trucks. Right? Because they are reflective not only of our diversity, but of that small business that is, you know, that is known throughout the Philadelphia culture. So, we really tried to look at that and manage that and integrate that into our own planning, which I think is so, so critically important and something that the board of directors for Philadelphia Soccer has really focused on and driven us to, and something that management is really operationalized. So, I think that takes your first question. If you are a small business owner, here is what I, and all of my colleagues, have talked about probably over the last couple years. We've done briefings for the chambers. We've gone out and met, I met, I worked with Visa on their Main Street, Visa and Main program, and had the opportunity to speak there. So, all of that has been really great and a great way to engage. But I think sometimes when you see something like FIFA World Cup, it feels so big and it's like, well, how can I possibly get involved? And Philadelphia is a really good example too, because we also have the 250th anniversary of the country being celebrated for July 4th, we have Welcome America and we have the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. So, I think sometimes that feels really overwhelming to small business. Like FIFA is such a big organization. How can I possibly play in this space? It's not about formally playing in the space, it's about leveraging the opportunity. Right? So, what I've always shared when I've been out and gotten this question from small business owners is don't worry so much about tying yourself directly to FIFA and the World Cup and the trophy and the logos and those things, but really focus on the, you know, how do you take advantage of the moment that is, you know, that is kind of all the celebration. Is it using the colors, is it leaning into soccer and just the sport itself? Is it wearing, if you are a Colombian-owned business, if you are a French-owned business, if you are, you know, a Brazilian-owned business, is it everyone wearing the national kits during that period of time? Is it about creating, you know, signage and, and things that show that it's welcoming in multiple languages? All of that is really, really important. And so, we try to focus on how people can do small things that can help them. I would also note that Visit Philadelphia has done a tremendous job in terms of outreaching to small businesses. And they've been working over the last year with photographers and small businesses to help them update their websites and their photographs that go on to Google images, because most people don't know that you need 42 images to really trigger the power of SEO for when people are looking for a place to eat, a place to shop, a place to visit. Right. So for large institutions, they have teams that can, that can do that. For small business, that's much harder. And so Visit Philadelphia has really engaged in a program to help a lot of small businesses to be able to trigger that SEO threshold and ultimately be able to benefit from the fans and the travelers that are going to come in and be searching for them on a daily basis.

Gene Marks (13:58)

You know, why you're great to talk to is because you have a career in PR, so this is like your life. It's not just, you know, as you're an outsider that's coming into this role. So, you know, a lot of businesses can relate to that. And you mentioned before about like leaning into supporting teams, like say I'm running a restaurant or a business and maybe I'm Mexican owned or, you know, I forget what Ivory Coast I think is like, yeah, they're playing in Philadelphia. So, say like, I'm an Ivory Coast, it almost seems like, and give me your thoughts on this, like, this is like one of the very few times where you can emphasize the fact that you're from the Ivory Coast or you're a supporter of the Ivory Coast. Like, you don't necessarily have to be like, most of the time in this country, It's like you want to say that you're American, you're American and all that, but this just seems like one of those few times you're like, you can put the American thing aside and be like, no, it's all about the Ivory Coast. Right?

Meg Kane (14:50)

Absolutely. I think you're totally right, Gene. And we've seen that we've been doing a series of community engagements around all of the teams that are coming to visit. We actually created a How Do You Fan? campaign, which you can check out at our website, which is fwcphilly26.com. And it is a great way for people to learn about the traditions of all of these nations that are coming. Right? Because really the World Cup, I like to, I like to say it's a twofer, right? If you are in the United States, you may root for the United States men's team, that's great, but everybody's got a second team and it's about where you're from, right? I've had more people come up to me, like, I'm brokenhearted about Italy not making it, right? There's such like... right. But we've had an opportunity to engage with Croatian fans, and they are so proud of their team. For a nation of 5 million people, for Croatia to be as competitive and as great as they are, there is tremendous pride in that. The same, you know, tomorrow night we're going out to do a community paint day in Africatown at one of the local recreation centers. And that's an opportunity for us to engage both, you know, those from the Ivory Coast, those from Ghana, but also those that are so excited. Africa is one of the areas where soccer has grown the most. Afrikan is incredibly competitive. And so we are seeing great players and great teams emerge that are capturing imagination. We've also been working with the Curacao delegation, smallest nation to ever qualify for the World Cup, and they're so thrilled to be coming to Philadelphia. They're chartering flights. They can't wait to embrace this moment. So, when you have that opportunity and to your point, like, you can sort of put that aside and be like, I'm in on Curacao. Like, you love an underdog, I got that story for you. You love, you know, Croatia. You have a grandparent that's from there. Right. Like, awesome. There's all these ways that people can, can integrate in. And I also think that there's a true magic to the World Cup of who is getting a chance to advance. What is the story of the World Cup? Who's the player that emerges? Who is the player that little kids are going to be like, that's my guy forever. I fell in love with this story because of this player. Maybe it's an American, maybe it is one of the locals. The Philadelphia area has four natives, all who have gone through the Philadelphia Union program. So, it could be certainly one of those players. But I do think, to your point about being able to kind of be engaged in this, like, incredible cross-cultural exchange is the thing that makes it so exciting.

Gene Marks (17:32)

Say I was running a business and it could be any business, and say, I'm Croatian and I'm excited about my team coming. There's clearly going to be a lot of fans from Croatia, I'm just using them as an example, coming to Philadelphia, what recommendation would you have for me? And by the way, this is not just a Philly thing. This is for if you're in Miami or any of the other cities, what recommendation would you have for me to like connect with those fans? Like, you know, we are Croatian and we're, you know, we're here in Philadelphia and we've got a business here, but we're rooting for the same team as you, and you know, what would you do to try and draw people into your business and using the Croatian team participating in your local city as a way to do that.

Meg Kane (18:11)

So for small businesses, I would encourage you to spend a little time doing some digging on social media. There are so many fan groups and federation-associated groups that are organizing their fans around where to gather, where to watch, where to have a pep rally. Right. And while there are certainly formal fan marches that will happen in Philadelphia for the teams and their fans that are here all throughout the region and really across the Commonwealth, it's about leaning in and trying to do a little bit of digging, outreaching, Maybe it's on Facebook, maybe it's on Instagram. Utilizing the social channels of Philadelphia Soccer 2026 on, across any of these, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, X, Facebook. This is where I would encourage small businesses to spend a little time. There's a lot of people posting about what's happening. There's a lot happening being talked about around the World Cup. Yes, there are big stories, yes, there are headlines, but it's really at that grassroots level of being able to say hi, let me, let me send you a quick direct message. Let me connect with you and tell you like, I am in Philadelphia, I'm in the five-county region. I'm in southern New Jersey. We are, you know, we are a Croatian-owned business and we would love to do something with slash for you. Let's connect. And maybe it's not even an actual like event that you have to put on, but it may be being able to say to your employees, hey, there's a pep rally for the Croatian national team and we're a Croatian company and let's go celebrate that. Let's go, you know, let's go be part of that. It's more about just that engagement. But I do think that the fan groups and the federations are the, are definitely important avenues to be able to track down and to look and see what people are doing. There are also the soccer bars and restaurants. That's the other area that I would also recommend. Lots of lists in the world, Men in Blazers, which is the number one soccer podcast in the world. They do a top 10 list every year for across the United States, but in major markets. So, potentially looking at those types of lists to see if there's opportunities for connection. It's really, I think where we see the benefit is not where people are building their own individual thing at all times, but they're partnering, they're leveraging and they're, they're kind of embracing the World Cup. And I think that's where the benefit is.

Gene Marks (20:37)

I don't want to put you on the spot, but I do want to ask if anything comes to mind. I'm curious if you're, now that you've been doing this a couple of years and you've seen some of these small businesses that are doing some stuff and you can name names or not, but I'm just kind of curious like have you, have you stumbled across any business that are doing anything like pretty cool when it comes to marketing or setting themselves apart or you know, to attract fans? I'm curious if you've seen, what you've seen.

Meg Kane (21:00)

Sure. Look, I mean there are so many soccer bars and restaurants affiliated in Philadelphia and certainly because we're a great Premier League team too, I would say, you know, Brauhaus Schmitz on South Street is a pretty legendary soccer bar. Doug Hager is a great owner and I think does a lot of work to really elevate German culture. So, it's not just about the World Cup. He's doing the work day in and day out to elevate that, the German culture. In fact, the last time I saw him, he's like, oh, we're getting ready for the white asparagus festival. And I was like, I'm sorry, what? Right? Like something I would have never heard of. I was like, right, but a very, very important part of German culture. So, I think that like, you know, he really, you know, walks the walk and talks the talk of that from a Philadelphia soccer perspective. You know, I would say we, we have, we've worked with a procurement agency called Stimulus, it's a minority- and women-owned business in Philadelphia to help guide our procurement during this entire process. As a, as the local organizing committee, we certainly don't control a lot of the major contracts that FIFA oversees because it's 16 host cities and three countries. But when and where we've been able to issue those RFIs, issue those RFPs where small business can be part of that, we've really, we've really tried to remain focused on that. And we feel really good about the stories we have to tell. But one of the best business, you know, best business partnerships that we've had is we've worked with Delco Balloons, which is a Latina owned business. We met when I presented to the Greater Philadelphia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce two years ago. And as you can imagine, for a lot of events we need some really cool balloon installations. And Delco Balloons has been a great partner to us and just, you know, it's been a great working relationship. And it was just really a matter of following up and being like, here I am and if you need something, I'm willing to help out or jump in or do it fast. And, you know, that was helpful because all of a sudden we did need something that was, you know, cool and quick. Delco Balloons was able to help us. So those two, I think different experiences, but they certainly come to mind.

Gene Marks (23:11)

You know what I love about that advice as well, Meg, is that it's not really just FIFA. I mean, you know, every city, and again, now I'm explaining this because there are people from around the country that watch this, but like, every city has got, they host something. You know, I mean, I was just in Albuquerque in the spring and they have their balloon festival every year, which is, you know, world-renowned. Yeah, everybody's got something. And what you're saying like that Delco Balloons, is that what they're called? I mean, they were smart enough to find the people that were behind the organizing of that event coming to the city and then reaching out and basically saying, like, you're going to need balloons for this, can we be one of your whatever? And you know, and people like yourself, they're organizing these events, they're looking for small businesses to, you know, they want to involve small businesses. They love minority-owned small businesses as well. Female-owned small business. So there's a lot.

Meg Kane (24:03)

Military. It's Military Appreciation Month. So yeah, military, we've done veteran-owned is really important. Yeah, all of that is hugely important.

Gene Marks (24:11)

LGBTQ community. I mean, so the whole thing. And it is, so it's just, I guess the message that I'm trying to say, you know dovetailing off of what your advice has been, is that it's not just, you know, it's not just the World Cup that, you know, this event is great. But even, you know, as this event passes, there's going to be other events in your city and if you just look at a calendar and you pay attention to what's coming up next year, you can start reaching out to the people organizing that event and say, you know, we've got services that we can, we can offer. Right?

Meg Kane (24:40)

Absolutely. It's about getting on people's radar. Right? Like that ultimately is, it's about... right? Because you're inundated with, you can imagine there's, and we had, we actually did a vendor interest form on our, so, we've been collecting more than 5,000 different, you know, organization businesses, small, medium and large who have wanted to flag their services for us. You know, and so when we've needed stuff, that's the list we've gone back to.

Gene Marks (25:04)

You want to be on that list.

Meg Kane (25:05)

You want to be on that list. Right? So, like, Stimulus will help us to go through and find different, you know, what do we actually need? What's the size? Because sometimes it's small, sometimes it's a little, it's a little bit bigger and we might need like a mid-size. Right. So like there's all of that.

Gene Marks (25:18)

Yeah, you're absolutely right. You got to make that list and then that way people will be, and by the way, it's not just this, you know, this list doesn't die when, when the World Cup is over. You know, the organizations are going to continue to go back to that list for other future events for, you know, for that city. So, I think that's also, that's also really important.

Meg Kane (25:36)

It's really important. Yeah, no, Gene, you're 100% right, because it's not only about, right, that the list lives on. And whether it's the city of Philadelphia, whether it's other tourism agencies, whether it's another local organizing committee for another event that wants to leverage this. It's also the fact that we are, it's also the fact that we are having a real, that we're having a real, you know, moment around, you know, the ability to showcase all of these small businesses. And so, you know, the goal is, is that it's not just the what happens to the organizational list after it happens, but also what happens to, you know, for others who are organizing and doing certain things, you know, in the future. The, when I leave this job...

Gene Marks (26:24)

They gotta start somewhere, they want that list.

Meg Kane (26:26)

That's right. And so that's what we hope.

Gene Marks (26:28)

Everybody, I've been speaking to Meg Kane. Meg is the host city executive for Philadelphia Soccer 2026. Thank you, Meg, so much for joining us. It was a great conversation. I think it's appealing to not only businesses in the city of Philadelphia, but businesses that are also involved in cities where that are hosting the FIFA World Cup and any businesses in any city that is involved in any future events in your city, there is some great advice on how to make sure that you are prepared for to leverage those events. Do you have a topic or a guest that you would like to hear on THRIVE? Please let us know. Visit payx.me/ThriveTopics and send us your ideas or matters of interest. Also, if your business is looking to simplify your HR, payroll, benefits, or insurance services, see how Paychex can help. Visit the resource hub at paychex.com/WORX. That's W-O-R-X. Paychex can help manage those complexities while you focus on all the ways you want your business to thrive. I'm your host Gene Marks, and thanks for joining us. Till next time, take care.

Announcer (27:30)

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