The Magic of Attracting Attention

by Danny Summers

Are you aware of our July GROUPtalk LIVE Session scheduled for tomorrow? Group Owner, Michael Fiore, Smith's Gardentown, will share how they are attracting large numbers of people to the content they post across social media. The session title is:

Supercharge Your Social Media With Video Content

The magic formula for attracting attention (or some might say... GOING VIRAL) could easily be considered a complex and often moving target.

This past week, I received a weekly message from Dan Gingiss, our "Experience Maker" coach from last year's Fall Event 2025, that said:

"You cannot fully control what your audience pays attention to."

In his message, Dan shared his observations on how FIFA has tried to make some of the world’s most recognizable brands disappear during the FIFA games. Have you seen how FIFA's schedule listed stadium locations? Here are just a few examples...

• Levi’s Stadium became San Francisco Bay Area Stadium
• Arrowhead Stadium became Kansas City Stadium
• Mercedes-Benz Stadium became Atlanta Stadium
• MetLife Stadium became New York New Jersey Stadium

At first glance at any schedule, it was confusing: either new stadiums were built just for the FIFA schedule, or something else was happening. At one point, when I saw Atlanta Stadium listed, I thought WHERE IS THAT??? After a little searching around the FIFA schedule, the location matched "The Benz." At this point, I knew something weird was going on.

Dan's message explained what FIFA negotiated across all locations. If a stadium's name sponsor was not an official FIFA sponsor, the name or logo could not be shown. So they actually covered the logos and names. There was at least one exception... the huge Mercedes logo on top of "The Benz" retractable roof could not be covered without damaging it.

Dan's observation of what some of the brands did in response is important. He gave a couple of examples of how brands didn't fight the cover-up; they leaned into it... and won! Dan said:

"Levi’s didn’t fight the tarpaulin. Instead, it leaned into it. The brand posted a video captioned “Welcoming the world to the beautiful [redacted] stadium!” set to the viral “Nobody’s Gonna Know” audio. As of this writing, the post has more than 2.6 million likes and more than 42,000 reposts on Instagram alone.

Levi’s then extended the covered-logo aesthetic to storefronts in London, Paris, Milan, Berlin, Hong Kong, Brazil, and Mexico. So the cover-up became the campaign."

Here's another ad firm that shared a great recap of the benefits Levi's garnered form their approach and creativeness:

Dan also listed Heinz as one of these creative rebounders...

"Heinz Canada launched Unofficial Stadium Ketchup – a limited-edition bottle with the brand name blacked out. Beats posted the Musiala photo` with the caption “Spoiler alert: it’s a b.” And both campaigns garnered tens of thousands of likes.

The brands FIFA tried to suppress became the most-talked-about brands of the tournament, while the brands that paid for official sponsorship largely blended into the background."

From what Dan shared, it is easy to see that FIFA's efforts to restrict attention actually brought more attention to the brands they tried to suppress.

But how could the brands overcome the cover-up?

The answer is ringing in my ear right now (in Tom Kegley's voice)... Consistency!

These brands have spent years and invested heavily to etch their images in our minds. While no Garden Center has this level of budget, the rules still apply...

Be consistent!

I believe we will hear "be consistent" tomorrow as Michael Fiore shares how they create messaging that attracts attention.... well beyond their normal customers.

See you tomorrow for GROUPtalk LIVE.

Don't forget... You can read Dan Gingiss' entire message titled, "FIFA tried to erase these Brands. It didn't work." HERE. And be sure to sign up for his blog messaging while you are there. Dan is The Experience Maker!

And as a Group Center, you have access to important messaging from Tom Kegley on building a consistent brand. Just navigate to the Clients-Only menu and down to Power Tools. There will will see a section for Tom Kegley articles and videos. Leverage Tom's creative ideas on building your brand!

[HIDDEN MESSAGE: We still have a few of Dan's books, The Experience Maker, from The Fall Event 2026. If you want a copy, email me.] :-) 

Danny Summers
[email protected]
Tel: 678-909-7770
Cell: 678-761-7145

REMEMBER: Your interaction (by phone and email) with Group Service Providers such as Tim Quebedeaux, John Kennedy, Seawright & Associates, and of course Danny Summers are included in your retainer!