UPDATE: Doechii won her first career Grammy for best rap album of the year for Alligator Bites Never Heal.
To celebrate its upcoming 30th season, Major League Soccer has called upon one of rap’s fastest rising stars in a new ad campaign. Doechii, one of the most heralded young talents in the music industry, is at the center of the soccer league’s new branding campaign, “Game On.”
Launching with a commercial in key local markets in next Sunday’s Super Bowl, the new ad will shine light on the energy of the crowd and the wide array of talent across the league, including Inter Miami superstar Lionel Messi. The league’s media partners–Apple, Fox Sports in the U.S., and TSN and RDS in Canada–will air spots from the campaign throughout the season, and it will be featured heavily on its social media platforms.
Radhika Duggal, the league’s chief marketing officer, believes that Doechii is the ideal fit for the campaign because she’s a stylish star on the upswing and had played soccer as a kid. That connection to the sport brings a relatability that may not have come through with more established artists.
“Yes, it’s really important that someone is a star,” Duggal said in a video interview. “And particularly for someone we incorporate into our brand spot, there’s this incredible opportunity to work with an artist to try to broaden the funnel and drive awareness to our great product. But if you can’t do it in a way that’s authentic, it feels very random.”
Though the ad won’t air until the Super Bowl, the Denial is a River rapper will be on the minds of millions of fans Sunday night, thanks to her three Grammy nominations. The 26-year-old star is up for Best New Artist, Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Album with her mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal.
“We are crossing our fingers and our toes and wanting her to win for her, not for us,” Duggal said. “Putting that away, what an incredible opportunity! She’s nominated for (three) Grammys, and she performs days before our spots drop, just a really fortunate connection.”
Doechii is the latest music star to link with MLS. The league has featured Atlanta native 2 Chainz (who supports Atlanta United), R&B singer Miguel (a fan of the hometown LA Galaxy); Latin music superstar Prince Royce; and Grammy-nominated DJ/producer TOKiMONSTA.
Notably, the latest marketing efforts celebrate more than the league’s 30th anniversary. MLS says that the campaign will celebrate four tenets: excitement, innovation, inclusivity and world-class soccer. The league takes pride in being one of the most diverse sports leagues in the world, with players from 80 countries and six continents.
The campaign arrives at a time when concepts around inclusion and equity are being challenged by the shuttering of DEI initiatives among major employers and in the federal government with Donald Trump’s return to the White House last month.
Duggal believes that the new marketing just reflects what it’s always been. “It’s authentic to us to say we are the most diverse league,” Duggal said. “So full stop, that is authentic and ownable to us. We’ve seen in our data … that our consumers really care about the manifestation of what diversity brings, which is this feeling of ‘no matter who I am, I can walk into a soccer stadium and feel like I’m one of the 30,000 friends’.”
The new campaign should bring the league’s growing coffers into focus. In Sportico’s newly published valuations, the average MLS franchise is now worth $721 million, a 6% increase from 2024. Excluding San Diego, which starts play in 2025, the 29 other teams are worth a combined $20.9 billion, a total that includes real estate and team-related businesses such as NWSL clubs. (Mohamed Mansour paid a $500 million expansion fee for the San Diego franchise, which will become California’s fourth MLS team.)
At the top of the valuation table are Los Angeles FC ($1.28 billion), Inter Miami CF ($1.19 billion), LA Galaxy ($1.11 billion), Atlanta United ($1.08 billion) and New York City FC ($1 billion). Among those five, all but Miami have won or played for the MLS Cup since 2018.
