67% will follow the World Cup, but where are they?
Sixty-seven percent of French people say they will follow the 2026 World Cup. A national figure frames no activation: its distribution does.
The WPP Media study run ahead of the 2026 World Cup establishes that 67% of French people say they will follow the competition. The figure is solid, it is useful, and it supports no activation decision whatsoever. No media budget is bought at the scale of "France".
The gap between a national statistic and an executable plan is the gap between aggregated intent and located intent. Closing it is most of the work.
A national average always hides two populations
A rate of 67% can cover a homogeneous country, where every territory is there, or a contrasted one, where some areas exceed 85% and others sit at 40%. The two hypotheses call for opposite plans: the first justifies broad coverage, the second concentration.
No opinion survey at that sample size can settle it. Searches, by contrast, are natively located: they say where interest forms, at what intensity, and when.
Density rather than volume
The reflex is to rank territories by volume: large cities come top, resources concentrate there. That ranking is mechanical: it reproduces the population map, not the interest map.
Dividing volume by population changes the order. Mid-sized cities appear with intent densities above those of the metropolitan areas, and they carry two advantages: less advertising competition, and share of voice bought at a cost unrelated to that of the big markets.
Timing is not the same everywhere
The intent curve does not rise simultaneously across a country. It follows broadcast schedules, time differences, local viewing habits. A national plan with a single date arrives too early in some areas and too late in others.
Shifting the start of media pressure by a few days per territory costs nothing in production and measurably changes the return. It is one of the rare trade-offs where available information converts directly into gain.
What it takes to execute
Three things are enough: a measure of intent by territory, a measure of the offer already present in those same territories, and a reading of the curve over time. Everything else (creative, formats, buying) is decided afterwards, and decided better.
