The real competition happens at the bar

It’s the summer of World Cup 2026. The bar is packed. There are screens everywhere. Flags are waving and loud chants fill the room. You can almost touch the anticipation in the air.  

At halftime, someone approaches the bar to order a drink. The room is loud, the moment is rushed and the bar is crowded with competing signals: Beer taps, menus, digital screens, neck tags, cooling units, posters, and people. 

 In that moment, brands are competing in their own world cup...

The world cup of attention. 

Presence is not the same as impact 

Point-of-sale (POS) material is often treated as effective simply because it is there. A display is installed. A promotion is live. A branded asset is visible on paper. 

But presence is not the same as impact. 

In football, possession alone does not decide the outcome. What matters is whether it leads somewhere. In bars and pubs, the same logic applies. What matters is not just what is present in the environment, but what people actually notice when making a choice.

Attention is limited in busy environments 

In real-world settings, attention is selective and limited. People do not take in everything around them. They filter, focus, and respond to only a small part of the visual environment. That means some branded materials influence decisions, while others disappear into the background. 

In a crowded bar during a major tournament, people are often doing several things at once: 

• Watching the game 

• Talking to friends  

• Listening for their order  

• Scanning the counter  

• Making a quick purchase decision  

In that kind of environment, even well-designed POS material can be missed.

Tobii helps brands understand real attention 

This is where Tobii comes in. 

Eye tracking adds an objective layer to shopper research by showing where people look, what they miss, what they return to, and what they never notice. Instead of relying only on what people say afterwards, brands can understand what actually captured attention in the moment of choice. 

That makes it possible to answer practical questions such as which: 

• POS materials are actually seen? 

• Claims or brand cues stand out? 

• Elements are ignored? 

• Assets help shape purchase decisions? 

Tobii Insight Services also support eye tracking studies from research design through data collection and analysis, helping teams turn attention data into recommendations they can use in-store, on-trade, and across shopper experiences. 

Tobii & Carlsberg  

Carlsberg Sweden explored this together with Tobii and Ipsos Sweden in an eye tracking study conducted across three pubs in Stockholm. Using Tobii Glasses, the study followed 250 respondents as they approached the bar and made a purchase decision. The results showed a strong correlation between what people looked at and what they bought. Just as importantly, the study revealed that some point-of-sale elements received little or no attention at all. 

That is a useful reminder: What brands are proud of is not always what people actually see. 

What this means for brands 

For beverage brands, the challenge is not simply to appear in these environments. It is to understand how the environment shapes visibility, and how visibility shapes choice. 

That raises a few important questions: 

• Which materials are actually seen?  

• Which ones are ignored?  

• Which ones support choice in the moment?  

• Which ones add clutter without adding value?  

Those are more useful questions than simply asking whether an activation was installed. 

Why this matters during World Cup season 

During major tournaments, bars become even more visually complex and socially intense. Attention is pulled in multiple directions, and decisions are often made quickly. 

In that setting, the most effective brand presence is not always the biggest or most obvious. It is the one that works within the reality of the moment. 

That is why it matters to measure visual attention. It helps move the conversation beyond assumptions about what should work, and toward a clearer understanding of what people actually see. 

The real competition in the room 

For anyone thinking about consumer behavior during World Cup season, that may be the more interesting story. Not just what people watch on the screen, but what they notice around them while the game is going on. 

In a world where every tournament, campaign, and shelf is more competitive than the last, the brands that measure attention won’t just play the game...

They’ll win it.