How We Took TOSSIT to the World Cup and Introduced It to More Than 200,000 Fans
When we first started talking about taking TOSSIT to the FIFA World Cup, it sounded a little crazy.
We weren’t an official sponsor. We didn’t have a giant marketing budget. We weren’t planning on buying billboards or flooding social media with ads. Instead, we wanted to do something much simpler: put the game into people’s hands.
Our thought process was pretty straightforward. If hundreds of thousands of soccer fans from around the world were gathering in the same places over the course of a few weeks, why not meet them there?
That decision turned into one of the biggest projects we’ve ever taken on.
Over the course of ten activations across Los Angeles, Seattle, Dallas, Atlanta, New York, and Miami, our team reached an estimated 200,000 fans, introduced more than 8,000 people to TOSSIT, gave away 1,000 games, and handed out nearly 6,000 custom Chinese hand fans promoting our Mexico Vacation Giveaway.
Looking back now, it’s hard to believe we actually pulled it off.
The Plan Was Simple
Our goal wasn’t to stand outside a stadium handing out flyers.
We wanted people to stop, laugh, compete, and leave knowing exactly what TOSSIT was.
There’s a huge difference between seeing a product online and actually playing it. Once someone throws a TOSSIT dart and watches it stick, everything clicks. They immediately start thinking of where they’d play it at home, at the office, at a tailgate, or with their family.
That was the experience we wanted to create thousands of times over.
The World Cup also gave us the perfect opportunity to introduce our World Soccer Edition and spread the word about our Mexico Vacation Giveaway. Every interaction became a chance to show people something they’d never seen before.
Ten Activations Across Six Cities
Every city had its own personality.
Los Angeles was where we found our footing. It was the first real test of whether our idea would actually work. We learned quickly that people love to watch someone else play before jumping in themselves. Once the first few people stopped, crowds formed surprisingly fast.
Seattle brought a completely different crowd. Every stop forced us to adapt our setup, our messaging, and even how we approached people.
Dallas reminded us just how much logistics matter. Transporting equipment, coordinating contractors, and moving everything through crowded areas became almost as important as running the activation itself.
Atlanta kept us moving. Between traffic, timing, and finding the best pedestrian routes, we learned to make quick decisions and adjust on the fly.
Then came New York.
New York was easily my favorite stop of the entire tour.
We finally had the crew size we’d been hoping for, and everything came together. We were able to capture the type of commercial-quality content we’d imagined months earlier. Fans from all over the world were constantly walking by, creating an energy that was impossible to recreate anywhere else.
Many of our favorite photos and videos came from New York, and it felt like the campaign had finally become everything we’d hoped it could be.
Miami was unforgettable for an entirely different reason.
The heat was unbelievable.
The second we stepped outside, everyone was drenched in sweat. We were hauling boxes of silicone darts, promotional materials, signs, cameras, and giveaway items through packed streets in South Florida humidity.
It was exhausting.
But fans still stopped to play.
The Best Compliment We Received
One thing surprised us throughout the tour.
Over and over again, people would stop and tell us,
“This is such good marketing.”
Not because they saw a sign.
Not because someone handed them a flyer.
Because they got to experience the game.
That was always the goal.
One of my favorite memories happened when an entire family stopped to play. They ended up leaving with TOSSIT games that became their Christmas presents. Somewhere in the middle of it all, they also got to stick a dart directly onto one of our bald actor’s head, which became one of those moments none of us will ever forget.
Those interactions are impossible to create through traditional advertising.
What People Don’t See
When you look at the finished videos on Instagram or TikTok, it looks easy.
It wasn’t.
Every activation started long before the cameras came out.
There were flights to catch.
Rental cars to load.
Parking that cost far more than we expected.
Thousands of silicone darts to transport.
Signs.
Tables.
Giveaways.
Camera gear.
Contractors to coordinate.
Some cities required teams of nearly ten contractors to make the activation work. Managing that many people while navigating unfamiliar cities added another layer of complexity we hadn’t fully appreciated when we started planning.
One of the craziest stretches of the tour came after Los Angeles.
We wrapped up our activation, packed everything we could, caught a flight across the country, and just hours later were setting up in Miami with an entirely different collection of promotional gear.
There wasn’t much time to celebrate.
It was time to do it all again.
When We Knew It Was Working
The biggest sign that the campaign was succeeding wasn’t a spreadsheet.
It was running out of giveaways.
People genuinely wanted to stop and interact with us.
By the final week, we noticed something else.
Website traffic was climbing.
Sales were increasing.
People who had seen us in person were visiting the website on their own. We weren’t chasing them with ads. They remembered the game, searched for it later, and wanted to learn more.
Even more exciting, companies and major brands started reaching out after seeing what we were doing.
That was validation we hadn’t expected.
What We’d Do Differently
Like every ambitious project, this one taught us a lot.
If we could do it again tomorrow, we’d spend even more time choosing locations where people naturally slow down.
One of the biggest challenges wasn’t getting attention.
It was convincing excited soccer fans to stop on their way into the biggest sporting event in the world.
Most people were already focused on kickoff.
Another lesson was planning.
The activations worked, but they would have been even better with more lead time. Finding dependable contractors across multiple cities, coordinating travel, and moving equipment around the country is a much bigger job than it looks from the outside.
Those lessons will make the next tour even stronger.
By the Numbers
* 10 World Cup activations
* 6 cities
* More than 200,000 fans reached
* More than 8,000 people played TOSSIT
* Nearly 6,000 promotional hand fans distributed
* Approximately 1,000 TOSSIT games given away
* Around 60 crew members, contractors, actors, and ambassadors involved
Why This Matters
The biggest thing this campaign proved wasn’t that we could organize a nationwide tour.
It proved that TOSSIT belongs in places where people come together.
It works across languages.
It works across cultures.
You don’t have to explain much. Someone watches another person throw a dart, laughs when it sticks, and within seconds they’re asking if they can try.
That’s something we’ll never forget.
Our goal has always been bigger than selling games.
We want to create moments where complete strangers become teammates, where families laugh together, and where competition brings people together instead of pulling them apart.
The World Cup reminded us that play really is universal.
What’s Next?
This summer gave us a huge boost, but it also raised the bar.
We’re now turning our attention toward the holiday season and continuing to grow TOSSIT in the United States and around the world. The momentum from these activations has already carried into stronger brand awareness, increased website traffic, and growing interest from companies that had never heard of us before.
We honestly believe this is just the beginning.
To everyone who stopped to throw a dart, cheered someone on, grabbed a hand fan, entered our giveaway, or simply came over to ask what TOSSIT was—thank you.
We’ll see you at the next event.