I could not care less about sports, so naturally, what made the World Cup interesting to me had almost nothing to do with soccer. 

Millions of people came to the U.S. for the tournament and started documenting their experiences with American culture. Things like Walmart, Bu-cee’s, and giant portions of food became attractions. And, most importantly, ranch dressing became something worth fighting TSA over. People came for soccer and left struggling to bring bottles of ranch home. 

The cultural moment went beyond the games. Posts from international fans featuring places like Walmart and Waffle House were getting thousands of likes, with some nearing 60,000 – far more engagement than the brands’ own posts typically receive. One German fan grew from around 11,000 followers to more than 600,000 while documenting his American road trip. He even called Taco Bell “the holy land.” 

Meanwhile, America was celebrating its 250th anniversary, so there was a pretty ridiculous amount of American pride happening all at once. 

The World Cup gave the rest of the world a front-row seat to America. We gave them a pretty good show, and they gave us one in return. The things Americans barely notice became the things everyone else couldn’t stop talking about. 

I still don’t know anything about soccer. I do know that Hidden Valley got a summer of free marketing out of it. 

That’s what I’ll be watching for as a strategist: the weird side stories around the main event. Most of the time that’s where the real story is.