Amid the euphoria of the 2026 FIFA World Cup and peak advertising costs, marketing experts warn: brands that fail to transform customers into "collectors" risk seeing their margins devoured by an inflated market.
The Panini sticker album is not just a pastime; it is, perhaps, one of the greatest lessons in... marketing 2026. Trading cards sold out in a few hours, Facebook groups for trading, cards sold for exorbitant prices on OLX, Vinted, etc.
The explanation could be purely emotional: it's an event that only happens every four years, it's the farewell of two true legends of the sport (Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi), and it's one of the last World Cup sticker albums made by Panini; but the truth is that, in a market saturated with offers, the gamification And the feeling of reward is becoming the only defense for retail against increasingly expensive and unpredictable advertising algorithms.
Brands that treat their customers as collectors of experiences, and not just as occasional buyers, are achieving what paid traffic no longer easily delivers: predictability and a high ROI.
“In real-world business, duplicate 'stickers' are worth much more, because a loyal customer costs seven times less than acquiring a new one ,” says Marcelo Caruana, marketing director at E-goi. And he concludes, ironically: “That type of sticker album wouldn't be good business for Panini.” The contradiction is only apparent: in the sticker album, duplicates lose value; in business, including Panini's, it is precisely the customers who return edition after edition who make the difference.
The playing field has changed.
Global data indicates that the probability of selling to a current customer is up to 70%, compared to a mere 5% to 20% for a new potential customer. In the "World Retail" market, the winner is not the one with the biggest advertising budget, but the one who builds the best defense through retention. Brands that ignore their own database ( first-party data ) are, in practice, playing without a goalkeeper.
The effectiveness of this strategy already has solid mathematical evidence in the European and Brazilian markets. A practical example is the success story of E-goi with Quebramar , which, by implementing a data and automation ecosystem, managed to generate 76,2% of its total revenue exclusively from loyal customers, totaling €6,5 million in sales in a short period. This type of social proof demonstrates that loyalty has ceased to be a "freebie" and has become the main driver of revenue.
The Guide to Victory
To help managers navigate this scenario of uncertainty and high competitiveness, E-goi has just launched the free e-book "The end of the invisible customer: How much are you losing with customers you don't know? ".
The guide explores loyalty strategies to reduce reliance on paid advertising and increase customer lifetime value (LTV).
