Paula Weeks, FIFA ‘26 Hospitality Director, on Customer Success

At Coca-Cola, transforming traditional relationships into strategic partnerships has been key to long-term customer success. With over 20 years of building innovative customer programs, Paula Weeks, Senior Director of FIFA World Cup 2026 Hospitality, brings this collaborative approach to one of soccer’s largest events. This interview explores her strategies for authentic partnership building, from reimagining internal relationships to orchestrating a global sports experience across 3 countries, offering insights into customer engagement and brand leadership.

Q: Tell us about yourself. What has your career trajectory been?

A:  I have been at Coca-Cola for 20 years, but it doesn’t seem like it because every year has felt new. I have to say that’s really important when you are looking for somewhere to work; you want it to be exciting, and you always want to stay curious. I’m currently the Senior Director of FIFA World Cup 2026 Hospitality—an event that’s two years away.

At Coca-Cola, we have not supported the FIFA World Cup in the US since 1994, which has been 30 years. I get to create processes and procedures that haven’t been around for a while. It’s interesting, too, because this will now lay the groundwork for the 2028 Summer Olympics. So, it’s two-fold—I’m developing and also leaving a legacy.

The benefit of being at Coke is that I know the system, but I get to experience new things. I’ve never worked on a sports asset before, and now, in my 20th year, I’m working on a global one. So being able to use the skills I learned earlier got me in this position today. It’s exciting and fun, and we have a great team which makes all the difference in the world.

Q: How has your approach to building customer relationships evolved over your career?

A: ​​I look at customer relationships in several different ways. Customers can be external, meaning you’re selling them something, or customers can be internal—either peers on your level or “VIP” customers (senior leaders). Either way, you must have good salesmanship if you need to sell an idea, process,  procedure, or new way of thinking, so I also view internal folks as customers.

Over the years, I’ve come to realize that customers are the key to building efficiencies. For an external customer, you seek their feedback, negotiate, and collaborate with them to solve a need. When I call customers to sell them something, I ask, “What are your needs? How can I help you?” That’s problem-solving and solutions-oriented. For internal customers, you’re trying to help them achieve their goals. How can you help them? How can you become a solution for them? Thinking of it like that has helped me in my career—I became that solution-oriented person.

Q: What challenges do large corporations face in building authentic customer connections today?

A: Sometimes, an associate or sales rep might enter conversations with blinders on or may not be a good listener. They have goals and objectives, and when they get in front of the customer, that’s all they’re focused on—”I have to get 10% growth, or I cannot give more than 15 cents off, etc.” They go in with good intentions but lose sight of the end goal: how can you collaborate to achieve the customer’s goals?

I think Coca-Cola has done an excellent job creating training programs to practice value-driven collaborations. We work with customers and our sales and account teams to share, prioritize, and align on goals. If there’s a goal where our team and the customer’s team are not aligned, we have a facilitator who helps us drill down, find the root cause, and find common ground. In a way, it gives you a more organized way to listen. The key goes back to listening and not entering client conversations with blinders. That can go across the board in anything, even in your family life.

Q: What major shifts have you observed in strategies for building and maintaining customer loyalty throughout your career?

A: Where strong relationships exist, customer loyalty stays and is passed on. When we take the time to nurture and grow these relationships, you can see them live on through the next round of associates that come in either side—whether the customer side or the company side.

I’ve seen where this breaks, too, which is the opposite. With reorganizations or restructuring, a revolving door of people is coming in, making it hard to build relationships and reducing loyalty. In that case, you have to rebuild it. They’re not all going to be strong right away, and sometimes, you have to have patience and know that everything you do communicates. I don’t think you can buy loyalty. You just have to keep moving forward.

Q: How do you approach reinstating those relationships after these changes?

A: I’ve gone into environments before where we didn’t have a strong relationship. That’s probably one of my favorite things because it’s a good challenge—I’m absolutely going to win you over. I lead with being upfront and laying out how I see things, how I work, who I am, and how I will support their business. I let them know I’m always available to answer questions and get the information they need, or sometimes I’m just there to listen. But, again, I try to listen and be patient.

And then the next thing you know, it’s a year later, and you’ve developed more rapport. I had a manager who always said that to establish trust, sometimes, you must give something without expecting anything in return. Sometimes, you have to give something that will solve an easy issue—maybe they do need the extra 10 cents—knowing that it’ll pay off in the long run. You always have to have a plan, and everything works towards that plan.

Q: Can you tell us a bit about your #AddADrink campaign? 

A: Of course. For background, at Coca-Cola, we know that when people go through a drive-thru or get takeout, the purchasing intent for a beverage goes down. Because people think, “I already have a drink at home.” Let’s keep that in the back of our minds. So, during COVID, most people went through a drive-thru, got takeout or delivery, and didn’t add a beverage because they had it at home.

One of my neighbors, a social worker, wanted to help those struggling at the time, and this idea popped up in my head—I recommended that the next time she ordered takeout at our neighborhood pizza place, she should add a drink. It helps the restaurant stay open and keep staff employed. I posted it in my neighborhood, and whenever I visited a restaurant, I took a picture of what I got and posted #AddADrink. I started at a barbecue place in March 2020 and did it daily. I’ve even taken my mom, too. We’d get in the car, and I would do a drive-thru, and we’d add a drink.

Fast forward to June, I was getting ready to hit 100 outlets/ different restaurants. The president of our Food Service Organization found out about this initiative and wanted to participate. So, I had my 100th visit in Jacksonville, Florida, in a Mellow Mushroom outdoor seating space where I ordered a Coke on a Teams call with 250+ people. Everyone was encouraged to go out and do it as well.

I didn’t just do restaurants, though. Our convenience store channel got hit pretty hard, as well, during that time because they have both dispensed and bottled cans. I went into many convenience stores and added a drink there as well since it’s a big profit driver for them. It all happened by accident, but it’s been great. Now, I’ve had people all over the United States go out and #AddADrink and post it on social media.

Q: Do you anticipate AI technologies transforming the fan experience at the 2026 FIFA World Cup?

A: Coca-Cola is just starting to dip into the AI pool. As a company, we’re trying to determine the best way to utilize it. We’ve experimented with creating different beverages in the virtual world, which we launched last year. However, the product use cases for AI are separate from its use cases in advertising, marketing, and social media. We can use it more for advertising, creativity, and storytelling, so we’re looking into that.

Q: Could you talk a bit more about managing these experiences across 16 different cities?

A: I’m on the host country team, but we also have a global team that works directly with the FIFA organization, and we also have teams across Mexico, the US, and Canada. We join calls together and share information. Then, I sit on a larger team to know what’s happening in other areas and cascade the information to key stakeholders who need to know what’s happening. Right now, we’re laying the foundation of where we are and how we’re starting. We’re doing workshops, meetings, and venue visits.

There are over 23 different work streams to support for the World Cup—everything from product to decking out all the stadiums to what I do, which is hospitality (entertaining, guest services, consumer winners, etc.) Then, we have all the athletes, the ball kids who throw the ball back in if it goes outside the field, even the kids that come out with the flags of each country, coin tossers, etc. This is just the actual physical structure.

You’ll see FIFA show up in some of our retailers, so there’s a whole group of people working on how it shows up on packaging or in your local store. Because McDonald’s is a sponsor, how do Coca-Cola and McDonald’s collaborate? McDonald’s is our largest food service customer and our largest partner, so a group of people are working on that. Then we’ve got a group of people working with each host city. This FIFA World Cup is the first to be hosted in 3 countries across 16 cities, with 48 teams and 104 matches. How do we ensure that what happens in Mexico and Canada has the same look and feel? There’s security, transportation, and food services. There are things you wouldn’t even consider that need to be considered.

It’s a huge undertaking that is different from the Olympics. The Olympics are daily events for 3 or 4 weeks. The World Cup is spread out over 40 days, every couple of days, so it’s a lot logistically. It’s like a math problem: if Train A leaves the station at X time and Train B leaves the station at Y time, one going 45 miles an hour and the other going 60 miles an hour, at what point will they meet? That’s how managing this project feels. It’s sometimes a little overwhelming, but we are all having fun.

Q: What are some ongoing learning practices or resources you engage with to stay updated on advancements in marketing technology and techniques?

A: In my previous role, I read articles to see what the restaurant or retail industry editors talked about. That helped me stay on top of trends. Now, I stay on top of everything related to the FIFA World Cup and hospitality on social media. I’m always trying to find new and exciting content.

Q: Finally, what advice would you give someone breaking into a customer-facing role?

A: I call it “Paula’s Four P’s”: patience, positivity, passion, and then the party.

You just have to be patient. Whether you’re looking for a career or ready to move, you must be patient. There was one job I had at Coca-Cola for 11 years. You have to be positive, even in the hardest times. Sometimes, it will take you a minute before you find it, but you have got to find the positive, especially in your career. And speaking of which, you have to have passion—around the company, what you’re selling, or what you’re doing. If the passion is there, people see it. Then, if you can master those three, it’s the party—you can celebrate.

Looking back on my career, some people got promoted faster than me or moved on to more exciting things than I did at the time. I stayed patient, and then, all of a sudden, my time came. My mom reminded me that when I graduated from college, I looked at her and said I’d live in Atlanta, working for Coca-Cola one day. I don’t remember saying that, but I guess I put it out in the universe, and now I’m where I wanted to be. So, I’ve always had this passion for Coca-Cola and what it does for the world, and it’s come full circle for me. Those are my four P’s, but it all starts with patience.