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2014’s most successful World Cup campaigns

The Fifa World Cup has begun. Brands around the globe are in guerrilla marketing mode. Here are more highlights of the best unofficial campaigns from this year’s World Cup – with one exception perhaps.

Beats: #TheGameBeforeTheGame

‘The Game Before The Game’ is a beautifully executed campaign starring Luis Suarez, Robin Van Persie and an impressive roll call of other international footballers. Each of the athletes is shown during their pre-game rituals, with music revealed as a common theme. The viral advert has clearly touched a chord with a younger demographic who are responding positively on social media. Having hit the right tone for its target audience, this campaign will go a long way to reigniting the desire for Beats products that has perhaps waned in recent months. We can expect to see a global spike in sales for Beats in the coming weeks, just what the brand needs under new ownership.

Nike: ‘Winner Stays – Risk Everything’

Nike’s unofficial World Cup advert has had more than 70 million views on YouTube and includes cameos from a whole host of prominent footballers including Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar Jr, Wayne Rooney and Thiago Silva. The campaign coincides with the release of the brand’s latest football boot which features prominently throughout the advert. The activity cleverly combines a human touch of ‘backyard’ football with high-profile global superstars, without ever explicitly mentioning the World Cup. The campaign is proving to be significantly more prominent than ‘The Dream: all in or nothing’ advert from Adidas, an official sponsor of the World Cup. This effectively confirms Nike’s position as king of guerrilla ATL and the brand has once again scored big with high profile sportspeople and impressive levels of public engagement.

Carlsberg: ‘Fan Squad’

Another unofficial advert stealing the spotlight this year is Carlsberg’s ‘Fan Squad’ campaign. The spot portrays the perfect World Cup viewing conditions based on market research which asked fans what could ruin their experience while watching football at their local pub (e.g. size of the screen, queuing for drinks). Starring high-profile figures including Ian Wright, Paddy McGuinness and Jeff Stelling, the campaign focuses on their personalities and charisma rather than their star power. And by putting the match in the background and focusing on the collective experience in the pub, Carlsberg has successfully tapped into the shared experience quality of the World Cup. The advert is designed to position Carlsberg as the ‘beer of choice’ for England fans during the World Cup in a clear attempt to undercut Budweiser as the official beer of the tournament.

Visa: ‘Jamaica to Brazil: from athlete to footballer’

However, not all of this year’s official sponsors are being overlooked by their unofficial counterparts. Visa’s ‘Jamaica to Brazil from athlete to footballer’ campaign featuring global sprint legend Usain Bolt is possibly the most memorable piece of activity overall. The entertaining advert shows Bolt making his way from a Jamaican athletic track to the Maracana stadium in Brazil where he sneaks onto the pitch at the start of a match. Along the way the icon becomes immersed in Brazilian football, transforming from an athlete to a footballer with every online, contactless, and mobile purchase. The campaign is simple, clever, effective and memorable with huge brand recall; absolutely pitch perfect from the official World Cup sponsor.

Guerrilla marketing is becoming more and more sophisticated across all media, but now those official brands that have paid handsomely to be at the forefront of people’s minds will get four weeks of uninterrupted promotion. Their logos and messaging will be displayed across the electronic hoardings and on our screens during every match broadcast to a global audience of millions. That exposure, reinforced by any supporting ATL activity, will achieve the high brand recall desired by the sponsors; converting this into sales is the tricky part that brands must get right at the point of purchase to avoid guerrilla brands stealing too much of the market share.

2014 Is the Year of Sport

I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait for the year of sport that will be 2014. It’s any marketer’s dream and brings boundless opportunities for brands, whether officially or unofficially linked to the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil and Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. It will be the year of sporting endeavour, which some may argue can only be made possible with the support of partners, sponsors and suppliers; but is there a return beyond the cache of being associated with the event? I’d argue a lot. After all, there is the index-linked effect on sales, which can’t be ignored, as well as the value of a brand’s stock and overall stature in today’s economic climate. The blue chips of this world are index-linked to our livelihoods, through the people they employ and effect on the local economy, regardless of whether we are consumers of their products or not. We simply cannot escape the loop.

P&G, Visa, Longines, Omega, Toshiba, Panasonic, VW, Emirates, Ford, Sony, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola are just some of the great and good that make these events possible. London 2012 secured 80% of its £700m target from sponsors and Sochi 2014 is predicted to have raised the same amount from sponsors. These sporting events really do light up the eyes of brands who know the positive effect a global event can have on their brand equity, recall and awareness.

Those who argue that Coca-Cola or McDonald’s shouldn’t take part in such gigs have every right to expose the ironic discrepancy in dubious health benefits of their products against a landscape of sport and genuine health. However, as demonstrated by Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight with James Quincey, President of Coca-Cola Europe, this argument is weak. Most nations would certainly fight against a Nanny State where consumer lifestyle choices are controlled. I agree we shouldn’t glamorise smoking and alcohol above-the-line, but when it comes to what we eat, who has the right to tell us to stop?

Like it or not, these brands are the ones with the resources to prop up good causes and keep major sporting events alive through sponsorship. As consumers, we have the choice to decide for ourselves what is good for us to eat. A brand has the moral obligation of encouraging a healthy lifestyle for both mind and body, but is it acceptable for a brand to be told that it cannot be a sponsor because of its relevance to the event in question? Without the exposure which sponsorship allows these brands to develop, thousands of employees worldwide face the risk of losing their jobs because a dictate stated we can no longer drink sugary beverages or that sugary beverage brands cannot support good causes. The worst case scenario is that the stock market declines on the back of poor trading statements and share prices fall to affect the economy. Brands are vital to general wellbeing in our economy and societies, which finishes with our consumption.

Let’s remember what makes a brand great. It is how we, the consumers, perceive it. You may not like every brand, but there will always be others that do. Every brand has the right to be philanthropic and give back no matter how evil you may consider them to be. The reality is that we need these global brands as much as the global events they sponsor which serve to inspire us, our children, our nations and create a bubble where for several weeks of the year, the world unites around one event. I still have fond memories of the electricity running through the UK during the Olympics last year. It was infectious and generated a unique sense of national pride in all, facilitated perhaps in part by these brands supporting and creating a buzz through ATL. You have the choice to buy or not to buy – that is your democratic right – but let’s allow those brands who want to spend their invaluable money on these events to do just that. Through our choices, we control the consequences.

Read the full article at http://www.brandingmagazine.com/2013/12/19/2014-year-sport/

gekkofm

Marketing

Tag Archives: World Cup

2014’s most successful World Cup campaigns

2014 Is the Year of Sport

gekkofm

Marketing

Tag Archives: World Cup

2014’s most successful World Cup campaigns

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2014 Is the Year of Sport

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