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World Cup Wrap Report
With the tournament over and Spain leaving South Africa triumphant, Xtreme Insight has evaluated the successes and failures in the marketing battles that raged prior to, during, and after the World Cup via its latest report. This fully interactive PDF includes a comprehensive review of campaign strategies from all the official sponsors and selected ambush brands, with analysis of their approaches across ATL, their activation in South Africa, and social media, a key marketing area and one utilised by all the sponsors.
The report also examines the hotly contested sportswear market, evaluating the strategies of the leading brands, as well as looking at the alcohol market and the tactics used by brands in this sector. In addition, there are pieces on some of the tournament’s overriding marcoms trends – notably low latency advertising and how brands failed to utilise pitchside opportunities.
For more details, or to view a sample, contact matthew.carlton@xtremeinsight.net
We have reviewed all the sponsor’s World Cup campaigns as part of our World Cup Marketing Wrap Report. Below is a look at how Budweiser utilised its rights as an official sponsor both during and prior to this summer’s World Cup. For further details on the report, or to see a sample, contact matthew.carlton@xtremeinsight.net
Campaign Overview: Budweiser’s World Cup campaign was wide ranging, incorporating traditional ATL, innovative pitchside ads, a solid social media element and various experiential activities.
Global vs Local: Most of the brand’s TV activity was centrally produced with slight local market adaptations. Other creative appeared to be locally developed, which pushed country specific initiatives. The flagship ‘BudHouse’ concept was promoted globally.
ATL Approach: World Cup-related ATL broke in Q4, 2009 in selected markets, in the run-up to the draw. With high production values, the eye-catching creative – depicting a stadium packed to the rafters with supporters simulating the opening and drinking of a bottle of beer – had the dual impact of raising excitement levels about the tournament among consumers, and raising awareness of the brand’s status as official beer sponsor.
In a similar vein, a TVC which aired globally in the months preceding the tournament saw fans in a stadium distracting a penalty taker by creating a huge image of a Bud bottle, putting him off so much that he skies the penalty, much to the delight of the fans. Both executions were themed around the ‘feel-good’ factor that the World Cup invariably brings, a theme also explored in its flagship global TVC which broke prior to the big kick-off. ‘Swap’ also portrayed the World Cup’s ability to transcend cultural differences, helping to promote the brand as a beer that brings people together.
Press, poster and internet activity in the weeks prior to and during the tournament were more specific to the markets they appeared in, promoting local initiatives and competitions, such as Predict & Win in the UK, and the Budweiser Soccer Babe campaign in China. Here, beer, football and attractive women were used to attract men, who could virtually interact with their preferred ‘Bud Babe’ via IVR technology. Fans could book calls with selected Bud Babes and also vote for their favourite. The winner of the Bud Babe beauty and talent competition became the new Budweiser brand ambassador in China.
Social Media: Central to Bud’s World Cup activity was Bud House, an online reality show which could be described as Big Brother meets the World Cup. Residing in the Bud House in Cape Town for the tournament’s duration were 32 football fans, each representing the competing teams. As the World Cup unfolded and teams got knocked out, so did that country’s representative from the Bud House.
A dedicated YouTube page – accessible at www.budunited.com – displayed the developing action from the house, where competitors carried out tasks, watched the games and inevitably squabbled (at the time of publication, the page had garnered in excess of 4 million views). The overall winner of Bud House was a fan from the matching World Cup winning country, and they got to present the Budweiser man of the match prize at the final in Johannesburg.
The brand pushed Bud House content via its World Cup Twitter page – http://twitter.com/budUnited and also utilised Facebook in selected markets during the tournament, clocking up almost one million fans who had the option of having a virtual face paint.
Other Notable Activation:In-stadia perimeter advertising caught the eye as it was adapted depending on the teams involved. For example, when Brazil played its Brahma Lager was promoted and when South American rivals Argentina were in action, it was Quilmes on show. Pitchside advertising was also used to integrate and ‘join up’ its range of World Cup initiatives using it as a way to direct fans to Bud House through displaying its URL, www.budunited.com, during games.
Around and inside the stadiums, branded Budweiser drinking zones served thirsty fans and enabled the brand to display its Man of the Match trophy. The brand’s sponsorship package included naming rights for each game’s Man of the Match, with a branded award given to the star player.
Budweiser Futbol Kings, a team of Latino freestyle futbol experts along with a Capoeira master and two Brazilian drummers, performed choreographed freestyle-soccer routines at various venues across North and South America
For each goal scored during the World Cup, Budweiser donated $500 to the Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF), up to $100,000.
Key Takeaway: This well structured multi-platform campaign would have left few fans in doubt as to who the official beer brand of the tournament was. In the UK, the Experian Hitwise showed that Budweiser witnessed a 25% uplift in searches during the event. Statistics for Bud House show that the initiative resonated with fans across the globe, while pitch-side creative was targeted and innovative.
As the World Cup is now over, it’s time for a quick look back at this sporting extravaganza via some ad campaigns we came across via our World Cup monitoring service (click on links to view creative)….
Going into the final games, the Golden Boot award was still up for grabs and Spain’s David Villa and Germany’s Miroslav Klose were not only in contention for this prize, but also for worst World Cup related ad. The Germany striker displays no shame as he fronts activity for electrical retailer Expert, taking on an ostrich before highlighting the brand’s great deals. Villa cuts a much more dashing figure as the ambassador for Giorgi Line hair gel and deodorant – a fool proof method to attract a passing group of cheerleaders.
Even though he crashed out of the tournament at the second round stage, Cristiano Ronaldo maintained his slick looks on the pitch thanks to Clear Cool Sport, the Asian shampoo brand. Here’s the new-dad showing how to prevent ‘dandruff and itching’, but someone should tell him not to play with those balls of fire.
When the French suffered the ignominy of crashing out at the group stage, not to mention the in-camp squabbling, oh how the Irish cheered. Pizza Hut’s Irish stores offered free pizzas to all its Facebook fans for every goal France conceded. Curry’s produced a TVC of Thierry Henry as a Subbuteo figure shown mocking the Irish fans before being sucked up by a hoover. Curry’s tempted Irish consumers with 100 euros cashback on new TVs when the French went out – they didn’t have long to wait. And they followed up with this TVC which sees Henry blown away by a vuvuzela.
The vuvuzelas were the event’s Marmite with brands swiftly including them in their campaigns. In the ‘for’ camp were Carling, Coca-Cola, and MTN, while those not so keen included Anadin Extra and Sealey’s.
Diego Maradona, ever the shy and retiring type, told Pele to ‘go back to the museum’, making us wonder whether he lost to the Brazilian ace during this game of table football as part of a Louis Vuitton press ad.
Before the tournament began German skipper Michael Ballack was ruled out through injury, causing consternation amongst the sizeable number of brands he endorses. You can’t blame him for cashing in though, as he only earned £110k a week during his three seasons at Chelsea. Here he is searching for that all-inclusive trip to Magaluf via a TVC for Ab-In-Den-Urlaub.
England? Let’s not go there, but at least Peter Beardsley, a player who made a contribution to an English side that did the nation proud during Italia 90, has undisputable acting talent as we can see through this starring role in this ad for SCS, the furniture retailer.
It won’t come as a great surprise to many that football related advertising in the UK dropped by almost 50% last week following England’s World Cup exit. Through Xtreme Information’s monitoring service we captured 6024 football related executions running in the UK in the week leading up to the Germany game, but 3753 in the week following said game.
Just as the ‘Three Lions’ retreated from South Africa, so have many of their commercial partners when it comes to the advertising stage with Carlsberg, Mars and Nivea all dropping England related activity in light of the defeat (meaning no more John Barnes and his Mars rap, so we should be a little grateful for England crashing out).
Looking at World Cup advertising away from the UK, it’s been interesting to see how the sports brands have developed their campaigns in light of teams and / or star players getting knocked out. Nike’s blockbuster ‘Write The Future’ TVC has been labelled a curse as Ronaldo, Ribery, Rooney, Drogba and Cannavaro all had disappointing tournaments by their own high standards, while a cameo from Federer was cited as a contributing factor to his surprise Wimbledon exit. Such condemnation has trended on Twitter, been the subject of a Brand Republic blog post and even made the national press through an article in The Guardian.
Reading such articles, you might think Nike’s World Cup campaign has been a complete disaster and they no longer have a presence in the tournament. But this is Nike, and its World Cup marcoms have taken a simultaneous local and global approach. In Holland, for example, tournament top scorer (at the time of writing) and talisman Wesley Sneijder has been at the fore of local ‘Write The Future’ activity, as well as in selected other markets, and the Nike-wearing Holland team have just made the final.
Of course with adidas-wearing Spain taking on adidas-wearing Germany last night, we were always in for a Nike v adidas final, but Nike has used individual players in these markets as part of Write The Future and a further element of its overall ‘ambush’ status. In Germany, prior to last night’s semi final, Miroslav Klose and Mesut Özil fronted activity declaring they were ‘2 Games From Immortality’, while in Spain, Cesc Fabegras, Gerard Pique, Andres Iniesta and Carles Puyol, flanked by Spanish stars of the future, all feature in the rousing TVC (above) devised to elicit passion amongst the Spanish population.
And Nike isn’t just focusing on those left in the tournament. A reactionary ‘feel-good’ ad is currently being aired across America in response to the USA’s impressive showing and heightened interest in the sport, particularly among a young demographic. While a different tack will need to be taken once Rooney is seen promoting its wares in this country, it will undoubtedly attract attention given the brand’s commitment to its ambassadors who have experienced patchy form or courted controversy, a la Cantona and more recently Tiger Woods.
Away from the stadiums, the World Cup sponsors are looking to stand out from the multitude of football-related creative across South Africa with attention-grabbing activation. Airports are always a space advertisers target during major events and this tournament, with the influx of travellers, is no exception.
On arrival in Cape Town, it became apparent, unsurprisingly, that the majority of brands were leveraging the tournament in some way, even more so than we’ve seen in the UK (at least while England were still in the tournament) either through an official capacity or via an ambush approach.
African telecoms network MTN, one brand whose activation stood out, made its presence felt at both Cape Town and Johannesburg. In both airports, branded ‘fun zones’ gave fans the chance to check out the latest handsets following a game of table football or some PS3 action, while in Joburg the brand had the ingenuity to turn the usually drab arrivals hall into a mini football stadium, where friends and relatives could wait for their loved ones in a mini stand, and arrivees strolled onto a mock pitch.
MTN also grabbed consumer attention at the various fan zones around Cape Town. At the FIFA Fan Fest break-dancing contests between local schoolchildren drew the crowds, while its own branded fan zone at the V&A waterfront gave subscribers the VIP treatment we’ve seen domestically from the likes of O2, while settling down to watch the games.
The Waterfront area, awash with tourists shopping, eating and drinking, gave brands the opportunity to be a little inventive. Coca-Cola succeeded with its ‘crate fan’ a lego like creation built with recycled Coke crates, and adidas tempted fans to blast its controversial Jubilani ball into a goal with prizes awarded for registering a certain speed (yes, I had a couple of attempts and didn’t win, thus confirming reports that the ball misbehaves and is hard for the best players to control).
Hyundai raised awareness of its sponosrship status at its own branded open fan zone on the outskirts of the city centre, a strategy it is replicating in various cities across the world, where fans converged to watch the games on a giant screen, with food and drink readily available, and decorations representing the competing nations alongside the obligatory branding, which included its Goodwill balls for fans to sign.
At the FIFA Fan Fest, complete with Table Mountain in the background, Coca-Cola was easily the dominant brand, with its logo and livery adorning refreshment bars, the main stage, its Open Happiness zone, and its flags blowing in the coastal breeze. Neo Africa, local partner and IT and consultancy firm, also grabbed consumer attention via mini-football areas for local youngsters to showcase their skills with its ‘One Touch’ game and compete in small sided matches.
While a lot of the activation wasn’t overly inspired, it didn’t seem to matter to both the locals and visiting supporters who seem determined to lap up all aspects of this football extravaganza.
As part of our ongoing monitoring and analysis of the marcomms at the World Cup, I was in Cape Town for the Cameroon v Holland clash. Eager to see how the sponsors were activating their rights to create experiences for the fans, I checked out the stadium’s fan zone prior to kick-off. With supporters, the bulk of which were following Holland, in an exuberant mood, the sponsors looked to make the event even more memorable with a variety of upbeat and lively methods to augment their World Cup experience.
Budweiser kept it simple (reminding me of its idents from the 2006 World Cup – ‘You do the football, We’ll do the beer’) through its dedicated drinking zones for match goers looking for a pre-game beer or two. Well stocked and efficiently run, there was no chance of a brand backlash from disgruntled fans waiting an eternity to be served. At the bars Budweiser also displayed a replica of the ‘Man-of–the-match’ award it is handing out at each game, reminding supporters of its strong and lengthy association with the tournament.
Coca-Cola continued with its ‘Celebration’ strategy and Open Happiness umbrella concept, via music, dancing and giveaways attempting to get fans in the party mood even more. A heavily branded stage was home to a local dance troupe performing to traditional African music interspersed with the theme from the brand’s latest World Cup TVC.
One of the more interactive activations was Fly Emirates’ penalty shoot-out contest. Fans were invited to smash (or tuck away, depending on their preference) footballs against a giant screen with points awarded for beating the video goalkeeper and for power and placement. This seemed to resonate with match-goers with steady queues of fans eager to take part. Similarly, Sony offered fans an interactive experience – and at the same time marketed one of its latest products – by allowing them to try 3D TV and get a feel for sport and movies on their state-of-the-art 3DTVs.
Visa gave consumers a unique memento of their trip to the World Cup. Fans were invited to have their pictures taken against either a ‘go Netherlands’ or ‘go Cameroon’ branded poster with images then imposed onto a mock (branded, obviously) credit card . Visa also had a team of facepainters on hand for fans wanting to show their colours, as did Hyundai, whose giant footballs – a key feature of its World Cup marcoms – were on display for fans to sign and wish their team good luck. The car giant also encouraged fans to show off their football skills with branded balls, and to sit in and check out its World Cup i30 model.
Local telecomms partner MTN played its part in getting fans in jubilant spirits with vuvuzela contests, dance routines and competitions to win tickets for future rounds, while Telkom created a huge games room complete with table football and PS3’s for supporters to challenge each other.
Conspicuous by their absence were adidas, Castrol and McDonald’s, but the dedicated fan zones await so I’ll see if they are concentrating their efforts there.
With 125m watching the opening game and figures expected to rise as the tournament reaches the knock-out phase, sponsors’ pitchside messages are catapulted into homes and meeting places across all corners of the globe.
Other than revolving digital boards, this platform doesn’t appear to have evolved since the World Cups of the 80s and 90s. While I’m not advocating garish messages that wittingly detract attention from the on-field action, the current crop of sponsors are doing little more than displaying their logos during games, with the notable exception of the Anheuser-Busch owned Budweiser-brand, and in turn are missing out on engaging today’s digital savvy consumers.
The brewer is one sponsor that is altering its perimeter messaging depending on the game and the teams involved, so when Brazil are playing its Brahma lager is promoted and when South American rivals Argentina are in action, it’s Quilmes on show. While it’s not marketing genius, it’s an effective approach from the brewer and one which should help the aforementioned brands resonate with consumers in their local markets and may act as a blueprint for regionalized brands in the future. And the advertiser is also using the platform to integrate and ‘join up’ its range of World Cup initiatives also using it as a way to direct fans to its main World Cup social media initiative, BudHouse, through displaying its URL, www.budunited.com, pitchside during games.
For those unfamiliar with BudHouse, it’s an online reality show – basically Big Brother meets the World Cup. Residing in the BudHouse in Cape Town for the tournament’s duration are 32 football fans, each representing the competing teams. As the World Cup unfolds and teams get kicked out, so will that country’s representative in the Bud House. The overall winner of the Bud House will be a fan from the matching World Cup winning country, and they will get to present the Budweiser man of the match prize at the final in Johannesburg.
Every day the dedicated YouTube channel is updated with new footage of the goings on in the house, including the fans’ reactions to the games, with each fan having their own dedicated social media channels which are regularly updated, giving consumers the chance to respond and interact. So far the site has attracted well over 2 million visitors, a figure likely to rise with pitchside pushes during most games.
Over the past couple of seasons we’ve seen brands in the UK getting more creative pitchside. Notable examples are Carlsberg, displaying consumers pre-World Cup messages of support to the England team; Carling, which lets fans ‘takeover’ the ad hoardings during the Carling Cup final with messages of support to the competing teams; and Umbro, which urged fans to ‘follow us at twitter.com/umbro’ during a number of televised games last season – another example of an advertiser using traditional or ‘real life’ media to drive traffic to digital or ‘virtual’ platforms such as social media.
Yet the approach of these brands isn’t one replicated by the World Cup sponsors, which is surprising particularly as Coca-Cola, adidas and Hyundai, have made social media an integral component of their World Cup campaigns.
Rather than pushing fans to the dedicated microsites and fan pages they’ve established in a bid to engage fans following the tournament – and become part of the conversations that fans are having via social media before, during and after games –simply displaying their logos, seems to be a wasted opportunity particularly as sponsors are striving to stand out among the current profusion of football-related marcoms.
Featuring a round-up of pre-tournament marcoms activity from official sponsors, local team partners and ambush brands, including case studies and sector analysis, this fully interactive sample report examines the strategies from some of the world’s leading brands prior to the big kick-off. To receive your complimentary sample copy simply email matthew.carlton@xtremeinsight.net and we’ll send one over to you.
As the World Cup approaches, the advertising landscape seems to have already been swamped by a wave of football-related products, images, players and clichés. While the official FIFA sponsors and national team partners are producing World Cup related creative, ‘guerrilla’ brands are also ramping up their pre-tournament marketing.
Puma’s early TV activity contains themes of celebration, dance, and the passion of the African fans – an approach taken by a number of official sponsors – through a journey across the continent. Despite Puma’s lack of official sponsorship status, it is the kit supplier for a number of African teams, ensuring it will have noticeable profile throughout the tournament.
Another brand without FIFA accreditation attempting to capitalize on the summer of football fever without investing millions is Pepsi. Via heavyweight activity, it is arguably the stand-out ambush brand prior to the tournament, with a campaign spanning ATL and digital channels and featuring some of the world’s most recognizable footballers including Kaka, Didier Drogba, Lionel Messi and Frank Lampard. Again playing on the tournament’s African location, a global TVC sees the aforementioned stars being challenged to an impromptu football game by African natives, accompanied by the song ‘Oh Africa’ – performed by Akon and the Soweto Gospel Choir – as the brand attempts to create an unofficial World Cup anthem as part of its innovative spoiler efforts.
Sportswear monolith Nike has used by ‘goodvertising’ and team/player endorsements its ambush initiatives thus far. Its ‘Lace Up Save Lives’ initiative, fronted by Drogba and in association with the charity RED, urges fans to don red laces on their boots or trainers with all proceeds from sales going towards Aids awareness in Africa. Additionally a number of its key ambassadors, such as Portugal’s Ronaldo and Brazil’s Robinho have appeared in activity promoting specific products and their national team kits.
An area where the activity is hotting up is interestingly in the UK crisp sector. With no brand in this market an official sponsor, Walkers, McCoy’s and Pringles are all battling it out with World Cup themed activity.
McCoy’s, is aligning its ‘man crisps’ positioning to the World Cup, with an on-pack promotion, to win a ‘FANtastic’ football trip to any football stadium around the world, including flights, accommodation, match tickets and spending money. Running across 125 million packs, including two new Limited Edition flavors Sausage Striker and Chicken Winger, McCoy’s is also giving the opportunity for football fans to win a ‘football survival kit’ every 90 minutes, including an inflatable chair, horn, can cooler and a McCoy’s snack bowl. As well as the on-pack promotion, there will also be a pub TV campaign featuring the “Only Real Men Deserve McCoy’s” advertising, and to further extend its World Cup associations, it has become a partner of radio broadcaster Talk Sport’s coverage, where further competitions to win a World Cup supply of McCoy’s are highlighted to consumers.
Walkers has launched its ‘Flavor Cup’ with a high-profile TV campaign to promote its range of 15 World Cup-inspired national crisp flavors. Celebrities such as Will Mellor and Melinda Messenger are seen supporting the newly created flavors such as French Garlic Baguette, Brazilian Salsa, American Cheeseburger, German Bratwurst Sausage, Australian BBQ Kangaroo and English Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding. Consumer participation is strongly encouraged, both through a voting system for the new flavors and through the option to uploading new flavor suggestions and win prizes.
Pringles’ is running a campaign called ‘Pringoooals’ spearheaded by global TVC featuring footballers Peter Crouch, Cesc Fabegras, Nicolas Anelka, and Dirk Kuyt. This is supported through social media, largely through Facebook, with Peter Crouch, the Tottenham and England forward, encouraging consumers to record and upload their personal goal scoring celebrations to the site. As well as a dedicated iPhone app, the brand is a partner of ‘Football – Fun’ – a loyalty scheme whereby consumers gain points to win World Cup related prizes, such as a signed football and other merchandise. Other brands involved in this scheme include Gillette, Ariel and Oral B.
In Ireland, the electronics retailer Curry’s has produced a comical TVC, where, due to a Thierry Henry’s infamous handball, the nation failed to qualify for the World Cup Finals. As a result, Curry’s is offering up to €100 in-store vouchers to consumers who by a TV before the beginning of the finals for when the French crash out of the competition. The TVC ends with the line, ‘when the French lose, the Irish win’.
Such ambush marketing strategies are sure to infuriate the brands that have paid large sums of money to secure the rights to the event, and, FIFA, despite not being able to prevent large amounts of guerrilla activity has strict rulings in place to protect sponsors. When Kulala, a South African budget airline, advertised itself as ‘the unofficial carrier of the’ you-know-what’, coupled with the use of pictures of stadiums, vuvuzelas and national flags, FIFA found nothing amusing about its choice of words or symbols. It accused Kulula.com of ambush marketing and said the ad, which featured a picture of one of the World Cup stadiums, ‘created an unauthorized association’ with the tournament. As a result, the brand was forced to pull the campaign.
EDF, the official sustainability partner of London 2012, developed an impressive ‘Green Day’ campaign in 2009, raising awareness of both its 2012 sponorship and highlighting its CSR initiatives. The campaign, which is showcased in this video and summary below, has been nominated in the Best Communications Strategy at the forthcoming Festival of Media Awards.
To continue with its green achievements, EDF wanted to promote its credentials as the UK’s lowest carbon generator of electricity, and raise awareness of its sponsorship commitment to London 2012.
The last time London hosted the Olympics was in 1948. Although it was a city still struggling to recover from the second world war, London managed to host the games due to the collective participation and generosity of the public. EDF decided to re-ignite that post-war spirit of community, and bring the nation together with a sense of renewed purpose – to make Britain greener.
Armed the insight that individuals often find it hard to change habitual behavior patterns, but that groups working towards a common goal can motivate individuals within that group, EDF attempted to instigate behavioral change on a massive, nationwide scale. The overriding goal was to lower Britain’s carbon footprint by the time of the next Olympic games.
10 July was designated Green Britain Day. Using the teamgreenbritain.org website, visitors could join various communities that each focused on a different area of sustainability, such as Team Energy (focused on energy efficiency), Team A to B (focused on car sharing schemes) and Team Swap (dedicated to recycling). The iconic image of a green Union flag appeared in multiple ambient locations and TV spots. Websites Jeeves and Facebook both adopted Green Britain Day elements, and national free-sheet paper Metro adopted a green masthead. Celebrities, including Olympians Victoria Pendleton and James Cracknell, members of the Royal Family and politicians involved themselves in some of the 975 PR projects across the country.
The public responded to the call to action, and 700,000 people signed up for Team Great Britain, 800 schools participated and 12,000 people attended a Green Britain Day concert organised by Heart fm. Apart from raising environmental issues, the EDF brand also benefitted from the exercise, with a 28% increase in brand awareness. The brand also registered as the most recalled sponsor of the Olympics, and marked a 21% increase as the brand that “lead the way in green energy”.
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