World Cup Buzz

Just 37 days to go to the 2010 World Cup and I, like all football fans, am very, very excited. But you know who is even more excited by the upcoming 'super event'? Businesses. According to Reuters, the tournament is expected to attract over 6 billion viewers and average over 93 million per match. Viewing figures for the 2006 final vary wildly between 280 million and 1 billion, but either way it is the most watched event of the year by a substantial margin. Furthermore, entire economies can be shifted upwards by 10% by the 'positive atmosphere' and overwhelming need for official merchandise, plasma TVs and cold beverages) - (read more on the world cup's effect on the economy).

Marketing departments large and small the world over have been planning for months or even years on how best to leverage the World Cup impact. From big players such as Visa and Coca Cola that can afford to drop $100million on official rights before their campaigns even begin, to rivals latching on by associating themselves with all things Africa and Football, one thing is clear: digital will play a bigger role than ever before.

Coca Cola recently launched a campaign based around goal celebrations and African dancing. As well as traditional marketing focusing on the positive aspects of celebration and dance, they are also embarking on a widespread social media campaign, asking people to send in their own goal celebrations in order to win tickets to games. Carlsberg are taking a similar approach, inviting England fans to video their own world cup team talk.

Official partner Visa decided to continue their 'Life flows better with Visa' campaign but this time with a world cup tie-in. We have all seen the Visa powered fan become a professional footballer on TV, but thanks to widespread integration, the campaign is estimated to have been seen or heard 2.2 billion more times over 532 different platforms. Convergence anyone?

Pepsi is not an official partner but gained a lot of viral publicity through their integrated 'Oh Africa' campaign. The campaign featured top players and music stars in an Africa-themed football video advert combined with a major social presence including content such as outtakes, interviews and alternative versions.

The 2010 World Cup will be the first truly social edition. In the last four years Facebook and Twitter have become household names with over 500 million combined users. For the first time it is not just possible but easy to communicate with fans from every other team, from Algeria to Uruguay. The scope for marketers is virtually unlimited, never before has there been such a large one-to-one bridge between companies and dedicated consumers, with an increased opportunity for long-term relationships that just aren’t possible in the same way with print or TV adverts.

The defining social football campaigns will only be apparent as we get closer to the final whistle, but an interesting pre-game warm-up comes from Sony Ericsson’s Twittercup, an app which tracks the best nations at the world cup by their Twitter buzz in real time.

Mark Laskey
Multimedia Developer