The World Cup - it begins

Every four years the whole world witnesses a cavalcade of colours lights and sounds. Reputations are made or broken, there are cheers and there are tears, and in the space of five weeks, people will speak fondly of heroes who they previously didn’t know from a bar of soap...and apparently there’s going to be some games of football played as well.

Yep, it’s World Cup time, and a majority of well known FMCG, fashion and technology brands are gunning for your awareness like a Eric Cantona Karate kick, with global football stars and global budgets. Even more interesting is the role that the internet will play in capturing and keeping the global audience’s attention.

Previously, brands would spend the majority of their WC budget creating awareness campaigns featuring press activity and TV commercials, followed with little or no CTA for the consumer; the latter hoping that the brand logo would be enough to activate a response, or at least stay long enough in the audience’s memory for an extended period of time....like when they need to buy a new pair of trainers. Through the introduction of the internet, brands were able expand on their campaigns with websites that follow on from the commercial and allow users to find out more information on the brand and its products.

On the eve of the 2010 tournament, the activity has evolved into fully integrated TV and digital campaigns that have a very strong focus on capturing and keeping potential customers with Social Media channels. A commercial is now accompanied by a brand dedicated microsite, youtube channel, Facebook page and Twitter feed.

Due to the WC, these channels will be global, as opposed to being localised for a county’s market, and as a result, the opportunity for a brand to engage with an audience is greatly increased.
Nike’s Write history ad has generated 13 million hits and 25,324 comments from users. As the ad has only been live for three weeks, these are amazing statistics. I’d imagine that throughout the tournament, the amount of feedback and data generated through Social Media channels will be valuable enough to keep big Neville Southall in meat pies for a year....well almost.