The world’s biggest sporting event ended on Sunday, but for those brands, sponsors and companies who invested millions of dollars in the 2014 FIFA World Cup, the internal conversation of whether or not their investment contributed to their organization’s bottom line will be ongoing for the coming weeks.
Even prior to the first match in mid-June, ambush marketers utilized the Internet and social media platforms like YouTube and Twitter to generate buzz around their individual campaigns. Electronics and headphones company, Beats by Dre, captured the world’s attention with its five-minute clip highlighting footballers’ pre-match routine. The spot featured Brazil’s Neymar along with other well-known players and celebrities, including ESPN’s Stuart Scott, United States men’s national team soccer member Jozy Altidore, tennis star Serena Williams and newly-acquired Cleveland Cavalier, LeBron James.
“Social media is a powerful tool to sponsors and non-sponsors alike,” said Dave Mingey, President and Founding Partner of GlideSlope, a global consulting agency. “The emergence of social media — which is an activation platform — has absolutely leveled the playing field between official sponsors and ambush marketers.”
If Beats by Dre had been a FIFA sponsor, its five-minute clip might have turned into a 30-second commercial piece due to the official partnership totaling millions of dollars. At the same time, Beats’ use of top-tier talent for its creative would have been significant less.
While Mingey said it is “too early to tell” if there exists a dilution of official FIFA sponsorship by non-sponsors, it is certainly at the forefront of marketers’ conversations when they’re considering investing significant dollars to gain official sponsorship status of a mega event.
“The proliferation of social media by non-sponsors — particularly on the recent World Cup stage — is going to make a lot of us scratch our head and take a deeper look,” Mingey said. “One will be left to wonder in the very near future if it will take a significant change in policy or legislation to better protect the official rights of the partners. Without it, it’s likely that the value of a well-executed ambush marketing campaign will only become more attractive.”
Despite the presence of ambush marketers, official sponsors still capitalized on their partnership with FIFA. Brands like Anheuser-Busch InBev and adidas were present both on the pitch as well as online. As Mingey noted, AB InBev matched the sideboards around each stadium to the national beer brands of the teams playing.
For example, if United States was playing, ‘Budweiser’ signage could be seen close to the pitch. During Brazil matches, the company pushed Brahma, the national beer. While viewed as a minor detail, it is the forethought and the subsequent execution that then makes individuals, like Mingey, tip their “marketing cap” to AB InBev.
“They were very much acting with their finger on the pulse making sure the side boards were reflecting the most appropriate national beer for the global viewing audience, particularly the audience in that home nation,” he added.
Through its social media marketing efforts and the ‘All In Or Nothing’ campaign, adidas became the most talked about brand related to the 2014 FIFA World Cup as its social media followers increased by 5.8 million across all major platforms. Its strategic and deliberate creation of planned and reactive content helped drive the brand’s conversation online.
“This World Cup has been an outstanding success for adidas and clearly underlines our position as the world’s leading football brand,” said adidas Group CEO Herbert Hainer.
Additionally, KT Tape, which served as the official kinesiology therapeutic tape supplier for the U.S. men’s national team, saw an uptick in 4-5 percent sales growth during the month-long spectacle, according to President John McKay.
Besides official sponsors and ambush marketers, there were ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ on the athlete side as well. Uruguay’s Luis Suarez perhaps made the most noise at the World Cup — and for the wrong reasons.
“What price did Suarez pay for the bite?” asked Mingey, a question on everyone else's mind as well. In Uruguay’s final group match against Italy, Suarez bit Giorgio Chiellini, which ultimately resulted in a nine-match international ban and a four-month suspension.
“Suarez is one of the world’s top players who might have met his final strike from a marketing perspective,” said Mingey, who noted that 888 Poker had already cut ties with Barcelona’s newest striker. “He is an incredible talent on the pitch but marketers will have to think long and hard about associating their brand with his image and personality and what type of baggage could be associated with him.”
Added Cristiano Junqueira, Director of Planning at Saravah, a Brazil-based content and branding design firm: “I believe that any brand should be aware that, in the heat of such an important match, any athlete has the chance to lose his mind one day — as Suarez did. Once Suarez is an idol, I believe he will probably be hurt in the short-term, especially if we imagine that the future achievements in his career will probably make this episode less significant to his image in the long-term.
“On the other hand, if the same situation happened to a player that is not viewed as an idol, an incident like this could hurt his image for a much longer term.”
On the flip side, U.S. men’s national team goalkeeper, Tim Howard, grabbed positive headlines following his record-setting 16-save performance against Belgium in the knockout stage.
The Everton netminder “became a household name in the space of sport in the U.S. at least in the near term,” according to Mingey. Yet, the downfall for Howard may not only be his age (35) but the fact that he’s garnered much of his success playing overseas.
How his management team at Wasserman Media Group strategically markets him in both the short and long term, considering his playing schedule and national appeal, will be something to closely watch. Following his playing days, there may be opportunities for the New Jersey native away from the pitch to still be associated with U.S. Soccer, possibly as a national spokesperson or even as a head instructor at national camps. However you slice it, Howard's play in the World Cup put his name into the national spotlight.
“There could be a very long runway for Tim to enjoy some lucrative opportunities based on this single tournament for years to come,” Mingey said.
