The Spark Magazine (Jun 2018)

www.thesparkng.com
The Spark | Ignite/Connect/Achieve
Scoring With World
Cup Marketing
The World Cup is here again, and the fever is as
contagious as ever. Both football enthusiasts and those
who hardly care, feel the buzz one way or another.
When football lovers are not in front of a screen
watching the live show, they spend spare minutes
getting updated via digital media. For Nigeria in
particular, the excitement has gone beyond qualifying
for the games to stealing the fashion show with the
Nike designed jerseys; showing the versatility of the
world cup to attract more than just sports lovers.
- By Toyin Henry-Ajayi
Whether you run a big or small business, the world cup is
a grand opportunity to engage your audience and
promote your products and services. Considering
FIFA’s marketing guidelines to protect the official partners and
sponsors, businesses get to be creative with promotion tactics
without risking a lawsuit with the organization. Here are a few
tips that can help.
Use Associated Images, Colors And Messaging
You are not allowed to use the logo, the exact phrases or
affiliated trademarks. You should not even have your logo on
the match schedule. But nothing stops you from playing with the
words, football themes or using the national colors creatively. In
2014, Apple deployed a User Generated Content campaign that
collated their customer’s football related photos all taken on an
iPhone. You may have also seen Banks use the patterns of the
Nigerian jersey to create variations of their Debit cards. It’s about
creating an association in the minds of your audience.
Know Your Audience And Connect With The Prevalent
Emotion
A great example of a brand that does this well is Pepsi Nigeria.
The ‘Naija all the way’ campaign has almost all Nigerians thinking
that Pepsi has a deal with FIFA or the Nigerian Super Eagles.
But even without this, the company has been able to connect
their marketing efforts with the Nigerian spirit of determination,
ambition, and possibilities.
As a smaller company without the budget and clout, you also
need to understand your audience and know what makes them
tick. For example, if you are a brand with customers who aren’t
exactly sports-inclined, how about marketing materials and
content that focus on the side attractions of the world cup? For
example, you can talk about the tourism side of the tournament,
the fashion, travel, the grass to grace stories of the players, the
music, etc.
Get Spontaneous With ‘Moment Marketing’
Small brands that will win the World Cup marketing game are
those that can deliver relevant, spontaneous and instant news
with their audience. Can you make a quick meme that connects
the major incidents in a game with something your product or
service does? You can also engage your online audience in realtime
conversations, especially during the peak games, like the
Nigerian matches. You should limit the content you share during
game times while targeting the 15 minutes of half-time when
people will not be glued to the screen watching the game itself.
Partnerships
An example of this is the partnership between Banks and VISA.
While this may seem far-fetched for a small business, the
possibility is the same. Find out who the official country
sponsors are in your country and find ways your business can
partner with them. For VISA who ordinarily works with other
commercial financial institutions, it makes sense for Banks to
create campaigns that ride on the goodwill of VISA’s sponsorship.
For restaurants and bars, striking a partnership with official
drink partners of the World Cup or Super Eagles could be an
advantage as you open your doors for customers to watch the
match at your location.
You may still be able to get something going before the end of
the tournament, or you can start preparing for other global
competitions.
Notably, Stand Out
In 2014, the World Cup viewership was staggering. Over 3.2
billion people watched the tournament and online, there were
over 280 million Facebook interactions from 88 million people
and over 32 million tweets during the final game alone. These
numbers are enough reason to associate your brand with the
World Cup, but you also don’t want your communication to
get lost. Let your content be striking and relevant to your own
target audience. Time your communication appropriately and
stay updated with the latest information and happenings from
Russia. Also, keep an eye out for what other brands are doing.
The World Cup only comes every four years, make the best of the
season. Enjoy the games.
“
In 2014, the World Cup viewership was
staggering. Over 3.2 billion people
watched the tournament and online,
there were over 280 million Facebook
interactions from 88 million people and
over 32 million tweets during the final
game alone.
“
@thesparkng
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