The Clock is ticking: Only 23 days left for kicking off the 2010 Fifa World Cup in South Africa. When the world’s best 32 teams will play in an event which is considered larger than the Beijing Olympics many marketers will soon enter a stage of excitement and (potentially) great happiness.

Six official FIFA partners (adidas, Coca-Cola, Emirates, Hyundai, Sony, Visa), eight sponsors (McDonald’s, Budweiser, etc.) and five national supporting companies each spend up to $40 million for the privilege. Why paying so much? It’s an event which will be watched again by billions of consumers all over the world, with a gender viewership ratio of almost 50:50 in many countries, a high percentage of people watching who normally are not so keen on soccer, high levels of emotions and bonding – and also very important – it will last for 4 weeks with an excitement curve building up day-by-day (and months and weeks leading to the event).

Visa, for example, owns exclusive global rights in the Financial Services product category through 2014. These include rights to all FIFA competitions and related activities that may be passed through to its financial institution clients and activated with merchant partners. According to Visa “the world cup provides a powerful opportunity to drive business and corporate brand objectives.” Since many years Visa has provided access for fans to various FIFA tournaments via Visa pre-sale events. For the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Visa has created the “Go Football Experience” which will provide fans with unique behind-the-scenes access and once-in-a-lifetime experiences which include a pre-match stadium tour, a warm-up by the pitch and a half-time pitch tour. Its World Cup plans include a Facebook app that lets fans monitor the match schedule, track scores and standings, chat with each other and even connect with the FIFA store. The "Visa Match Planner" app is part of a campaign that also includes TV, out of home, retail and social-media facets, all under the "Go" umbrella. You also should watch their pretty good “Forrest Gump-inspired” TV commercial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MHL1l_n9Xs).

Another major World Cup supporter, Coke, considers its upcoming campaign being the largest in the company's history, as well as its most integrated. Indeed the Coca-Cola Company is one of the longest-standing corporate partners of FIFA, with official sponsorship of FIFA World Cup that began in 1978. For example as part of the countdown to the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany, the first, global "FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour by Coca-Cola" was conducted from January to April 2006. The 31-city, 29-nation Trophy Tour - through Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe - drew nearly 200,000 fans to see the FIFA World Cup Trophy up close and, in many cases, have their picture taken with the symbol of world football supremacy. Free tickets to view the FIFA World Cup Trophy were made available to consumers through local Coca-Cola promotions in countries all along the worldwide route.

In 2010 the company again takes it a step further by building its entire platform around the “goal celebrations of soccer players,” which Coke links to its "Open Happiness" tagline (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M3Q54rPjQw&feature=related). In addition Coke has a 120-country, 17-language deal with YouTube to encourage viewers to film and post their own goal dances. There even will be a fan-voted trophy for the player with the best goal dance (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWUps99Uc5M).

At the same time many other companies – which are not official FIFA sponsors, but which are linked in a certain way with sports and/or soccer (or not at all…) - have developed major world cup campaigns. Some of them also in a very holistic way like Nike’s new campaign called "Write the Future." It is an evolution of its "Next Level" soccer campaign that focused on improving as an athlete and getting to an even higher level. The campaign includes an epic TV spot (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfzLkgtlhBU), a digital and mobile app called Nike Football Plus, which features some of the best players in the world offering tips on tricks and training to get better, and of course lots of street marketing and in-store events. In this respect it will compete head-on with its major competitor adidas which is one of the six official FIFA partners. Other companies, like Pepsi, although having developed a good commercial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQmu48sZohc&feature=related) went for a more fragmented “attack plan” with a myriad of different activities.

Another good promotion, although again not executed in a very comprehensive way by not having incorporated other key marketing tools, is currently run by the French retailing giant Carrefour. The company offers its customers to fully reimburse TV sets which were bought in the period May 11-29, if the French team were to win the World Cup. And if the “Bleus” were to lose in the final, one would still receive 50% of the purchasing price back.

And, of course with such a big event and such a large audience it can be expected that once again there will be lots of ambush marketing going on during the world cup.
And it has already started: Some weeks ago the South African low-fare airline Kulula.com were ordered by FIFA to withdraw an advertisement that it claimed infringed their trademarks. The advert, titled "The unofficial carrier of the you-know-what", features soccer balls and the National Flag of South Africa which FIFA claimed when used in conjunction with each other constitutes an infringement (of its trademarks). Kulula.com disputed FIFA's claim, but later announced that they would withdraw the specific advert whilst continuing with the advertisement campaign.

So, what is the potential learning?
> The 2010 soccer World Cup will be the biggest sporting event on earth
> Even if you try to convince yourself and others many of us will not be able to miss it
> Make sure you’re prepared. Meaning: Either participate with your company (although it’s pretty late, still lots of small businesses will participate… bakeries offering Soccer Bread, Fashion retailers presenting various African fashion collections, the pub around the corner organizing themed soccer parties, etc.) or find yourself another theme/positioning or take holidays during that time and don’t waste your precious resources
> If you decide getting involved, make sure you’ll find a way to stand out of the crowd and follow a holistic approach, i.e. using various marketing tools
> Even if you decide not to participate in any form, look closely at the activities which some companies will run. Which elements will those campaigns encompass? Will they be communicated and executed in a consistent way? How do consumers respond? Get inspired, enjoy the show and draw your very own conclusions in order to further develop your business and yourself. For sure, the next event – let it be a global or a local one – will come soon.

Have you planned a specific soccer-linked campaign or will you just ignore this mega event?

Best regards,

Andreas von der Heydt
Consumer Goods Club
http://www.consumergoodsclub.com