BRAND FINALE: Nothing official about it

FIFA cup to be held this month is set to kick off one of the biggest marketing galas for brands.

But not all would be able to ride the extravaganza as 'sponsors'. So what to the others do to cash in on once-in-four-years opportunity?

Experts say soccer mania will present one big level playing field for all brands who think out-of-the-box, brainstorm laterally and focus on scoring (marketing) goals creatively and strategically.

For instance, Pepsi managed to steal the eyeballs from Coca-Cola, which official sponsor for the Cricket World Cup in 1996. As it was poised to rake in the big eyeballs with its association with the event, Pepsi came up with a tagline: 'Nothing official about it'.

The campaign starring cricketers Sachin Tendulkar, Courtney Walsh, Ian Bishop, etc, picked up traction and gave Coke the run for its money.

Partnerships or sponsorships carry an exorbitant cost. FIFA’s key partners such as Coca-Cola, Adidas, Visa reportedly pay between $30-50 million a year, while sponsors like Budweiser, McDonald’s pay somewhere between $10-25 million annually. Vivo recently entered into a sponsorship deal with FIFA where the smartphone maker will pay 60–70 million euros a year to sponsor football tournaments.

‘’While sponsorship does bring in some amount of visibility, it is extremely expensive. Also, it is probably true that since users are strongly engaged with the event, the brand recall impact may not be commensurate with the cost (of sponsorship),” says Nitin Chowdhary, director, Digital Infusion, a data and analytics marketing firm.

Experts say with the thrust on digital, almost every brand can dream of making hay as the sun shines. At the 2014 FIFA World Cup, six of the 12 brands that achieved high social traction were non-sponsors. The list included Nike, which generated over 230,000 social mentions, way more than its rival and World Cup sponsor Adidas’ 129,000 mentions.

Says Laeeq Ali, co-founder of Origami Creative, a boutique brand management company, “All digital channels from websites to social media can be used interestingly to engage with customers and get them glued to the football mania. Social media is very cost-effective and has pin-point accuracy and this gives a chance especially for small businesses to create interesting engagement with its customers.”

Amongst the many methods that non-sponsor brands can adopt is programmatic advertising, in which software is leveraged to purchase digital ads. Says Chowdhary, "Programmatic advertising will allow significant reach during this soccer event. This approach is advantageous as it can be tied back to performance and return on investments (ROI) metrics such as reach, engagement, conversions, etc.”

Experts say to maximise the opportunity, brands should seek inspiration from other brands that have indulged in ambush marketing, by taking advantage of a global event to market themselves without any partnerships or sponsorships. “The best example is what Pepsi did to Coca-Cola, the official sponsor of the 1996 Cricket World Cup with its ‘Nothing Official About It’’ campaign,” says Kaustav Das, CEO of integrated agency Ralph & Das.

Moreover, during the 2002 FIFA World Cup, SK Telecom indulged in ambush marketing. While Korean Telecom was the official event sponsor, SK Telecom brought all Koreans together under the ‘’Red Devils’’ banner by encouraging people to wear red (colour of the Korean team’s jersey) and created red stadiums outside venues, and displayed the matches on huge screens for the benefit of those without tickets. “The outpouring of passion was hitherto unseen and most South Koreans ended up perceiving SK Telecom as the official sponsor,” says Das.

Experts say brands should first seek out an idea that will create an intriguingly novel and engaging conversation about the event. Campaigns should connect with both present and potential consumers of the brand. A prominent example is Nike’s Find Your Greatness campaign during the 2012 London Olympics, an inspirational video showcasing average sportspersons exploiting their potential, which garnered five million YouTube views and was the most talked about the campaign. It did not feature any prominent sportsperson, but neighbourhood runners and players, all of who form the crux of the brand’s consumers, and it hit the right chord about identifying your inner greatness and the athlete within you, say experts.

Says Das, “It is necessary to own the passion of the game credibly and create social currency around it. A brand should stop thinking about a competitor being the official sponsor and start thinking about how they can be socially relevant to the game to create maximum impact.”

NOT A FIESTA, IT’S A MARKETING GAME

• Brands should first seek out idea that will create an intriguingly novel, engaging conversation about the event
   
• They should seek inspiration from other brands that have indulged in ambush marketing