The World Cup began on June 12 with a match between Brazil and Croatia. The match between official sponsor Adidas, Nike and Puma began a lot earlier.
With 75,608,613 YouTube views on the eve of the World Cup, Nike wins with Winner Stays. Nike’s Risk Everything wins the (unofficial) world’s media choice award.
Adidas was upstaged again (Nike’s ad campaign soared over Adidas’ in 2010 too). All in or Nothing has scored just 33,939,21 views and I am brazuca to launch the match ball, passing interest.
And Puma? There’s always 2018.
Top-tier World Cup sponsors Adidas, Coca-Cola, Emirates airline, Hyundai, Sony and Visa reportedly pay a combined US$177.1 million annually, or US$708.5 million over four years to be part of the FIFA marketing extravaganza.
But of course, the World Cup is an international sporting event. So, just three things really matter: fast food, soft drink and alcohol.
McDonald’s won this game hands down, with its World Cup AR French fry packs, designed by top artists throughout the world and linking to a virtual football game. McDonald’s also won Cannes Lions Marketer of the Year this week. Its World Cup campaign will become the first in its bid for that accolade next year.
Coca-Cola is one of FIFA’s major sponsors. Like Adidas, it spends US$15-25m per year for that honour. It launched its Tropy Tour in September, Adopt a Nation this month and its World Cup anthem in March.
Its packaging campaign, though, began in January, when it launched a range of 18 interactive mini-bottles. Each of the designs represent World Cup host countries from the past, such as Argentina and Japan, and the future, including Brazil, Russia and Qatar.
The bottles contain no actual Coke drink. Through Facebook or iPhone and Android apps, fans could create special messages and avatars that could be delivered to other bottle owners. And markers on the bottles could activate augmented reality animations when held up to camera smartphones.
There was also an international purchase activated draw in March (with partner, Woolworths, in Australia) to win a trip to Brazil.
Coke’s main World Cup activity is to prove that it is one of the good guys, continuing its Share Happiness theme. There’s the Happiness Flag, a photomosaic flag made up of hundreds of thousands of fan images submitted from across the globe to create one of the largest flag mosaics at 67m x 45m. The images are arranged into a design created with Brazilian artist, Speto, and the flag was unveiled on the pitch ahead of the opening match.
“Over 65,000 fans at the Arena de Sao Paulo and an estimated global audience of over two billion people will see the Happiness Flag, showing the world the power of football to bring people from different backgrounds and beliefs together,” Coke stated.
Coca-Cola has also launched a campaign through advertising agency Ogilvy, New York, for its plantbottle this week.
Official beer sponsor, Budweiser, launched its Rise As One campaign and gold bottles in February…like Coke's, it's accompanied by rousing corporate statements such as this one: “While football brings out regional pride and fierce rivalries, it also brings fans across the globe together once every four years through shared passion. With the Rise As One campaign, Budweiser celebrates the world’s favourite game and its role in inspiring fans to celebrate the moments that unite us as a global community.” [Andrew Sneyd, Global Vice President, Budweiser]
The limited edition aluminium bottle, featuring the 40 year old FIFA World Cup Trophy, was introduced simultaneously in more than forty countries, to become the centrepiece of the brand’s packaging, which also includes limited edition glass bottles, cans and secondary packaging, all available globally.
Meanwhile, official World Cup champagne supplier and upmarket brand Taittinger, created something aptly chic for its packaging promotion - holographic footballs on its Brut Réserve NV and gift carton.
The gift carton is a version of the packaging that won Carton of the Year award in 2012 at the Europe-wide ProCarton/ECMA packaging awards. It was decorated with round holographic effects representing champagne bubbles.
In the new World Cup version, the bubbles have been transformed into holographic footballs.
The World Cup gift carton is made of Iggesund Paperboard’s Incada 235 g/m2 paperboard and the conversion is by Le Sanglier, which specialises in gift cartons for champagne. The foil lamination is by API. A special bottle has been produced too, with the World Cup trophy depicted on a gold label.
