2014 FIFA WORLD CUP DIGITAL BATTLE

how can marketers win on the digital field

by suraj gopansurajgopakumar.89@gmail.com

Sponsors are poised to unleash the final phases of their World Cup campaigns following today's (6 December) announcement of the groups.

But advertisers at the IAB Goal event this week warned Brazil's World Cup will be the most cluttered social conversation ever and offered the marketing equivalent of a match-winning strategy to ensure brands stand out from the crowd.

Next summer will see advertisers compete against each other to be the most meaningful brand for fans and ultimately use that positive association to drive sales.

According to Twitter, three separate football matches have already generated higher tweets-per-second spikes than the LONDON 2012, OLYMPICS.The European Cup, final attracted 16.5 million tweets from 300 million viewers, while the last World Cup final drew more than twice as many.

The marketing competition and cost have never been so high. However, there are five key points marketers can substitute into their digital strategies to come out on top, befor the final whistle next July.

World Cups are all about Moments for Fans.

The appearence of the Vuvuzela in South Africa, 2010; the Zinedine Zidane head butt in Germany, 2006; Paul Gascoigne crying at Italia, 90.

The rise of digital media has broadened the stage for advertisers to capitalise on these moments, but they need to produce content capable of driving awareness. Mark Wainright, Senior Account Director, We Are Social, which is working with Adidas on its World Cup sponsorship strategy, warns marketers need to be adventurous but selective to avoid reflexively posting about every potential moment next summer.

“Part of being effective at real time marketing is knowing when to speak and when not to speak” he adds.

The popularity storm of Social and Moble has overtaken search among marketers in the years since the last World Cup. It could prove, however, to be a powerful tool for non-sponsors to monetise the extra traffic circulating around next year’s events. Beyond driving impressions around words such as “World Cup accessories”, “flags” and “live England matches”, advertisers should also be paying attention to fan’s behavior when using different devices. A fan searching “live England matches” before kick-off on a laptop is likely to be looking to stream the match, whereas if this is happening on a mobile device they are going to be looking for pubs, according to search agency iCrossing.

HITTING THE TARGET WITH SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING

SCORING INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE BOXThe opportunity for brands in search during The World Cup

TRANSFORM YOUR BRAND INTO THE MEDIA OWNER

MAKING THE EVENT AN EXPERIENCE

“World Cup” key words are one of the best forms of intent any audience can give your brand”, says Sam Fenton-Elstone, head of media at the business. “It’s in the moment with a real-time piece of advertising that could be a lot cheaper than a more traditional campaign”.

Nike, Adidas, Coca-Cola and Mars are among a raft of brands plotting global real-time marketing plans to exploit the trials and tribulations of the World Cup. To be successful, media experts say advertisers need to “keep up” their end of the bargain when it comes to, interacting with fans online.

Brands should transform their communications and promotional campaigns from just being a part of the media to being the media owner. Acting like a media owner lets the brand to think and come up with a more lateral campaigns which involve the consumer and the fans as well.

Involving the sports fans means that the brand is catering to a whole new level of market, not only just including the existing customers but adding new ones to the customer artillery. This strategy will help brands exercise a more sustainable brand development program, that will help the brands create new customers for the future, given that the brands ensure they follow the tremendous World Cup hype with some powerful interactive campaigns.

Sports fans are digitally savvy and don't always want to be sold to, says Alan Fagan, Group Sales Director at ESPN Global. “Digital Media provides an opportunity to create engaging content, but it has to be a value addition for consumers”. It is a prospect both You Tube and iTV are exploring through efforts to pair football content creators with advertisers for the tournament.

The 2013 IPL saw Pepsi do some heavy promotion in and out of the media, which is just a glimpse of what brands can do via the new age media. What Pepsi has done in India during the IPL is to open the Pandora’s box for promotional tactics. Their campaigns recieved high praise from marketing pundits, for the way in which they were able to interact with their TG through social media was very positive and strong. But in spite of such a huge and popular campaign the market share of Pepsi did not show any drastic change, and can be suspected because of its competitors being very strong or may be the campaign was all fun and well off but failed to put any serious impact on the consumer’s mind.

Fans and critics alike lauded Oreo’s Twitter response to the Super Bowl blackout, but it is also indirectly responsible for a plethora of real time marketing gimmicks that have followed since. Some industry observers warn that the rush to jump on the content bandwagon to replicate the campaign’s success will leave many World Cup brands disappointed at the returns on their investment.

The focus should be on using digital technology to create shareble experiences around the World Cup to convey the brand story. William Scougal, Head of Brand Strategy, Twitter, says the key question for marketers looking to commercialize the platform next summer is, “how can I make my posts provide something extra that genuinely impact people’s lives for the better”.

LET THE CONSUMERS OWN THE WORLD CUP

The campaigns should be created in a way that it really impacts your target market, and should involve some sort of interactiveness.

For instance, in India where Cricket is a religion, the FIFA World Cup opens up a sure shot opportunity to cash in on the football fans. The last 6 years or so has seen a significant rise in the number of football fans in the country, thanks to EA Sports and the English Premier League. The likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Wayne Rooney have all developed some real fan following in the country.

This is an opportunity where brands can show their allegiance to football to these fans and cash in on their support. But they cannot fake this support through some mere advert campaign or distributing some freebies, rather, their marketing teams have to churn out some fabulous campaigns which will touch the hearts of the fans.

At a time when fans are demanding more content, those sponsors failing to fully utilise their rights are increasingly appearing out of touch with media trends. Marketers need to be more nimble activating around the tournament and demand greater flexibility from rights holders to give consumers a real sense of ownership. Cassandra Russell, senior multiplatform solutions manager at ITV, says those advertisers incentivising their World Cup related-digital content through competitions and rewards are more likely to commercialise the full 90 minutes of a match.

The broadcaster, which is ramping up efforts to secure ad revenues around the tournament, predicts those brands that reward viewers next summer will generate so much more ROI from their campaigns.

Marketers across the globe are in for a season, where in they have to shift their marketing activities to the next level. Marketers need to be wary and careful not to just add to the clutter, and rather contribute something really amazing, that their customers and fans can derive a bit of happiness and fun out their campaigns.

The opportunity that this year’s FIFA is just a glimpse of the giant promotional platforms available to marketers. The future is only going to be bigger and gigantic.