Germany can hold up the World Cup Trophy for the next four years, but who really wins? Bottom line is who can take advantage of the World Cup exposure and add value to their company’s or their personal brands?
CONSOR uses a simplified equation to determine value for our clients, which is:
Context + Time = Value
In order to really be winners, companies and celebrity athletes affiliated with the World Cup should take advantage of the CONTEXT of the event at this TIME and add VALUE to their brands.
The sponsors have received much added attention by being affiliated with the World Cup. Hyundai’s daily Twitter followers increased 40% during the World Cup using #becausefutbol, and adidas was a big social media winner with their “all in or nothing” campaign. Besides being the most used brand hashtag (#allin) on Twitter with 917,000 tweets, adidas added 5.8 million followers across all their social media platforms and was the most viewed sports brand on YouTube during the tournament period. Sports marketing targets the emotions of the spectators, which is why capitalizing on a brand’s or a person’s close ties to the World Cup, now, will increase their value.
Just because the U.S. didn’t win that game against Germany, didn’t mean the team didn’t produce any winners. Take for instance U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard, and his record-breaking number of saves, which prompted a number of memes and a petition to be Secretary of Defense. Howard was trending extremely well on social media with over two million mentions. Prior to the World Cup he had six-figure deals with Nike and McDonald’s, a paltry amount compared to the sport’s superstars of Beckham, Ronaldo, and Messi (Messi had over 28 million social mentions, regardless of losing in the final). But Howard is rumored to have received dozens of offers, and will probably be signing on for a few new endorsements soon. That is good news, because today’s consumers are fickle and Howard needs to take advantage of his World Cup popularity (context) right now (time) to add endorsement deals to his portfolio (value).
The Argentina vs. Germany final had a total U.S. viewership of over 26.5 million (after New York, the top market was San Diego – you know what we were doing at the office). That’s a lot of people watching commercials who are all potential consumers of all things soccer related. It’s key to continue the emotional marketing geared towards fans. Take a look at EA Sports and their FIFA video games. FIFA 15 will be released in September extending the emotional outlay by the captivated World Cup audience.
CONSOR valued the IP rights of the World Cup in 2010, 2006, and 2002, and we can tell you the value of those IP rights have increased by a fraction of 2x – as proof you only need to look no further than FIFA 15, which is forecasted to hit sales of 11.3 million units worldwide, the FIFA 15 video game will definitely keep interest in the sport going, especially in the U.S. where it is increasingly common for friends to play against each other on their Xbox devices, form draft day events, and then host game day viewing parties on television.The FIFA video game crowd helps build continued momentum for the sport, the teams, and the athletes.
How can everyone continue to win? Keep the sport’s long-term affiliations rolling. Brands, sponsors, celebrities, athletes, and even peripheral marketers affiliated with the World Cup should not sit idle during this crucial time to add value to their company’s or personal bottom line. Get those endorsement deals signed, negotiate those licensing contracts, and register your trademarks – because in San Diego, we like to chant “I believe that we will win.”