Why brands should partner with footballers at the World Cup
11.04.2019
Every 4-years the world comes together to watch the FIFA World Cup. The 2014 World Cup had a total of 3.2 Billion viewers with 1 Billion individuals watching the final alone.
35.6 Million Tweeted about Brazil vs Germany (Semi Final where Germany won 7-1) the most discussed single sports game ever on twitter.
- Before the World Cup the most tweeted about game was the 2013 Superbowl with 24.9 Million Tweets.
The World Cup Final saw 618,725 tweets per minute. The previous record was also about a Germany game, when Sami Khedira scored the 5th goal twitter was averaging 580,000 tweets per minute.
In the second round of the world cup there had already been a billion; World Cup related Posts, shares and likes. With 220 Million individual users creating this. By the end of the world cup the overall figures was 3 billion figures involving 350 million people.
The 2014 World cup final was the most talked about sporting event in Facebook history.
This shows the huge audiences and sheer scale of focus on the World Cup across multiple channels. Social media has continually shattered engagement records during sporting events. Why? Because the world takes to social media to voice their opinions, engage with their heroes playing for their nations and capture live information from across the globe.
What does this mean for brands? Traditionally brands have attempted to jump on trends such as the World Cup and Olympics with only limited success. They lack a focal point to their campaign to engage and emotionally move target audiences.
Officially partnering with footballers at the World Cup will open doors to global audiences with one post. Choosing the right player with millions of followers on social media is vital to the campaign and raises many questions; does the player fit your brand values? Does the player resonate with your brand enough to communicate your messages?
Global brands in the past such as Beats by Dre, Pepsi Co, Nike, have successfully partnered with the correct players at the World Cup to create emotionally moving content. Not only do global brands benefit from such strategies, many localised brands have benefitted from the exact same strategies, resulting in mass exposure.
This content has then been published across multiple platforms, including the players’ social media channels – something brands cannot hope to achieve when jumping on trends without any credible focal point to the campaigns.
During the World Cup players’ social media channels are monitored daily by the fans and media, paying attention to every post. This is because the world’s best players are centre stage for a set period of time with no other sporting events taking place to crowd out communications.
My advice to brand owners and marketing departments would be:
– seek opportunities now to partner with the right players for your brand.
– choose wisely
– enjoy!
Making content with internationally known superstars is fun, it’s something to be proud of and cherish. A great journey with huge rewards for your business.
For more information please email: e.shah@b-engaged.co.uk