World Cup madness at Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland

World Cup madness

Published June 12th, 2006 in General

Everyone has gone World Cup crazy at the moment with column inches, airwaves and marketing dollars all being dedicated to this summer’s soccer competition. Unless of course if you are living in the United States, where John Wagner seems to be one of the sport’s only fans.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the competition from a communications perspective is the brand battle that is currently going on. Catherine O’Mahony has a great article on the subject in a previous issue of the Sunday Business Post. The key point in the article is:

A recent survey found that half the British population could not correctly identify a single official World Cup partner.

That’s a pretty scary thought given the amount of money being spent by companies in their marketing efforts. Can you blame the public for being confused though, as the editor of Brand Republic points out on his personal website, brands are incredibly fickle:

Their love for your country [insert name here] is not exactly constant.

Hyundai for instance is backing England all the way, but clearly it has a little love to spare is and is also backing Australia and South Korean too.

Companies should lay off the whole “We’re Country X’s biggest fan!”. There’s nothing more cringeworthy than seeing an MD or marketing exec suddenly pull on a soccer shirt and tell the world how they’ve been a soccer supporter for years - bit like all these newfound Chelsea fans .

I much prefer the efforts of companies who have tried to connect with their target audience. For example, I loved Permanent TSB’s publicity stunt which saw them promise all of their Polish customers €1,000 if their country won the World Cup. Poland has the largest immigrant community in Ireland, but since Permanent TSB’s announcement the country lost their opening match against Ecuador 2-0. Gillette have also been running a great advertising campaign which highlights fans showing their dedication to their team by shaving parts of their hair to showcase their country’s national flag.

Technorati Tags: Gillette, Marketing, Permanent TSB, Piaras Kelly, PR, Sunday Business Post, World Cup

5 Responses to “World Cup madness”

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1 David Cochrane Jun 12th, 2006 at 9:52 am

I think the biggest victor from the World Cup won’t be the team that lifts the trophy in a month, but those who are selling HD TVs (High Definition TVs). I’m very surprised with the take up and interest in the new sets, but the amount of advertising for these seems to be outdoing everything else.

Unfortunately, this seems to be one of the hardest World Cups from an advertisers sense (and whilst I know Piaras does the PR angle, ultimately both PR & Advertising will generate sales (ultimately anyways).

ITV in the UK have predicted a fall in ad revenues for June of 5%, this may seem a low figure but considering the World Cup is on, this is considerable (the lack of a rise in revenue is the story here).

So what are the reasons for this? Well, rather than asking people what brands are associated with the World Cup, how about asking people if they could identify the World Cup 2006 brand itself? It doesn’t seem to have high recognition, and I’ve only seen it used rarely.

ITV is looking at a fall in revenues in July of 25%, this is a shocking drop, and inconsistent with advertising trends in general. Where is the audience going? Well, if the weather is anything to go by, outdoors, it’ll be interesting to see how the games are doing ratings wise (if we’re not participating, do the Irish really care?).
2 John Wagner Jun 12th, 2006 at 12:48 pm

I’ve been looking for some info on television ratings for the World Cup in the U.S. and haven’t seen any to date … my guess is that interest is higher here in the States than in years past but it’s just a hunch.

In the meantime, I’m pulling for the U.S. side to at least make it out of group play. That would be a moral victory.
3 Vanina Jun 12th, 2006 at 8:07 pm

It is exactly what I was wondering about. So ads close to the goals are more expensive that those in the middle of the stadium. We can see there, yahoo, McDonald’s, Hyundai, Continental…we can see those having big budget!