Some non-sponsors beating WC partners

Sports clothing maker Nike has been more frequently linked in online media to the World Cup than any of the official partners and sponsors, according to the research, published earlier this month.

Carlsberg, Pepsi and Panasonic are other "unofficial" brands to have done a good job of piggybacking on the world's biggest sporting event, the company says.

"There were twice as many references to Nike in online English language messages related to the World Cup than for its biggest competitor and official World Cup partner, Adidas," Nielsen says in a blog describing the survey.

Nike attracted 32% of the "World Cup buzz" - mentions in relation to the World Cup in English-language online messages - followed by four official sponsors, Adidas (14,4%), Coca-Cola (11,8%), Sony (11,7%) and Visa (7,3%), Nielsen says. Next came non-sponsor Carlsberg (3,9%), sponsor McDonald's (2,8%) and non-sponsor Pepsi (2,5%).

Nike's campaign features many of the soccer names competing in SA during the tournament, including Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo. Nine of the 32 teams in the World Cup wear Nike kit.

The campaign's full-length video has had 14-million views on YouTube since the middle of last month.

The 2006 World Cup in Germany drew 26,29-billion TV viewers. The rise in the intervening four years of social media sites such as Flickr, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter has opened up a whole new battleground, with great opportunity for non-sponsors to promote their brands.

FIFA, committed to protecting the rights of the sponsors that have paid to link themselves to the tournament, is fighting 2500 rights protection disputes globally relating to the World Cup, and 450 cases in SA.

It is not clear how the recent out of-court settlement with the brewery Bavaria - after a group of orange, Bavaria-branded mini skirt-wearing women were arrested at a match - will affect those cases.

As the research shows, however, effective - and legal - promotion is quite possible. Nielsen has found that beer company Carlsberg, a sponsor of the England national team, had almost four times the level of mentions around the tournament than Budweiser, the official beer sponsor.

Carni Wilkens, MD of Posterscope SA, an advertising agency with official sponsors Adidas, Sony and Hyundai among its clients, said on Friday that out-of-home advertising was being used effectively in SA to get value for brands. Hyundai and Sony have in SA opted to engage consumers directly instead of investing in large billboards or building wraps.

"Hyundai has the branded balloon in Sandton that people can ride in and the large vuvuzela in Cape Town, while Sony is using the 3D viewing area in Sandton City to launch its 3D televisions by giving the public an opportunity to watch the soccer in 3D," Ms Wilkens says.

"In Sony's case it was important for the public to experience the 3D television experience."

Visa scores top marks for its use of out-of-home advertising, she says.

"Wherever you go, you see Visa, from the airport to the exterior of shopping centres like Hyde Park and Village Walk, but below-the-line marketing has also been effective because all the stores in those venues have Visa branding," Ms Wilkens says.

Puma, an unofficial brand, has received a lot of online attention for its video footage of buses parked in the shape of a heart, with an equal sign and the Cape Town Stadium, paying out its online message "Puma loves Soccer".

Absa bank has also kept up a local presence by piggybacking on its link with Visa, ensuring the Absa logo on a large soccer ball is one of the first things visitors see when they arrive at OR Tambo International Airport.

The Bavaria campaign has been too "painfully obvious" to be ranked alongside more effective campaigns, marketing analyst Chris Moerdyk says, writing on marketing and media site BizCommunity.

Source: Business Day