Team Sponsorship - Ambush or Not?

Is Team Sponsorship Ambush Marketing?

Global FIFA World Cup sponsorship is a heady proposition, committing you not only to hefty rights fees and almost certainly advertising support of the tournament broadcasts, but more than likely the cost of new marketing campaigns that must be created from the ground up to leverage your sponsorship.

Then you must face the prospect of your top competitors swooping in and sponsoring the individual teams that will play in “your” tournament.

The competitors have the further advantage of being able to pick and choose those teams that geographically represent their best markets.

Does this constitute ambush marketing of your massive World Cup investment?

That depends on your perspective.

The team sponsors will feel that they are doing everything properly and above-board. They obtain official status, then support their sponsorship investment in the usual way.

But when that marketing campaign transcends the themes of team support and links the brand with the sport as a whole – and by implication its biggest tournament – then the World Cup sponsors can be forgiven for throwing around the “ambush” word.

Let’s look at Pepsi’s “Futbol and Pepsi” campaign, running on US broadcasts of the World Cup coverage – and not just during games featuring Team USA, which Pepsi sponsors.

The message is likely to leave consumers at the very least wondering if Pepsi or Coca-Cola, the official World Cup sponsor, is the best soft drink for their favorite sport.

They feature everyone’s favorite soccer superstar, Lionel Messi, who likewise has no connection to Team USA.

Ambush marketing? If you’re Coca-Cola, the answer is probably yes.

Other potential head-to-head clashes are World Cup sponsor adidas vs. Team USA sponsor Nike; the 

World Cup’s Hyundai-Kia vs. Team USA’s Chevrolet; and World Cup’s Sony vs. Team USA’s Panasonic.

Is it worth the investment to double-up, and sponsor both the World Cup and the team in your most important markets? Visa, McDonald’s, Castrol, Continental Tire and Yingli Solar apparently think so.

That’s one way to make sure you get past the elimination rounds.

World Cup Continued - Relevance Increases Sponsorship Value

Relevance Increases Sponsorship Value

We have examined the impressive marketing campaigns that consumer products giants Coca-Cola and Budweiser are using to leverage their FIFA World Cup sponsorship.

But are soft drinks or bottles of beer intrinsically any more relevant to a soccer fan than to the average consumer? Arguably not.

Soccer gear such as footwear and apparel, on the other hand, is very obviously relevant.

World Cup sponsor adidas (www.adidas.com/World_Cup‎) has the advantage of being able to produce products that both commemorate the events and directly enhance the consumer’s ability to enjoy the sport on a personal level.

There’s nothing like a great-looking pair of soccer shoes to reinvigorate your game.

And having the current World Cup logo attached gives the consumer incentive to buy yet another soccer ball, which is much better from adidas’ perspective than waiting for a ball to wear out before replacing it.

Of course adidas supports their investment with the usual inspirational marketing videos, etc. (does Lionel Messi dream?). This helps to generate lasting affinity between fans of the sport and the company’s products.

In that sense, they are pursuing the same goal as Budweiser and Coca-Cola, but with the advantage of being able to integrate their products quite seamlessly into the action.

adidas has the additional advantage of being able to compute its merchandising ROI very easily.

For Budweiser and Coca-Cola, the merchandising sales/profit lift is much more nuanced.

This supports our first rule of sponsorship marketing: Understand your ROI.

The easier it is to connect sales to the sponsorship – in essence the more relevant your sponsorship is to your company’s products or services – the more value you generate from every consumer reached.

Therefore, in considering adding sponsorship to your marketing mix, look for relevance between your offering and the sponsored activity.

That can make the difference between a sponsorship program that you have to take on faith, and one that you can take to the bank.

Something’s afoot in soccer’s ad wars.

Several big brands this week are scoring sneaky yet sizable World Cup points, dodging global soccer-licensing cops and avoiding massive fees while still tackling fans on the sly.

As quiet as a Nike swoosh, that Oregon-based shoemaker, along with Pepsi, Samsung and a cluster of companies are applying an age-old advertising trick called “ambush marketing” to hawk their wares by playing outside traditional sponsorship lines, according to marketing experts.

The game is simple: Those brands cannot show World Cup logos or imagery in their TV commercials because they are not one of the six official "partners" of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sports's governing body.

Does the American team have a chance?

THE CYCLE

 
 
 

Adidas and Coca-Cola each paid FIFA an estimated $100 million to legally embed World Cup emblems but Nike andPepsi did not — yet those two non-sponsors are airing soccer-drenched spots featuring Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, Columbia’s Radamel Falcao, and other international star players.

Can a casual fan discern which of those four companies is formally affiliated with FIFA, and which is not?

And more importantly: Do they care?

FIFA officials have not yet responded to a request for comment made by NBC News.

"It is nearly always smarter to conduct an ambush or guerrilla campaign via media and other activation vehicles on site at these big events with the fraction of the budget it would cost for the rights themselves," said Ray Bednar, president at Hyperion Marketing Returns in New York City.

"I cannot fathom the rationale for a brand the size of Coke or Visa to spend these sums of money in what is essentially a brand awareness play," Bednar said. "Yes, they are connecting the passion of the fan with their brand, but that can be done directly with a fraction of the money without paying the rights fees."

Nike has become known on Madison Avenue as a master of guerrilla slickness. During the 2012 London Olympics, numerous track athletes donned the company’s neon-yellow Volt kicks. The footwear earned nearly as much chatter as the gold-medal winners.

"Nike connects where it matters — clubs, federations as well as elite and everyday athletes, and we are part of football (soccer) 365 days a year," said Nike spokesman Brian Strong. "We are a sponsor of the CBF (the Brazilian Football Confederation) and and of 10 teams total at the World Cup, more than any other brand. Over half the players in the tournament are wearing Nike boots.

"The World Cup provides a huge energy moment for us as a football brand but our #RiskEverything campaign is not specific to the tournament, and we don't seek to associate ourselves as an event sponsor," Strong added.

What Nike does not say: Their blueprint to fly below the official sponsorship wire also gives the company a dash of pirate panache, experts say.

Now other brands are following their lead.

Check out the new soccer ads for Sony, a FIFA partner, and Samsung, which is not. The tech competitors slug it out in their commercials, each clearly aimed at World Cup lovers. Sony shows cheering, dancing fans using its gadgets in a bouncy ad. Samsung shows sliding, kicking stars using its gadgets in a booming ad.

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"There are two reasons why a company might embrace a guerrilla campaign," said Tim Calkins, professor of marketing at Northwestern University. "First, it could help their brand and drive growth. Second, it might limit the impact of a competitor's sponsorship.

"Event organizers have to fight to protect sponsors. Companies will only pay big dollars to sponsor events if they are confident the investment will pay off. Guerrilla campaigns dilute the value of being an official sponsor," Calkins added.

Even a company like Beats, which drew a marketing red card from FIFA, is making bucks from that wrist slap, said Brian Quarles, an executive vice president at rEvolution, a Chicago-based sports marketing firm.

FIFA even banned the Beats By Dre headphones at World Cup stadiums this year — during matches and media events – because FIFA has a partnership with Sony. But all that some fans hear is this: World Cup players like the Beats headphones.

"It certainly seems that the brands using ambush or guerrilla tactics have been the ones receiving more attention around this World Cup," Quarles said.

"Sometimes it is more of a story not to be directly involved with the game, such as the case with Beats By Dre," he said. "That, in itself, grabs headlines and attention."

World Cup 'Ambush': Guerrilla Marketing Taps Soccer Fever

From NBCNews.com...

World Cup 'Ambush': Guerrilla Marketing Taps Soccer Fever
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/world-cup/world-cup-ambush-guerrilla-marketing-taps-soccer-fever-n140026

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How Sponsorship Fits in Your Plan - Bud and World Cup

Bud Shows How Sports Sponsorship Can Transcend Rivalries

Last week we talked about how to determine whether Sponsorship Marketing is right for you, and how Coca-Cola uses the World Cup to transcend awareness into engagement.

Let’s expand on these themes by revisiting the World Cup, this time with powerhouse sponsor Budweiser.

Like Coca-Cola, Budweiser has incredible awareness globally. But unlike Coca-Cola, the company’s mainstream product, because of its alcohol content, cannot be sold on every street corner.

You, too, undoubtedly will face closed markets, whether through regulation or simply lack of distribution. Bud tackles this issue head on during this week’s installment of its “Rise as One” videos, part of a comprehensive World Cup marketing package.

http://www.riseasone.com/en/us/?gclid=CPbdo8_3j78CFelDMgodlWQA9w#!/en/us/Detail/63306

The Budweiser film crew visits Palestine – which as a small country that is 75-percent Muslim is certainly not a major Budweiser market. Aside from the intro and wrap-up, delivered in a tavern with a bottle of Bud on the bar, the company’s product is neither seen nor mentioned.

Clearly, flying a film crew in, spending days on the ground doing interviews with interpreters, then producing a 10-minute video for global Internet distribution is an expensive proposition, with no chance of positive ROI within the country’s borders.

But the topic – a woman’s right to play soccer – will resonate far beyond Palestine.

And by aligning with a team that isn’t even playing in the World Cup, the company avoids the issue of choosing sides and potentially alienating avid fans of a rival team.

Budweiser’s marketing play is to attach themselves, through the emotional medium of soccer, to a passion point (women’s rights) and a global trend (modernization of conservative cultures).

Additionally, it taps into the traditional World Cup values of national pride and authentic sporting competition.

Can you equate the concept of loyalty to a team or country to generating loyalty to a product? Budweiser has been doing it for generations.

Can you transfer authenticity of competition on a (literally) level playing field to authentic taste, quality, etc.? Again, this is a tried-and-true tactic of the mega-brewer.

In crafting this campaign, Budweiser looks to sponsorship’s strength – passion – and devotes the necessary resources to go big during the World Cup window of opportunity.

All of these concepts can be applied at any level, from the local arts scene to Olympic sports.

Learn from the masters, and examine how sponsorship fits into your marketing mix.

5 Sponsorship Lessons From The World Cup

5 Sponsorship Lessons From The World Cup

The world’s biggest sporting event is drawing billions of eyes to Brazil, making it the world’s most important sponsorship event as well.

What can the World Cup teach us about using sponsorship as a marketing vehicle?

Let’s start with brand visibility. Traditionally, we think of visibility as a tool to generate awareness of a brand, product or service.

So what brand do you see in the venues, during television and news coverage and on the FIFA web site? Coca-Cola, already one of the world’s best-known brands, with awareness rates off the charts.

It’s pretty clear that Coca-Cola doesn’t need to increase awareness – in fact it may be statistically impossible for it to do so – yet there it is, dominating the landscape.

And “dominate” may be the key word here – as in dominate the competition. Protecting against competitors is a very expensive strategy, and only relevant to a handful of highly competitive brands.

Lesson one: Make sure you understand the cost/benefit and ROI of sponsorship-based brand awareness.

The Coca-Cola presence on the FIFA home page links to the brand’s sponsorship of the World Cup Trophy Tour.

Tours are a grass-roots marketing tool to bring a brand to the people in a tangible, high-touch way. 

Brazil is a huge consumer market. The tour, not coincidentally, crisscrosses the country.

This is literally where the rubber meets the road in attempting to transfer consumer loyalty.

Lesson two: Extend the impact of your sponsorship through grass-roots activation.

The “Coca-Cola Happiness Flag” stretches nearly the full size of a soccer field and is a mosaic of millions of tiny portraits of real people, submitted from around the globe.

Now you can explore the flag, dominated by Coke red, on an interactive web page and perhaps find yourself.

Lesson three: Invite direct fan participation with your brand.

Coca-Cola filmed grass-roots marketing elements of its sponsorship, which are available on YouTube, linked from the FIFA site.

The flagship video, with over 1.4 million views already in the first few days of the tournament, is “One World, One Game – Brasil, Everyone’s Invited,” which leverages not only passion for the event and its sport, but also emotions associated with patriotism, rebuilding from disaster, seizing opportunity, overcoming hardship and more.

Lesson four: Remember that sponsorship is about emotion.

Few sponsorships have the global impact of a World Cup, and few sponsors have the global clout of a Coca-Cola. However, each sponsorship offers a wealth of opportunities, and only a thoughtful approach deeply rooted in Marketing By Objectives will capture the full value.

Lesson five: Your goals, not the property’s goals, must drive the value equation.