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.