Battle for the World Cup buzz goes to Nike in early rounds.
via USA TODAY (please note: Contextual links below will take you to USA TODAY result pages)
But the early “winner” in buzz is Nike, neither a World Cup sponsor nor partner of the sport’s governing body, FIFA.
Social-media monitoring firm Meltwater Buzz looked at online buzz May 24 through Thursday for 11 top sponsors, partners and other key marketers and found outsider Nike had 26% vs. 20% for Adidas, a FIFA partner, and 11% for Sony, also a partner.
Credit Nike’s “Write the Future” soccer ad that launched May 20 on Facebook, says spokesman Derek Kent. It’s had 14 million YouTube views.
For big-spending marketers who rely upon social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to economically create brand buzz fast, the importance of successfully riding the wave of global events such as the quadrennial World Cup can’t be overstated. “It’s a unique opportunity to tie your brand to the greatest sporting event in the world — in real time,” says social-media consultant Jay Baer. “So much in social media is about brevity, which lends itself perfectly to soccer.”
Cup social-media plans:
•Adidas. In the U.S., the brand is using Facebook feeds from non-soccer sports stars such as auto racer Dale Earnhardt Jr. “We’ll tap the U.S. sports fans’ passion and get them to engage with the World Cup via athletes they relate to,” says Molly Maixner, brand marketing manager for Adidas soccer.
•Coca-Cola. Rather than trying to get people onto its own website, Coke joins them at its YouTube site. “Consumers want to stay in their preferred channels,” says Prinz Pinakatt, interactive marketing manager. “Instead of pulling people to where we are, we’re going where they are.”
•Visa. Social media will be the focus of Visa’s U.S. World Cup marketing, says Jennifer Bazante, global sponsorship marketing head. It is using its YouTube channel for a sweepstakes that asks fans to upload videos of their responses to goals scored.
•McDonald’s. Most of its World Cup social-media effort will be locally based, says Dean Barrett, senior vice president of global marketing. Fans will be encouraged to go online and manage their fantasy soccer teams for prizes.
•Budweiser. The brand is bringing 32 “super fans” from 32 World Cup nations to live together in a Cape Town house for the event and regularly post their interactions on its YouTube site. “It’s social media one-on-one,” says Jason Warner, global vice president for Budweiser.
