Dubai
Advertisers will not have much of a breather between sporting spectacles. Once the IPL-induced upturn winds down by end of the month, the countdown would have started in earnest for the football World Cup in Brazil.
And targeted campaigns will have to be worked out on in real-time too. “It will be the first real-time World Cup because of the digital explosion over the past four years,” said Ramzy Abouchacra, regional managing director at Initiative. “We have seen the impact of social media on the Sochi Olympics and other recent sporting events such as the Super Bowl.
“Conversations are growing exponentially and, as such, content generated by users and brands will reach an unprecedented level. This will create a huge challenge for sponsors to create a strong association with their multimillion dollar deals when the conversation is happening in social media — an area that is controlled by neither them or the broadcaster.
“Given that the World Cup is a mainstream mass event that attracts a huge global audience much greater than the hard-core fans of league football, ad spending will definitely go up.”
Despite the super-premium that advertisers have to shell out for any sort of exposure during the World Cup run, industry sources insist it will be worth it.
“The return on investment (ROI) for companies associated with it in even the smallest of ways can be huge,” said Yusuf Pingar, managing director of Spark*. “An estimated 715 million watched the final of the 2006 Fifa World Cup in Germany — There is a high degree of kudos being a brand that is involved in the event.”
Already, billboards and malls in the UAE are seeing an explosion of images featuring the likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, who has also just been snapped up by Emirates airline as its global brand ambassador. Pele, for the record, too holds the same status in the Emirates pantheon.
“Soccer players these days are so much more than skilled athletes — they are global icons with huge cult followings, meaning that each and every brand that has anything to do with the tournament in terms of sponsoring will reap the benefit of this attraction by being able to bask in reflected glory,” said Pingar.
“Visa, Kia and Hyundai are typical sponsors or co-sponsors of the 2014 Fifa World Cup and have a number of advertisements running throughout the six weeks of the contest. The additional investment and spend from such household names during this period and during the months leading up to it can reach as high as 50 per cent over their normal monthly spend.
“The bottom-line is that being associated with this event is something that generates an incredible amount of positive imagery, excitement and pride. This has a far greater value than traditional measurements of ROI. Goodwill towards a brand following their association with the Fifa World Cup can be a lasting equity.”
