World Cup Brand Marketing: Games Played By Professional Players

If you want to take advantage of top competitions for brand marketing, you can't just clap your head.

Only by participating in competitions like professional athletes can the brand have a greater chance of winning.

As the biggest sporting event before the 2008 Olympic Games, the German World Cup with a strong commercial atmosphere has undoubtedly become a very bright wealth symbol.

Grab official sponsorship status, bet big soccer stars, develop related products...

One after another loud brand has been injected into the thick World Cup elements.

The duel of the world cup is not so much a greenery house, but rather a fight by a strong business force.

The world cup, sports and brand marketing have become a topic of excessive discussion. As Benjamin Graham said, once people have identified a trend, they forget the price of the stock.

The same is true of the world cup. When people talk too much about its value, it is often easy to forget its price.

About sports marketing, some general viewpoints include: sports marketing burns 70% of the money, and really can make money through that 30%; if a brand wants to increase the popularity of the world by 1%, it will burn 20 million dollars by advertising, while sponsoring large sports competitions, the same money can increase the popularity of 10 percentage points; and it is said that if sponsorship is done, it will cost 3 to 5 times extra for supporting activities, so as to show better results.

The high success rate often occurs in the primary market with insufficient competition.

Obviously, the world cup is a market that has been developing for many years, is attracted by all the most heavyweight brands in the world, and has been fully excavated by top advertising companies, rather than a primary market.

If you want to take advantage of this kind of top competition for brand marketing, you can't just clap your head.

From perceptual to rational, it is still not enough. Only by participating in competitions like professional athletes can the brand have a greater chance of winning.

Professional level gameplay

Top competitions are the games of top manufacturers, not only because they have money, but more importantly, they are more professional and know how to spend more money.

Because they are also competing fiercely and fully, they will raise the price to the level suitable for professional players.

The official sponsorship of the world cup is a particularly hot eye for businessmen.

Because whoever can get this ticket will be able to take the big ship in the world cup and render and sell its products globally.

However, FIFA can only choose one company as a partner in each commodity. Therefore, this year's World Cup only selected 15 official sponsors.

Scarce resources have led to market panic.

After fierce competition, modern, Fuji, Coca-Cola, PHILPS and other world famous enterprises have formed a luxurious lineup to sponsor the world cup, and most of them are old customers of FIFA.

The most representative of the competition is the OTC force between Adidas and Nike.

As with the last World Cup in Korea and Japan, Adidas has once again qualified for the eighteenth World Cup sporting goods official sponsorship, which means that many viewers around the world are unable to see Nike ads in the world cup.

Adidas, which has signed a 8 year cooperation agreement with FIFA, has indeed made Nike a bit short of heroic spirit.

But Nike is not without the power to fight back.

The player who excels in playing the edge ball has played the old tactics of repeated success: making star catching effect by sponsoring stars.

Nike not only invested heavily in the Brazil national team, but also sponsored 8 teams in the US, Mexico and Portugal, while Adidas only sponsored 6 teams.

We might as well go back to 1984.

Nike signed a 5 year contract with Jordan for a total price of $2 million 500 thousand, using the name of Jordan on Nike sports shoes.

This price is 5 times the price of Adidas or CONVERSE.

Fortune magazine also published an eye catching report that it was a big mistake to sign the contract on the financial condition of Nike at that time.

It turned out that the contract was a "win win" deal, which owes much to Jordan, who is beyond many people's expectations.

Don't think that Nike will pay 5 times the price of its competitors.

This is a plan for success, and it is also an element of adventure and less luck.

Who can say that Adidas's annual profit of about $more than 400 million is worth $200 million in advertising at the world cup.

What most marketing experts can do is to summarize it as a wonderful case once it is successful, and dig up its ridiculous place once it fails.

Adidas is not an amateur player. Since its establishment in 1928, it is a player tied up with sports. They have nearly 80 years of experience in sports marketing.

Even so, for them, sports sponsorship is also a dance on the tip of the knife. In order to get the exclusive advertising rights for American Broadcasting Company and ESPN to broadcast the world cup to the whole country, they must compete with the Nike company, which is equally skilled in planning, calculating and throwing money.

The marketing that takes advantage of the world's top events is the top competition of the brand in the world. Only with the same conditions as the performers on this stage, can almost all the skills be taken off.

If an ordinary sporting goods manufacturer is not a Adidas, nor has Nike's experience, only half the price will get the same preferential terms as they do, most of them will still lose money, because the same stage will create half the value.

Learning from professional players

Although no Chinese company is eligible for the sponsorship of the world cup, businesses are shaking their hands on the sponsorship of the stars.

TCL signed Ronaldinho with a sky high price. AUX threw away heavy gold and signed 5 football stars, such as Beckham, as the brand spokesperson. After the last World Cup, he hired Michael Lu as the spokesman for the image and then hit the football card again.

Even the "Long Ya" brand duck neck, also want to see the world cup drinking beer, but "what to eat"?

So they tied up with Tsingtao Brewery and used the world cup to sell their duck neck.

This is a good entry point.

Countless small businesses can ride in the world cup and other events.

Many programmes have been identified in the German arena.

But big and small brands can still take the opportunity to learn from professional players.

It is not very complicated to imagine playing a game like a professional player.

It's like a go game, first class, then the first stage, and finally to the nine paragraph.

The level of sports marketing is also very high, for example, the advertising space is smaller than the sponsorship, and the certainty is much larger.

For example, you are a telecom company, preparing for the 2008 Olympic Games, observing how Deutsche Telekom spends money on the world cup and how to make money. It is very useful to simulate the German Telecom's analysis of some projects, summarize its gains and losses, and so on.

We can get a basic analysis of how advertising is more effective in every major country.

Crossing key barriers

In this year's World Cup, there are only 15 German local companies on the list of the two sponsors.

German companies did not abuse all kinds of conditions such as time, place, people and so on. This also shows that the competition in utilizing the world's top sports events marketing globalization has been very sufficient.

Two years later, the names of many Chinese companies will appear in the Olympic Games held in Beijing in 2008.

The lowest cost for TOP sponsors is US $65 million. How to perform after buying this stage?

The cost is undoubtedly the price of a professional player. If the ability to create value still stays on amateur level, the probability of losing money may exceed 70%.

Lenovo repeatedly stressed that when it answered public questions, it made special arguments and researches on the risks and feasibility of becoming TOP sponsors of the Olympic Games, and ultimately chose sponsorship after weighing various risks and possibilities.

Liu Chuanzhi said: "we have made a detailed argument in this matter. We do not think we can win the glory of the Chinese people and we have done anything wrong."

CEO Yang Yuanqing said: "Lenovo's TOP plan has been carefully considered after two years, and the risk has been fully demonstrated. There is no problem in the company's capital."

For large players, this scientific argument is absolutely necessary.

But the key obstacles are still there, and only by crossing these key obstacles can we succeed.

First, the world's top game sponsors, usually global brands, are able to enhance their sales performance around the world by sponsoring top world events.

If a Chinese local company, which only works in the domestic market, also sponsors top competitions, and only one country will be affected, the ability to create value will be reduced, and the price of the stage will not be reduced.

Second, a huge obstacle between the huge cost and the affordability of enterprises.

The direct cost of TOP sponsors is nearly $70 million, plus 3~4 times the ancillary costs. The cost of attending a top-level sponsorship cost about $250 million, which has exceeded the profits of most Chinese enterprises in one year.

NIKE's sales revenue in 2005 was $14 billion 300 million, and its profit was $1 billion 350 million. Adidas's revenue in 2005 was $8 billion 800 million, and its profit was 420 million dollars; Coca-Cola's two figures were 23 billion 100 million US dollars and 4 billion 900 million US dollars respectively.

As a woolen sweater brand, Heng Yuan Xiang sold nearly $500 million in sales in 2005. They also became sponsors of the Beijing Olympic Games.

But with the weak shoulders of US $500 million annual sales, can we afford the five star marketing stage like the Olympics?

This is a huge obstacle for almost all enterprises trying to use the Olympic Games for marketing.

Third, because sports goods and beverages are directly related to sports, they are always regular customers of sports marketing, and their sponsorship results are easier to predict.

However, there are more and more industries trying to take the sports bus. If you are a computer company or sell oil, how to create a value with sports is a very important issue.

IBM, Bo Shi LAN and Xerox, the top sponsors of Olympic Games, opted to quit after the expiration of the contract.

No need to ask, you know the reason - you can't find the right profit model.

The Ford Motor Co decided to stop sponsoring British football and European football because it still had no significant effect on spending nearly $3 million a year.

Statistics show that only 1% people in the public can associate Ford's name with football after the end of the contract.

There are bound to be fourth or fifth obstacles to this analysis.

From this point of view, it is not enough for us to participate in this kind of game.

As the great military theorist, Peter ruse said, judging from the statistical results of historical battles, most of the strong side wins, and the weak wins the strong is exaggerated.

However, there are always cases of defeating the strong in history, and not many wars are achieved through algebraic operations.

There is no doubt that the weak side is much more difficult, and only by finding its own unique advantage can it win.

Marketing is the same. After all, marketing knowledge is not scientific enough to predict the result through data operation.

Links:

The world cup is not just a marketing opportunity.

Interview with Chen Jijun, chief marketing officer of PHILPS Electronics China Group

Interview: Wang Dan &