Despite England’s untimely departure from the World Cup, interest in the tournament remains high. The coming together of the world’s footballing elite has caused ripples of excitement spanning the globe. It’s one of those rare occasions where people in almost every country on the planet tune in to watch the same event at the same time. All eyes are focused on one place – South Africa.
So hats off to those PR companies who exploit this worldwide focus of attention, it is an incredible crowded market so, those that garner cut through deserve applause. Many companies see this as a perfect opportunity to grab a few cheap headlines and create a buzz around a brand, however delivering on that promise isn’t always so easy.
There are of course many brands which have created special edition products, aimed at cashing in on the World Cup market. Walkers has released a series of World Cup flavoured crisps, there have been countless World Cup pull outs and freebies in newspapers, there are limited edition fragrances, and football related food, even McCain, known for their chips, have produced a pack of round mashed potato products called ‘Footballs’.
And of course there is the now infamous incident with ITV’s World Cup pundit, Robbie Earle, accused of passing his World Cup tickets to a third party. Somehow those tickets found their way to Bavaria, a Dutch beer company, who allegedly dressed a group of girls in tight orange dresses, sat them in the seats which were in clear view of TV cameras, and used the opportunity for some guerrilla marketing (they were not an official sponsor of the World Cup). Two of the ring leaders found themselves in front of the South African courts, Robbie Earle lost his job with ITV, however it resulted in a lot of publicity for the beer company!
It is true then that whenever there is a global event, there is always a PR opportunity, however securing that opportunity and the all important media cut-through is another issue altogether. The companies and brands that rise above the rest in the battle for consumer awareness are generally few and far between. It is not merely about making your brand relevant to the event, in this case the World Cup, it is about giving your target consumers a reason to be interested, involved and enticed. Any PR agency can knock together a survey, piece of research or ‘funny’ top 10, but the ones that deliver the goods take the PR game to another level. Media engagement, consumer appeal and an end result for most brands, not a throw away mention on the end of a survey, is the true mark of success! Mars is a good example, with its revival of the iconic John Barnes rap, strategic media partnerships and ongoing “We believe” campaign which tapped in to the UK consumer mindset.
The moral of the story then…
There are always opportunities when the big media spotlight grabbing events appear in the calendar but marketers and PR’s that avoid the pit falls rather than get swept away with the hype will score at the end of the day.
