Smart Agencies Are Turning To Joint Pitches

“How are promoters gearing up for the World Cup? Focusing on FMCG and on-trade marketing campaigns, we present pointers on the kinds of incentives that are being lined up and look at other football-related campaigns over the past year.”

The FIFA World Cup in Germany next summer will, along with the Ryder Cup held in Ireland later in the year, be the major sporting event of the year. Sponsors and brands across all sectors will be looking to the event to leverage their summer promotions. This will be most significant for FMCG brands running consumer promotions and for the drinks sector looking to initiate trade-marketing campaigns for bar managers and staff throughout the on-trade.

Since the draw was finalised on December 9th 2005, the build up to the World Cup has started in earnest. The guaranteed media exposure coupled with national expectancy of the England team means that a brand leveraging promotional activities from the event will be sure to increase their brand awareness and if the campaign is run successfully will almost certainly see an uplift in sales.

Incentive Options Themed Around FIFA World Cup:

Certain restrictions apply when purchasing packages for the World Cup. Outlined below is a selection of those packages on offer:

• FIFA World Cup packages:
  
  
  • Packages include flights, airport transfers, accommodation, stadium transfers, category A tickets, hotel based hospitality. For the group stages of the tournament packages are only being sold in multiples of 3 therefore tickets for all 3 group games need to be purchased. Packages for the knockout stages can be bought individually however most official agents are offering customers who purchase group stage games first option on the knockout stage matches.
    
    
  • VIP packages for the World Cup Final
    
    
  • Flight and ticket only packages
    
    
  • VIP private jet packages – go to the World Cup in style with a private jet to Germany.
    
    
  • Packages can be hosted by England legends from the 1966 world cup such as Alan Ball and George Cohen to more recent players
    
    
  • There are likely to be meet and greet opportunities in Germany with a selection of England players.

Additional experiences themed around the World Cup include:

For those not fortunate enough to have the required budgets to send customers to the World Cup, Unmissable have devised a number of alternative campaign ideas, which are based in the UK:

• Play table football with a professional footballer (branding on the tables is also available)
• Signed England football memorabilia ranging from signed shirts to football boots to framed pictures.
• Big screen events in the UK hosted by former players & celebrities – Typically evenings are based around a champagne reception, open bar and buffet menu with a Q&A session with the celebrities and the match viewed on a large screen.
• Theme a World Cup party in your living room – there is a potential for this to be hosted by a Sky Sports pundit

Potential pitfalls of FIFA World Cup promotions:

Having worked in the sports travel industry Andrew Cook understands the potential pitfalls of not only taking clients and customers to major sporting events but also using them for promotions as a non-official sponsor. Here are some top tips for promotions themed around the FIFA World Cup next summer.

1. Be aware that official agents are selling packages in blocks of 3 matches for the group stages of the tournament therefore making it an expensive promotion.
2. Be sure to only buy packages you know are from FIFA appointed official agents.
3. Make enquiries to ensure there is support on the ground – logistics can often be made difficult due to the sheer volume of people attending the events, having a host on the ground is imperative.
4. Be careful of sponsorship issues when using a package as part of a consumer prize promotion. The sports governing bodies will be monitoring all FIFA World Cup themed promotions. The use of official logos and titles such as “FIFA World Cup” will be solely for the use of the events sponsors. It is easier to run an incentive through the on-trade rather than via an FMCG on-pack promotion, as it’s far less visible.
5. Ensure that prior to running a promotion or incentive you have secured packages well in advance, there has been plenty of press regarding the limited number of tickets and packages available so to run with a promotion or incentive without having secured packages will be very dangerous.
6. It’s a sad reflection on football, however thanks to the minority of supporters who travel to allegedly support their teams, it’s imperative to be sensible when visiting bars and restaurants. With so many supporters from different countries it is; however unfortunate, inevitable that there is likely be the potential for crowd violence in some areas so care should be taken when out and about.
7. Should the England team progress through the tournament to the quarter finals and beyond then there is almost certain to be a late rush for packages and with that an increase in prices so be on the ball and contact suppliers early to ensure availability.

Football-related experiences Unmissable has organised during 2005:

Over the last few years, Unmisable has organised and fulfilled a number of trips to major football events including both the FIFA World Cup in 2002, held in Korea & Japan, and EURO 2004 held in Portugal as well as organising more generic experiences such as:

• Premier League hospitality packages
• Table Footballs & European football
• European football weekends in Barcelona / Milan / Madrid
• F.A. level 1 coaching course
• 10 European football weekends / 10 Branded table footballs / 10 Xbox consoles with footy games
• Live like a footballer in London for the night

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