| 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.
- 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.
- Be sure to only buy packages you know are from
FIFA appointed official agents.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- ENDS -
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