Leveraging Your Business for Next World Cup

Its not very often the World Cup comes around and it is an event that most brands leverage on to achieve their targets.

This event has a peculiar way of capturing all our attention whether you are a football fan or not.
In a world cup year like 2018, we all eat, drink, watch, talk, sleep and dream football almost throughout the year. Everyone, including all the elements of the earth, gravitates towards this timely event.

It is always the major talking point. For instance, Italy couldn’t make the Russia 2018 World Cup, but then AS Roma, a very big football club with an awesome history in Italy adapted Nigeria for support.

Everyone wants to see how their national team will fare at the world cup this year. For instance, Those of us in Nigeria are deeply grossed with the three stages of the world cup event, from the Qualifiers to the Super Eagles preparations, the world cup proper as well as the post world cup outcomes.

Research from the 2014 World Cup revealed that 6 out of the top 12
brands analysed for social buzz volume were not official brand partners. Nike that was a non sponsor generated 232,000 social mentions, compared to 129,000 racked up by official World Cup Sponsors Adidas.

This year, our work with Brila Online resulted in 95% ROI. The team has been able to increase engagement and followership across all social platforms within a short period of time. This is the power working with an effective digital agency during huge events can have on your brand.

So this article is for those of you who don’t have the millions to invest like these multi nationals but still want leverage on this powerful event in the coming years for better visibility and promotions

• Sponsorship:
This is the most veritable way to leverage promote your brand. Being an official partner will give you the right to expose your message and visuals around the world cup elements, but while you might not be able to form a partnership with FIFA during the World Cup due to the paucity of funds, you can still pen some strategic deals with other brands to create iconic campaigns.

Your brand could also partner with former footballers to launch a campaign or co-work with football media houses to grow your brand in a win-win strategic situation.

• Emotions/Storytelling:
Football is one of the most emotive sports. So, It’s a great idea to try and get your brand to leverage on that added emotion in your campaigns. Football can inspire and create real-life, feel-good stories your marketing campaign can be based on.

• Social:
Use a social media Influencer to share your brand involvement in the world cup: Social media influencer is anyone who has over a million followers on either Twitter or facebook, Instagram. Such person who is seen as a thought leader in his/her own niche could tweet or blog about what your brand is doing during the world cup.

Per adventure your brand won’t have the capacity to hire or partner a Media Influencer, then jump on it yourself, It’s a relatively cheap (or even free) way of getting your brand seen by the right people.

Tweet your brand with all the Hashtags, join in conversations, make comic graphics and all. Whether you’re trying to build a community around your brand, or you have an established community you’re if you have the shaped the right content for your channel, the World Cup can see your follower count flying up if used adequately. Or just get in touch with a digital agency like Image Boosters to help

• Branded Viewing Center:
Your brand can set up a large screen viewing center in your city and attract fans to come together like a mini stadium, to watch the world cup matches. It could also be used as corporate services to rural areas and refugee camps participatory during the world cup.

Brands could set up such large screen viewing center and get major media outfit to cover daily events at the center; a kind of real live football fans show

• Flash sales :
Everyone loves a good deal. An event like the World Cup provides the perfect opportunity to go with a themed flash sale, and can really create a nice little profit boost. You can choose how big of a sale you want to go with: a sweeping promotion of 50% off everything in your online store, two for one deal, or simply focusing on a specific product you want to push, customize the sale to work best for your business. Such could be tagged #WorldCup sales

PS: Be Careful, don’t get sued… The Fifa World Cup is protected by trademark & Copyright, It’s generally a good idea to refer to the World Cup without making specific mention of the name [FIFA] or its affiliated trademarks. Err on the side of caution and make sure your images, banners, and what nots give the game a nod, while playing it safe.