Nike “ambushes” World Cup sponsor Adidas
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Nike has struck another blow in its battle with Adidas for off-pitch supremacy by creating a bigger online buzz about its World Cup marketing campaigns than its German rival.
A study by Nielsen found that Nike's "Write the Future" campaign, which features ambassadors including Wayne Rooney, Didier Drogba and Cristiano Ronaldo, has led to a stronger association with the tournament than any other brand despite not enjoying the official partnership status Adidas does.
Nielsen analysed online blogs, message boards and social networking sites and found that Nike had the highest share of online pre-World Cup buzz, 30.2% compared with Adidas on 14.4%
The battle between the two sportswear brands for dominance in the lucrative football market was ramped up this week when Nike head of brand Charlie Denson refuted claims made by Herbert Hainer, Adidas' chief executive that his brand was still the biggest in the sport.
Nike, which also owns England's kit maker and partner Umbro, has 9 of the 32 teams competing in South Africa wearing its kits including Brazil and the US, while Adidas has 12 including Germany and Spain.
Adidas' World Cup marketing activity has included a Star Wars-themed ad starring brand ambassadors David Beckham, Noel Gallagher and Snoop Dogg. It has also launched a campaign starring Lionel Messi and Zinedine Zidane.
Elsewhere, Nielsen found that FIFA partner Coca-Cola had five times the level of mentions around the World Cup than Pepsi did.
Carlsberg, a sponsor of the England national team, also appears to have successfully "ambushed" official World Cup sponsor Budweiser with its Team Talk ad starring Sir Trevor Brooking, Nigel Benn, Jack Charlton, Stuart Pearce and rock band Kasabian.
Nielsen found that Carlsberg had almost four times the level of mentions in English-language messages around the tournament than Budweiser
The World Cup starts today (11 June).
Readers' comments (3)
Anonymous | Fri, 11 Jun 2010 12:36 pm
hardly surprising given that adidas's world cup campaign only started in earnest today.
Although have to give Nike their dues, the ad is brilliant.
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NinaBest | Fri, 11 Jun 2010 4:17 pm
If anything this shows that sponsors should start taking greater advantage of their alignment to the World Cup by being more creative.... and spending their money on savvy marketing strategies rather than on potentially fruitless attempts to try and go after arguably more creative (ambush) marketers as in the case of Mars and Nestlé’ - and that’s coming from a lawyer!
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Paul Gostick | Fri, 18 Jun 2010 12:35 pm
Again!!!
Probably the most forthright and unremorseful brand to embrace ambush marketing is Nike. Most major footwear producers have been ambushed by Nike:
In particular, Adidas don't seem to learn. They have been ambushed by Nike on just about every continent in every two or four year competition.
* Converse in Los Angeles in 1984
* At the 1992 Barcelona Olympics Nike sponsored the press conferences with the US basketball team despite Reebok being the games’ official sponsor -QED
* Reebok in Atlanta in 1996
* In the greatest ambush marketing feat of all time Nike’s man Michael Jordan, accepts the gold medal for basketball and covers up the Reebok logo on his kit.
* 1998 World Cup, France: Nike again.
* 2002 Boston Marathon: Nike strikes again. As adidas-sponsored runners come off the course they are treated to spray-painted ‘swooshes’ honouring race day, but not the race itself.
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