World Cup sponsor messages failing to cut through
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Most sponsors are still failing to connect with football fans despite their huge investment and with the FIFA World Cup less than a month away,
According to a new survey of over 1,000 UK football fans, unprompted awareness of Coca-Cola (32%), Adidas (19%) and McDonald’s (14%) is strong. However, the remaining official FIFA partners and sponsors have “failed to get onto people’s radar”.
According to a new survey of over 1,000 UK football fans, unprompted awareness of Coca-Cola (32%), Adidas (19%) and McDonald’s (14%) is strong. However, the remaining official FIFA partners and sponsors have “failed to get onto people’s radar”.
The telephone study, carried out on behalf of PR consultancy Van Communications by ICM Research, shows that Sony and Visa have unprompted awareness scores of 10% and 7% respectively.
Visa will be “particularly concerned” that slightly more fans (8%) associate rival (and Champions League sponsor) MasterCard with this summer’s tournament, says a Van Communications spokesman.
Visa Europe senior vice-president for brand management Eith Colin Grannell told Marketing Week last month that “awareness is important to us, but it’s not the complete end game”.
Despite a widespread campaign across several media channels, just 5% of fans associate US beer brand Budweiser with the tournament, while only 1% of those questioned knew Emirates and Hyundai were World Cup partners.
The study also highlights that brands that have chosen to link their association with the World Cup through the England team are faring “very poorly”. Kit supplier Umbro has an unprompted awareness score of 4%, followed by Carlsberg (3%) and Nationwide (2%).
Van Communications director Mark Cooper says time is running out for brands to make an impact.
Readers' comments (1)
Danielle Pinnington, Managing Director, Shoppercen | Wed, 19 May 2010 3:19 pm
Inrteresting article.
Retailers and manufacturers must get to grip with measurement of promotion success beyond pure sales data.
With more brands taking part in large, expensive promotion and sponsorship deals – the World Cup and Olympics are great examples – efforts to understand the effectiveness of a promotional campaign can no longer be limited to simply reviewing sales spikes. Output must be analysed and justified.
Major event promotions provide brands with the opportunity to standout from the in-store crowd, so giving shoppers an extra reason to at least consider the brand when making a choice. Whether the marketing then drives the shopper to make an actual purchase will very much depend on what mechanic they are using e.g. a promotion, giveaway or a competition, AND whether they are a brand or type of product that suits this kind of link up. In any case, careful consideration at the planning stage needs to be given to driving awareness of the marketing among category shoppers, the desired impact on purchase decision (triggering a purchase versus reinforcing a planned purchase) and the potential impact on attitudes towards the brand (brand equity).
Unless it’s a highly relevant product, simply going to market with a ‘quick hit’ of promotional activity around a major event is not going to make a significant difference to the bottom line. It needs to be well thought out, planned and executed with the shopper front of mind. By reviewing shopper feedback, retailers and brands can work to change shopper behaviour and build messages that will support both the short and long term development of the brand. It can also add greater depth of understanding such as why sales spikes in one channel were so much higher than in another – despite using the same activation materials. Future campaigns can then be shaped accordingly to best suit the shopper and retailer/brand.
It’s time retailers and manufacturers looked beyond pure sales data to justify promotional spend. Budgets are still restricted and demonstrating value is more of a priority than ever before. By considering the shopper in promotional activity they will both have a better understanding of what the shopper responds best to and how to deliver it to them. In doing so they will gain long term custom and loyalty – what more can they ask for?”
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