Running to Get Their Fill at World Cup
It is the world’s most popular sports event, except to Americans.
The World Cup doesn’t capture the attention of a Super Bowl or an Olympics. Never has--not even in 1994, when it was in the United States--and probably never will.
For some U.S. companies, however, the World Cup is a great buy, carrying international prestige and a place among the heavy hitters of sports sponsorship. An official FIFA sponsorship costs $40 million, excluding company expenses for personnel, advertising, marketing and promotions.
Gillette, synonymous with boxing and baseball for decades, has been a partner with the World Cup since 1970. The tournament, which will run in Japan and South Korea from May 31 to June 30, will be Gillette’s ninth World Cup.
“It is one of the few sports that truly has global appeal,” says Michelle Szynal, director of communications/global business management for The Gillette Company. “And we don’t just sell products in North America, but all over the world. It’s a great fit.”
It fits because, visually, World Cup sponsors get a lot in return.
“Unlike the Olympics, you get dasher boards, so you don’t have to spend anymore than that and still you get a pretty good media buy for your $40 million,” says sponsorship analyst Craig Tartasky, chairman of International Sport Summit and president of Vertical Sports and Entertainment. “There is a high, specific value to that, whereas an Olympic sponsorship costs $60 million for the rights to the five rings, but there is no sight value.”
Gillette’s involvement has grown from stadium signs during the 1970 Cup in Mexico to elaborate promotions, including a “Million Dollar Kick” this year.
While selling the product is foremost, the World Cup is a compelling draw for a sponsor.
“It is hard to quantify it,” Szynal says. “Of course, to drive sales at the retail level ... but we also substantially increase our prestige in the minds of men who watch sports.”
This is the first World Cup in Asia, but the time change hasn’t soured American companies. Although the return on any TV advertising could be minimal with starting times ranging from around midnight to 4:30 a.m. PDT, few sponsors expressed concern.
Why? Because the target audience is not necessarily the folks watching ESPN and ABC.
For MasterCard, the host sites present an opportunity to reach new consumers.
“The U.S. market is a secondary consideration with this event,” says Deborah Hughes, vice president, global sponsorships and event marketing for MasterCard International. “The TV audience will be for U.S. games, the semifinals and finals, and with the Hispanic market. But the World Cup is probably the most cost-effective and powerful marketing platform for our brand worldwide. Having it in Asia, it would be beyond our reach if we’d try to get to these consumers on our own.”
MasterCard had 250 member banks participate in the 1994 World Cup and 356 in 71 countries take part in 1998. The company will probably surpass the ’98 number for this tournament.
“For MasterCard,” Tartasky says, “it is probably the biggest leverage deal they do, because they are heavily invested in soccer worldwide. If you have the World Cup every four years, they do something every year in Europe and every two years in other events to get the message out.”
Helping FIFA get the message out about the World Cup is Yahoo!, which is producing the tournament’s official Web site (FIFAworldcup.com). Yahoo!, in its first World Cup, has a deal through the 2006 tournament in Germany to make information available in six languages--English, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, French and German.
Results, statistics, plays and highlights of all games will be available on the site, which has drawn such sponsors as MasterCard, Budweiser, Adidas and United Airlines.
“Simply put, soccer is the No. 1 sport in the world and the World Cup is the pre-eminent stage of the sport,” says Tonya Antonucci, general manager of production for Yahoo!’s FIFA World Cup partnership. “Yahoo! being a global company, this is the best possible exposure for our users.”
Most of those interested users--more than a billion hits to FIFAworldcup.com are expected during the 64-game event--are not Americans. But Antonucci warns against underestimating interest in the United States.
“We think there are a lot of hard-core and displaced soccer fans in the U.S.,” she says. “Don’t discount them as a potential market.
“With the time zone difference, this really is an Internet World Cup outside of Asia. We believe most of the football-frenetic people will be in their offices during the workday when they want access to games and information.”
But Tartasky believes another media outlet will benefit more than Yahoo! from the timing of games.
“I would expect ESPN and ‘SportsCenter’ to have a huge bump for their morning show,” Tartasky says.
Still, of all the new partnerships for this World Cup, FIFA seems particularly upbeat about the Yahoo! deal.
“FIFA has moved decisively into the new communications era,” says Sepp Blatter, president of FIFA. “This is particularly significant for fans in different time zones to Korea and Japan.”
FIFA has gone through difficult times since its marketing partner, ISL, went bankrupt last May. Infighting over how much of ISL’s debt FIFA covered is at the root of the bitter election campaign involving Blatter and African soccer federation chief Issa Hayatou.
