PR 20/20 Blog

4 Marketing Lessons from the 2010 World Cup

By Natalie Farinacci | Posted Jul 28, 2010 | 0 Comment(s) | Filed in: Brand Marketing, Social Media
While numerous organizations embraced the opportunity to expose their brands during the most-watched sporting event in the world, some of those marketers chose to position their brand more strategically than others by engaging with their audiences through integrated marketing campaigns across multiple channels.

Particularly, compared to the previous 2006 event, marketers had many more opportunities to reach audiences online. During the last World Cup, Facebook still only allowed access to college and high school students and Twitter was just launching in July of that year.

Even before the event began, Hubspot and the head of new media for FIFA predicted that this year’s World Cup would be the biggest event in social media yet, and that many would watch and/or catch scores by monitoring social networks.

Here are some lessons we can learn from successes (and missed opportunities) from the World Cup on how to execute integrated marketing tactics to reach and engage your audience.

Lesson #1: Be your own publisher.

Several brands utilized YouTube as a way to expand reach. For example, Anheuser-Busch InBev created a digital reality show, “Bud House”, which featured 32 fans representing the 32 World Cup nations living together for a month, similar to a “Big Brother” setup. As a result, Budweiser was one of the top branded video channels on YouTube during the tournament, and surpassed its goal of 5 million views.

Similarly, Nike launched a video on YouTube, Write the Future, instead of paying for a World Cup commercial (a first for the brand). The video received more than 15 million views on YouTube alone, according to a post on B2B Voices, What B2B communicators can learn from the 2010 World Cup.

Lesson #2: Capitalize on big news/ events to gain momentum for company announcements.

Twitter got in front of a huge, targeted audience by announcing its new location-based service, Twitter Places, during the opening games of the World Cup. Twitter was able to test the product easily by having one central location, the South Africa stadium, where they could target a large amount of people willing and interested in both watching the games and tweeting about them. Timing was key for Twitter, as they made the announcement of the function, available in 65 countries, when the World Cup was already one of Twitter’s top-trending topics.

Lesson #3: Empower your brand evangelists.

Many of the soccer players discussed the tournament and supported their country on Twitter in between games. While tweeting or posting on social networks is banned in some professional sports, this conversation helped spread news about the tournament, players’ countries and other news in South Africa.

The players also got a sense of the passion and pride from their fans, no matter where their fans were located. This “backchannel” made for a deeper, more engaging experience and increased awareness exponentially.

Lesson #4: Combine off- and online marketing and PR efforts into a cohesive strategy.

One organization that failed to capitalize on the World Cup was the country of South Africa. Even though South Africa hosted an event that attracted an average international TV audience of around 400 million viewers per match and more than 700 million viewers for the World Cup final, the country missed a major opportunity to increase its online presence and build relationships with new, relevant audiences.

As NetGrowth Group’s Alec Campbell explains, although Google’s Keyword Tool reported an average of 3 million global searches conducted per month (this year) for “World Cup 2010”, none of the South African websites ranked in Google results. Had South Africa prepared its online presence (i.e. optimizing the government’s website, publishing content about the event and establishing feeds on its site) before hosting the World Cup, the country’s website could have received more traffic, thus reaching new audiences about tourism and country news.

Considering the advances in marketing available today in the context of a quadrennial event like the World Cup, we see just how much the industry has changed, what new tools are available, and how they can be leveraged for success. It will be interesting to discover what changes and innovations in technology and social media will inspire marketers for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and other global sporting events, such as the Olympic games.

What World Cup marketing campaigns impressed you?

Natalie Farinacci is an associate consultant at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow Natalie on Twitter @natalie_f.

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Photo credit: Times Live
Recession-Themed Marketing: Three Lessons from Schooner Tuna

By Christina Capadona-Schmitz | Posted Jun 25, 2009 | 0 Comment(s) | Filed in: Advertising, Brand Marketing
Get out of bed each day and chances are you’ll hear a marketing message tied to the economy. From car companies offering to cover monthly payments for those that lose their jobs, to budget-friendly brand offshoots, trying times have created new opportunities for companies to communicate with their audiences.

With all the economy-based marketing messages out there in these conditions, “bailout” promotions and similar messages have become white noise. It’s almost expected that companies should be doing something to help out their loyal customers during troubling financial times.

So what makes a message stand out from the competition in this economic environment? What drives consumers to spend the limited money they have now and build brand loyalty for the future? How do businesses project sincerity in the delivery of these campaigns? Let's look at one of Hollywood's most famous economy-based ad campaigns.

The Schooner Tuna Campaign

In the 1983 movie “Mr. Mom,” Terri Garr’s character Caroline Butler is thrown back into the workforce when trying economic times remove Jack Butler (Michael Keaton) from his architecture job. While comedy ensues on the home front, Caroline breaks through barriers at her new advertising job.

At a campaign pitch meeting for premium brand Schnooner Tuna, Caroline offers the idea of “Tuna with a heart,” based on her experiences as a stay-at-home Mom. The pitch: reduce the price of each can of the premium Schooner Tuna by $.50 to help families through the tough times.

There are articles published each week about recession marketing, including plenty of references to Mr. Mom and the tuna ads in relation to current advertising and marketing campaigns. I’ve gathered three simple takeaway lessons from the Schooner Tuna campaign:

1) Relate to your audience now to gain loyalty in the future.

Calling on her recent experience as a mom and housewife, Caroline was the only person in the Schooner Tuna pitch meeting that knew how to talk to the decision makers – and what they’d respond to:

A September 2008 Misery Index blog post “Schooner Tuna Where Are You When We Need You,” explains it well: “From “Yum Yum Tuna Bits” to “The Tuna With a Heart”, it was she who brought the priorities of consumers - of moms like her - to that boardroom. She reminded Humphries that housewives didn’t need corporate gimmicks, but in fact needed a break on the high price of tuna. And by doing this, Schooner Tuna would win over the housewives’ loyalty.”

A similar reference is found in the Haggin Marketing January 2009 post “America, we’re doing this for you,”: “Caroline knew that if Mr. Humphrey lowered the price of a can of tuna so American housewives could stretch their grocery dollar, then they would be loyal to Schooner Tuna for life.”

While bigger companies may be able to reach a wider audience through larger campaigns, small businesses could have the advantage of knowing their customers on a more personal level, thus being able to respond to the struggles the customers are facing, which the businesses may actually share. A June 9 post in The Wall Street Journal Small Business section gives a few examples of this: In Recession Specials, Small Firms Revise Pricing - Discounts and Lower-End Offerings Help Lure Cash-Strapped Customers.

2) Offer savings without discounting the value of your product or service.

The fictitious Schooner Tuna was a premium brand. President Mr. Humphrey solidifies this position in his commercial for the “Tuna with a Heart” campaign with the line “When these difficult times are over, we will return to our regular pricing…”

The last thing you want to do by offering savings or discounts, is to devalue your product or service in the eyes of current and potential customers. If you offer a premium brand or service, there’s the option to find ways that your customers’ dollars can go further, such as investing into community programs to support schools or other initiatives, without taking the leap into price lowering. However, if affordability is one of your strong suits, don’t be afraid to let it shine.

Keep in mind, that although the recession may be thought of as a temporary situation, it can have lasting effects and represent a shift in peoples’ buying habits, no matter the duration.

An example of this can been seen in the recently published story on the luxury handbag company Coach, and its decision to develop and launch a less expensive brand. The line, called “Poppy,” runs an average of 20 percent less than their normal product, while retaining the quality and luxury image associated with the current brand.

On the contrary, Tiffany’s luxury brand was not willing to risk sacrificing its high-end status, and stated last quarter that it would not cut prices despite falling sales and earnings.

The right approach can vary from company to company, but if you are able to retain the value of your product or service in the minds of customers, they’ll be more willing to pay that extra $.50 for your tuna when the economy improves.

3) Be sincere.

In the movie, Mr. Humphrey’s excitement in the boardroom when “Tuna with a heart” is introduced doesn’t appear to be derived from the opportunity to help his fellow man. He has found a clever way to sell tuna. The cheesy commercial confirms this, especially in the delivery of his closing remarks, “Remember, we’re all in this together.”

While the long-term effects of the Schooner Tuna campaign are unknown (no “Mr. Mom 2” that I’ve seen), it’s safe to say people can see through lack of sincerity, and today can search online product reviews and comments through their social networks to confirm. This especially rings true if you offer a discount or promotion and don’t deliver on the promises.

It’s simply hard for people to take corporate spokespersons, such as CEOs of large companies, seriously when they say “we are in this together,” and actions speak louder than words. Earlier this year, Under Armour premium sports wear company CEO and founder Kevin Plank voluntarily cut his 2008 salary to $26,000 – the amount he made in 1996 when he started the company – until financial performance improved. It could be perceived as a small sacrifice on his part, but a potentially large impact on customer loyalty.

Sincerely having interest in the welfare of customers will make it easier to generate quality messages that last through any state of the economy.

What economy-based campaigns have resonated with you? What could marketers do better to gain loyalty, retain value and project sincerity in their campaigns?

Additional resources:
- In February, AdWeek posted 10 Things to Remember in Marketing in a Recession
- BusinessWeek has an entire feed on Recession Marketing in the Business Exchange section
- NY Times April 2009 article: Sellers Woo Shoppers With Guarantees to Address Layoff Worries
Capadona-Schmitz is an assistant vice president and consultant at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. She can be found on Twitter @ChristinaCS and loves movies. She couldn't find a sample video of the Schooner ad and would love to add it in if anyone has seen it online.