Brands that provide culturally appropriate messaging resonate the most to US Hispanics during the World Cup and they must market to a variety of interests rather than to a particular one*. Agencies and brands need their content marketing to be usable rather than plentiful and therefore has to be applied to the modern day media usage as well as outlets that permit face-to-face customer interaction.*
PARTNERING UP WITH NETWORKS AND OBTAINING THE RIGHTS TO DO SO
Companies with FIFA partnerships like Coca Cola, Adidas, and Sony have some of the strongest opportunities to promote their brands to the whole world during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Considered first level partners, they are granted the rights to utilize official underlining in tournament names and logos, stadium exposure, website presence, hospitality opportunities, and first in line access to broadcast ads during all events organized by FIFA.**
Second level partners have comparable rights, but are limited to the FIFA Confederations Cup and the FIFA World Cup. Partners at this level include Budweiser, Castrol, Johnson and Johnson, and McDonald’s; however, the business is not limited to brands that are officially associated with the World Cup.
However, many other companies also have additional high impact opportunities to promote their brand in similar manners via other partnerships including broadcast media presence. While there is no specific partnership package because each is unique, this does also allow for different campaigns that brands can use to their benefit.**
HOW COMPANIES CAN ADVERTISE LIVE ON TV DURING THE WORLD CUP
Because the World Cup doesn’t have any commercial breaks (with the exception of half time), TV ads are limited. The result is that networks have to be creative when exposing their products. For instance, sports broadcasters are available to mention the brands latest promotions during the least exciting moments or brief pauses during soccer games.**
The Spanish World Cup network in the United States is Univision. With the network holding exclusive broadcast rights to the game action most advertisers looking to run live broadcast campaigns will have to target their Hispanic World Cup marketing efforts through this Spanish network. However, Univision also has 40 million subscribers, deals with most of the top ten US distributors, and will be allowing all of the first 56 matches of the World Cup and related content available to every Comcast user.***
Particularly relating to viewership in the United States, soccer games featuring the Mexican national team attract large numbers of viewers from the Spanish speaking sports fans, and all ads promoted during these games are to receive a large amount of exposure.****
LESS EXPENSIVE BUT JUST AS EFFECTIVE WORLD CUP OPPORTUNITIES
While not live broadcast, many other companies will generally be providing their own World Cup content that can consist of mobile and web apps, contests and promotions, and print media or supplemental publications that will often be published up to, during, and after the tournament. Generally promoted within their existing audience, word of mouth, and social media, partnering with a media company can help promote brands, products, services, and more to their already existing and loyal audience and beyond.
Expectedly, ads will want to maintain a World Cup theme even if a company is not able to use the FIFA or World Cup logos as a result of licensing. Businesses who can afford agreements with the athletes are strongly recommended to do so as celebrity endorsers engage Latino customers and in many cases Hispanics will associate their positive feelings towards the celebrity with the brand they are promoting.***** In doing so, companies will want to gain the endorsements of companies that play for the heritage countries of the demographic they are targeting (Messi for Argentines, Neymar for Brazil, etc.); although, companies without the budget for a celebrity endorsement can also find success similarly by maintaining a soccer theme and respectfully promoting relevant symbols for the demographics heritage country such as their flag, colors, and more.
*Portada-online.com, “7 Key Growth Drivers That Will Propel 2014 Hispanic Marketing”, January 2014
**Ourdigitalmags.com, 2014 Soccer World Cup: Will Marketers Shout Goooooool”, 2013
****Hispanictrending.net, “Report Highlights Importance Of Soccer To Hispanic Millennial Market Segment” April, 2014
***Blog.thegroupadvertising.com, “3 Ways To Score Business With World Cup 2014”
*****https://www.hispanicretail360.com/article-celebrity_endorsers_engage_latino_consumers-5627.html
