By Julian Steinforth, Expedition PR
The first part of the article on how the FIFA World Cup was breaking new records for social media marketing discussed the level of social media activities on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, among others, as well as the type of content that was shared by millions of soccer fans around the world.
The second part takes a look at some of the brands that had successful marketing campaigns during the World Cup, getting fans engaged about sportswear and solar power.
Let’s start with adidas, a designer and manufacturer of sports apparel and shoes, and one of the official World Cup sponsors. About 100 athletes that participated in the World Cup had a signed sponsorship contract with adidas. The company had created a “Content Bible” of 1,000 images and 160 videos that the social media marketing could use during the Games to feature the players and tailor messages based on game outcomes. The result, over 1.6 million tweets, retweets and replies mentioned the brand during the first weeks of the tournament. The company’s YouTube audience also doubled, with more than 200,000 new subscribers since the Games started. By showing 4 to 5 YouTube videos a day adidas gained 90.3 million views for their World Cup videos in total.
Another winner is Visa. The official FIFA World Cup sponsor started using soccer as a marketing platform in the United States in the past couple of years, betting on its increasing popularity. According to The New York Times a team of 750 people was working for Visa during the World Cup event. With “1.7 billion impressions for messages from Visa related to the World Cup,” the efforts have paid off.
Last but not least, there was Yingli Solar, the world’s largest solar panel manufacturer.
Soccer is very popular in China, but China didn’t participate in the World Cup. The World Cup is still dominated by European and Latin American teams. However, the event itself provided a platform to promote solar technology from China to millions of viewers around the world. Yingli’s advertising – “中国•英利光伏入户” – “Yingli Solar: Solar into every home – was shown during all 64 matches, for at least eight minutes per match, stated Liang Tian, public relations director at Yingli Solar. Advertising was only one part of their strategy. According to the FIFA, over 5,000 Yingli Solar panels were installed at the stadiums Arena Pernambuco and the Estádio do Maracanã, which guaranteed press coverage in large publication all over the world.