The rise of Social Media influenced both our personal and corporate lives, daily routines and the way we watch the World Cup in 2010. The great brands integrate social channels in their communication and come up with great strategies building their concept for this worldwide event. It’s somehow paradox though, that while on the corporate side the brands use Social Media during the World Cup to reach their target groups but some main players of the sport event are banned from it.
Teams from Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Holland, Germany, Argentina and England are forbidden to use social services such as Twitter. Marcelo Bielsa, the coach of Chile even banned all social networking and non-social Internet use during the evening. There are some exceptions like Kaka, who could use twitter to connect with their fans which was impossible during the last world cup in 2006, as Twitter didn’t exist.
Another interesting aspect of Social Media is to see how the digital evolution really took place through the example of the World Cup’s history. In 2002, the World Cup in Korea and Japan was the first to use the Internet by creating websites for teams and tournaments.
By the next World Cup in 2006 Myspace was the ruling social site especially in the US, with Adidas creating a Myspace site featuring video and exclusive content. Meanwhile Coca Cola published a blog to track two unofficial World Cup mascots. In Hungary, the dominating social platform, iwiw.hu (still number one in 2010) set off its World Cup bet game on the network. Nike and Google launched “the first social network for football fans worldwide,” Joga.com.
This year, although neither Nike or Pepsi are official sponsors of the worldcup, Nike’s "Write the Future" video broke the record for the biggest audience in the first week of a campaign with 7.8 million views, and Pepsi’s "Oh Africa" spent seven weeks on the Viral Chart.
The number one in using social media this year was Budweiser, always a big sponsor for all serious spo
rting events. The massive campaign placed 32 fans from all 32 World Cup countries under one roof in South Africa. Users voted for the fan from their country to show their support and also influence the actions of the house members. Bud’s YouTube channel is the 4th most watched since the beginning of the World Cup. The reality show style campaign on YouTube is a first. Bud United also includes a popular iPhone app and a profile pic designer on Facebook.
Nike’s first World Cup ad launched on Facebook and has dominated Social Media as neither an official sponsor nor a partner of the games. The video launched on May 20th has over 14 million views on YouTube and is getting picked up on blogs as the best use of media during the games by any brand.
Pepsi’s “Oh Africa” features athlete super stars Messi, Kaka, Drogba, Lampard, Henry, and singer/songwriter Akon. Their Facebook Page is nicely integrated, while the YouTube channel is thriving with millions of views from fans in love with Pepsi athletes. Pepsi Max Football Hero is impressive.
Coke is showcasing viral football videos on YouTube and their official partnership allows fans to lis
ten to music, submit celebrations and win video awards. Coke created multiple widgets and a new microsite in addition to a custom YouTube channel for Powerade. These user-generated videos have millions of views. Despite this wild success, we question the minimal integration with Facebook and Twitter.
VISA has built a YouTube-based campaign encouraging fans to submit a video shouting “Goal!”. This popular cheer has inspired fans of all nations to submit a variety of impressive imitations. As an incentive to watch the videos throughout its site, VISA has placed “golden cards” among the submissions. When clicked on, the fan has a chance to win a trip to South Africa or $100 VISA cards. The more the user watches the videos, the more likely they are to see the cards.
Adidas is putting all their focus on soccer’s grandest stage. Fans can win Adidas prizes by recruiting other fans, voting on which players will perform the best, and simply visiting the custom Facebook tab which houses a slick Flash app.
Sony mounted a creative campaign where users can film themselves doing the wave. Each submission is then added to Sony’s website which features an endless World Cup wave. They
called in NBA superstar Steve Nash to promote the effort. The website features Facebook’s new “Like” button and the Facebook app boasts over 23k monthly users. Campaign integration with Twitter and Facebook Page leaves room for improvement.
The video game giant is utilizing social media to pump up sales during the World Cup. The brand encourages fan interaction on Twitter and has amassed a strong following on Facebook. EA Sports has also partnered with Coca-Cola on select ads. EA’s YouTube videos rank 3rd most viewed in the UK and its channel is the 32nd most subscribed to of all-time. EA also partnered with Playfish to roll out its first Facebook game - FIFA Superstars.
The British oil company is not wasting this rare chance to connect with football fans. Castrol activated Facebook and Twitter accounts to interact with fans by providing an in-depth means to monitor player performance. Fans are able to choose their favorite teams and players to follow. Castrol has also created an iPhone app that supports its campaign with player, team, and opponent predictors. A dedicated microsite was also created for this campaign and the World Cup.
An official sponsor of the England National team, the British brewery has created this campaign to give fans a chance to talk their beloved side while winning free Carlsberg to drink during the World Cup. The official website links directly to the campaign’s YouTube channel. This campaign features all three major platforms, but Carlsberg could have benefited from more frequent fan interaction on Twitter by identifying and reaching out to English futbol influencers.
UK based brand, Continental held a YouTube contest for fans to tell them what lengths they would go to be at the World Cup. Fan interaction continued on Facebook with a game called ContiTireKick where users shoot on goal for entry into a sweepstakes for Cup tickets.
McDonald’s, an official sponsor, had a great campaign to send fans to the World Cup with VIP tickets on a dedicated website. However, the only social media that coincides with the website is an unbranded, dedicated YouTube channel.
During the World Cup not only the companies but fans are very active as shown the internet traffic. Twitter’s tweet record hit during the Japan-Cameroon game on June 14th with 2,940 tweets per second. Many of those who were tweeting about the vuvuzelas and the bad calls by referees may have been at work, according to Cisco’s ScanSafe SaaS Web security service, as corporate web traffic was up 27 percent globally during World Cup matches taking place during working hours.
The content-delivery network, Akamai said that on average, World Cup-related traffic has been driving close to 1Terabit/second of traffic.
The wide range of social campaigns and digital activities around this event show us how digital media changed the way we communicate in just a couple of years. It will be stunningly interesting to compare the next World Cup’s, or the Eurocup’s digital communication to the actual event. The fast technical evolution might create new levels of interactivity and the shifts between social platforms in addition to new social sites could change the marketing-mix and accentuate new channels.
Teams from Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Holland, Germany, Argentina and England are forbidden to use social services such as Twitter. Marcelo Bielsa, the coach of Chile even banned all social networking and non-social Internet use during the evening. There are some exceptions like Kaka, who could use twitter to connect with their fans which was impossible during the last world cup in 2006, as Twitter didn’t exist.
Another interesting aspect of Social Media is to see how the digital evolution really took place through the example of the World Cup’s history. In 2002, the World Cup in Korea and Japan was the first to use the Internet by creating websites for teams and tournaments.
By the next World Cup in 2006 Myspace was the ruling social site especially in the US, with Adidas creating a Myspace site featuring video and exclusive content. Meanwhile Coca Cola published a blog to track two unofficial World Cup mascots. In Hungary, the dominating social platform, iwiw.hu (still number one in 2010) set off its World Cup bet game on the network. Nike and Google launched “the first social network for football fans worldwide,” Joga.com.
This year, although neither Nike or Pepsi are official sponsors of the worldcup, Nike’s "Write the Future" video broke the record for the biggest audience in the first week of a campaign with 7.8 million views, and Pepsi’s "Oh Africa" spent seven weeks on the Viral Chart.
The number one in using social media this year was Budweiser, always a big sponsor for all serious spo
rting events. The massive campaign placed 32 fans from all 32 World Cup countries under one roof in South Africa. Users voted for the fan from their country to show their support and also influence the actions of the house members. Bud’s YouTube channel is the 4th most watched since the beginning of the World Cup. The reality show style campaign on YouTube is a first. Bud United also includes a popular iPhone app and a profile pic designer on Facebook.Nike’s first World Cup ad launched on Facebook and has dominated Social Media as neither an official sponsor nor a partner of the games. The video launched on May 20th has over 14 million views on YouTube and is getting picked up on blogs as the best use of media during the games by any brand.
Pepsi’s “Oh Africa” features athlete super stars Messi, Kaka, Drogba, Lampard, Henry, and singer/songwriter Akon. Their Facebook Page is nicely integrated, while the YouTube channel is thriving with millions of views from fans in love with Pepsi athletes. Pepsi Max Football Hero is impressive.
Coke is showcasing viral football videos on YouTube and their official partnership allows fans to lis
ten to music, submit celebrations and win video awards. Coke created multiple widgets and a new microsite in addition to a custom YouTube channel for Powerade. These user-generated videos have millions of views. Despite this wild success, we question the minimal integration with Facebook and Twitter.VISA has built a YouTube-based campaign encouraging fans to submit a video shouting “Goal!”. This popular cheer has inspired fans of all nations to submit a variety of impressive imitations. As an incentive to watch the videos throughout its site, VISA has placed “golden cards” among the submissions. When clicked on, the fan has a chance to win a trip to South Africa or $100 VISA cards. The more the user watches the videos, the more likely they are to see the cards.
Adidas is putting all their focus on soccer’s grandest stage. Fans can win Adidas prizes by recruiting other fans, voting on which players will perform the best, and simply visiting the custom Facebook tab which houses a slick Flash app.
Sony mounted a creative campaign where users can film themselves doing the wave. Each submission is then added to Sony’s website which features an endless World Cup wave. They
called in NBA superstar Steve Nash to promote the effort. The website features Facebook’s new “Like” button and the Facebook app boasts over 23k monthly users. Campaign integration with Twitter and Facebook Page leaves room for improvement.The video game giant is utilizing social media to pump up sales during the World Cup. The brand encourages fan interaction on Twitter and has amassed a strong following on Facebook. EA Sports has also partnered with Coca-Cola on select ads. EA’s YouTube videos rank 3rd most viewed in the UK and its channel is the 32nd most subscribed to of all-time. EA also partnered with Playfish to roll out its first Facebook game - FIFA Superstars.
The British oil company is not wasting this rare chance to connect with football fans. Castrol activated Facebook and Twitter accounts to interact with fans by providing an in-depth means to monitor player performance. Fans are able to choose their favorite teams and players to follow. Castrol has also created an iPhone app that supports its campaign with player, team, and opponent predictors. A dedicated microsite was also created for this campaign and the World Cup.
An official sponsor of the England National team, the British brewery has created this campaign to give fans a chance to talk their beloved side while winning free Carlsberg to drink during the World Cup. The official website links directly to the campaign’s YouTube channel. This campaign features all three major platforms, but Carlsberg could have benefited from more frequent fan interaction on Twitter by identifying and reaching out to English futbol influencers.
UK based brand, Continental held a YouTube contest for fans to tell them what lengths they would go to be at the World Cup. Fan interaction continued on Facebook with a game called ContiTireKick where users shoot on goal for entry into a sweepstakes for Cup tickets.
McDonald’s, an official sponsor, had a great campaign to send fans to the World Cup with VIP tickets on a dedicated website. However, the only social media that coincides with the website is an unbranded, dedicated YouTube channel.
During the World Cup not only the companies but fans are very active as shown the internet traffic. Twitter’s tweet record hit during the Japan-Cameroon game on June 14th with 2,940 tweets per second. Many of those who were tweeting about the vuvuzelas and the bad calls by referees may have been at work, according to Cisco’s ScanSafe SaaS Web security service, as corporate web traffic was up 27 percent globally during World Cup matches taking place during working hours.
The content-delivery network, Akamai said that on average, World Cup-related traffic has been driving close to 1Terabit/second of traffic.
The wide range of social campaigns and digital activities around this event show us how digital media changed the way we communicate in just a couple of years. It will be stunningly interesting to compare the next World Cup’s, or the Eurocup’s digital communication to the actual event. The fast technical evolution might create new levels of interactivity and the shifts between social platforms in addition to new social sites could change the marketing-mix and accentuate new channels.
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