Brazil 2014: a marketer's gold

Garth-Anthony Savoury, GUEST COLUMNIST

World Cups are all about moments for fans: the vuvuzela in South Africa 2010; the Zinedine Zidane head-butt in Germany 2006; and Paul Gascoigne crying at Italia '90. Brazil 2014 will be no exception. This summer's World Cup will be the most popular social conversation ever and offers the marketing equivalent of a winning goal.

The FIFA World Cup is a magnet for sporting excellence, national pride, passion for football, and fun. It's also a huge draw for big global brands that want to associate themselves with a top-class international event that captures the attention of the world.

The World Cup is seen as the single greatest marketing platform on the planet. This year, 108 million people watched the Super Bowl, while 3.2 billion watched the last World Cup (715 million for the finals alone). It attracts a fully engaged, globally diverse audience for a month of action.

The FIFA World Cup event is any marketer's dream, and Brazil's 2014 potential as a marketing and branding platform for companies can be described as simply amazing.

With the World Cup just around the corner, brands like Coca-Cola and Visa are putting the final touches on their campaigns and are planning to use technology to give fans ownership of the tournament. This summer will see advertisers competing to be the most meaningful for fans and ultimately using that positive association to drive sales.

social media World Cup

The statement, 'the first social media World Cup', was used to describe South Africa 2010. However, while that tournament saw sponsors fortify their television campaigns with social-media promotions, the birth of digitally powered sponsorships in the years since is pushing marketers to deliver value beyond a traditional media buy.

It is my prediction that we will see sponsors of World Cup 2014 moving to a new-age-style marketing strategy in the form of emotional marketing. Sponsors' main goal for 2014 is to identify the right media partners that will deliver the highest reach, but also the strongest engagement. The aim for brands like Visa will be to create communication platforms that can leverage multiple assets to surround the consumer during those 30 days where it is all about football.

Emotional engagement is the key to content marketing success. People discover and share information, videos, pictures and other types of media constantly. Assuming that all content starts out equally, viral content, however, seems to take on a life of its own.

Our five primary emotions are mainly what determine viral behaviour and reactions. This summer, you will see brands creating content using the five primary emotions: surprise, fear, joy, sadness, and anger.

emotional responses

Content that elicits two or more types of emotional responses will greatly increase the odds of virality. The bottom line is this: People are far more likely to share content with others when they are emotionally engaged.

Though not the only universal tool in a business's toolkit, marketing plays a critical role in the success of any business. From the use of social and print media, audio and visual aids, marketers' primary aim is to win the majority of the market shares for their company. World Cup 2014 will be no different.

Prepare to see companies across the world roll out the 'big boys' of marketing - branding, packaging, promotional mixes. Let's see who will score the winning marketing 'gold' this World Cup!

Garth-Anthony Savoury III is marketing director of the Jamaica Football Federation. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and garthsavoury@gmail.com.