BYJU’S has a tie-up with FIFA, the world body for football, which is organizing the ongoing World Cup tournament in Qatar. Amul has entered into a regional partnership with Viacom18 for India’s broadcast and streaming operations, as well as Argentina and Brazil, to capitalize on the popularity of its star strikers Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, respectively. Some eight other brands have offered themselves as sponsors for the broadcast/streaming of the world’s biggest sporting event in India. But is advertising the only game in town when it comes to something as big as the World Cup?
But advertising is only possible with a month-long activity, draws millions of fans in India, and has myriad possibilities and touch points for audience engagement in the form of players, popular teams, great moments in sports, past records, last hero and so on?
Companies can use football for employee engagement. Give them flexible hours so they can watch their favorite teams in action. This lets employees know that the company cares about them, and values them as individuals that go beyond their work.
Companies can gain subliminal traction that goes beyond a particular product by presenting their brand as something that stands for passion and excellence. Hyundai experimented with a World Cup-themed song in 2010 and has since been working to partner with K-pop act BTS for a 2022 World Cup song.
Many Indians remember the cheeky advertisement of Pepsi, which could not feature as the official sponsor of the 1996 Cricket World Cup, but instead, stole the limelight from sponsor Coca-Cola. There’s nothing official about it – gone is the Pepsi tagline. Without an official sponsor, that ad wouldn’t work. And without the sponsoring event, there would be no sponsor. Therefore, Pepsi’s ability to present itself as a free-spirited brand, in contrast to the restrained clout of official sponsors, depended on the cricket tournament it did not sponsor.
It’s the kind of creative imagination that doesn’t disappear into action. Where are the companies sponsoring the football quiz? is an official FIFA fantasy game with a set of official sponsors. But it is not the only tempting prospect with a football tournament of the scale of the World Cup and so many star players with unique styles of play, unique hairstyles and signature moves with the ball and the scope to celebrate a goal.
Where are tour operators offering enticing destinations from Portugal, Argentina, Brazil, Germany, France and Italy to ride the passion of the spectators with star strikers and spectacular teams from these countries? Where are the companies sponsoring the quiz on Football Trivia?
There is a craze for football in Kerala, Goa, West Bengal and the Northeast. It is a major obsession among the elite of North India, who watch English Premier League, Champions League or Euro Cup late into the night and whose children kick off the evening ball dressed in fancy jerseys of their favorite teams. Companies that want to target these markets and market segments can do many things to reach their own goals.
And it’s not just the audience in India that matters. Indian companies that have growing ambitions overseas, from Hero and Mahindra in automobiles and companies like Godrej with their haircare products in Africa to information technology giants with potential markets around the world, have been able to ride into the consciousness of football people. It is a major vehicle for their target audience.
The time has come for Indian companies to stop viewing cricket as the sport’s only and last opportunity for marketing and brand building, and start deploying imagination to turn the excitement of football to their advantage.