Of course something as important as the World Cup attracts only the coolest marketing campaigns of the year. All over the world, companies and sponsors have put together so many interactive gimmicks that we couldn’t decide which one to write about. So we’re gonna tell you about all of them!
Let’s start in Melbourne, Australia, where Adidas has placed a huge (19 feet high and 2 tons!) Jubalani soccer ball outside a crowded tourist-y area and has a young whippersnapper who plans to live in the ball for the entire length of the World Cup. By entire, we mean 22 to 24 hours a day! The lucky guy, Adam Santarossa, is set up with a flat screen TV, computer, Playstation, couch, bed, free food and drink, and all he has to do is use social media to keep the world updated on his new lifestyle and, of course, offer his commentary on the soccer games.
A hop, skip away in London, the famous Piccadilly Circus square features a digital screen sponsored by Coca-Cola that runs live video of fans’ celebratory dances. The stunt, aptly named ‘€œWhat’s Your Celebration’€, engages passersby by first calling them out. The people manning the board use a laptop to type messages to the people looking at the screen and then call them to the piece of Astroturf grass and corner flag to perform their best victory dance. Their video is then posted on the screen for the entire square to see.
Heading south to Johannesburg, Nike is promoting its ‘€œWrite the Future’€ campaign where fans can type a message up to 57 characters via the promotion’s Facebook page, Twitter (#NikeFuture), QQ (in China) and Mxit (in South Africa) to any of 50 Nike-endorsed soccer pros. Select messages are then displayed on the fourth largest building in the city along with awesome graphic images of players like Cristiano Ronaldo.
Much like the Olympics or the Super Bowl, the World Cup offers companies the chance to market to mass consumers in innovative and new ways. This year is no different ‘€“the creativity continues to flow and we are all very impressed with what we’ve seen. Now if only the U.S. had beaten Ghana’€¦
