The "Social" World Cup

There is no argument that the soccer World Cup is by far, the biggest sport event in the world.  But apparently, it is also the most “social” event on earth. And that is why the largest brands are allocating all efforts on it, with unlimited marketing budgets to approach the masses during such event.

Here are some facts that would help you understand the scope of the event.

The Audience

• 400 million people are expected to see the contest’s final match on July 13th.
• Each of the 64 games will garner viewership roughly equivalent to the Super Bowl.
• Searches related to the World Cup tournament in the past four years have outnumbered those for the Olympics, the Super Bowl, and the Tour de France combined. 
• Facebook estimates 500-million of its 1.28-billion users are soccer fans, including 110-million men aged 13-34 in big markets — a demographic coveted by advertisers.
• 37% of soccer fans worldwide said they interacted with a mobile ad daily in order to get more information about a product or service.

Search & Social

• In 2010, about 18% of football-related searches during the World Cup final were done on a mobile device, according the. Compare that with 2014, when nearly two thirds (63 per cent) of those searches during a popular UEFA Champions League match were done on mobile.
• World Cup ads have thus far attracted 6.9m shares across social media, 31.4 per cent more than the 4.7m notched up by the Super Bowl.
• There have been more tweets about the 2014 World Cup, before a ball has been kicked, than for the entire tournament in 2010.

Marketing Spend

• For the 2010 World Cup just 20% of marketing spend was digital.
• “About half of Adidas’ media expenditure around the event will go online, versus the fifth which was spent during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.”
• Marketing spends for the 2014 event are being reported as hitting an estimated $1.3 billion, with an increased share going to digital.
• There could be as much as $2.3bn spent on World Cup TV advertising globally.
• By 2018, when the quadrennial tournament is scheduled to take place in Russia, advertisers will spend 17 percent more on Web ads than on TV, the researcher predicts.
•  Corporations will spend about $68.5 billion on TV this year and $56 billion online. 
• Digital ad spending in Brazil will jump 28.0% this year and reach nearly $5 billion on digital media by 2018. 

The Revenue

• Visitors to the World Cup event will spend over $11bn (£6.6bn) in the country.
• FIFA predicts that it will collect around $4bn from Brazil 2014.
• Pannni, makers of football stickers, predicts they will make £127.3m from South American sales alone.
• Domino’s are estimated to make a tasty £84m from pizza sales in the UK during the World Cup.
• Sportswears manufacturers expect are expecting revenues of between $12.6bn and $14.5bn.

These are only a few facts, which helped marketing teams to justify and explain to their managers why that world cup in Brazil 2014 is where all brands and companies should focus on in 2014.

During the tournament, participating brands will enjoy a passionate base of soccer fans participating in their digital programs. But the true value of those engagements will come long after the trophy is won. Brands should be looking at the World Cup as an opportunity to turn soccer advocates into brand advocates through their digital channels. That means building email and Facebook segments, understanding important data points from hashtags and contests and creating an equally effective plan for Q3 and Q4 to continue engaging with the new customers they’ve worked so hard to acquire

Sources: eMarketer; Google, Nielsen, Facebook, Twitter, FIFA,