Conversation at Pipeline has naturally turned towards football as the World Cup kicks off in South Africa this weekend. We’ve seen the adverts, read the predictions and planned our important meetings carefully over the next month.
We’ll be backing England of course. After so many years of underachievement, we’re really hoping that Fabio Capello has instilled a greater sense of purpose and built the camaraderie needed to turn a bunch of highly talented individuals into a world-beating team. Like the rest of the nation, we’ll be keeping everything crossed on that front!
No tournament like this is really complete without a surprise or two. We’d also love to see a challenger footballing nation punch above their weight and put a mark on the map with a bit of giant-killing. Maybe even an African nation given the importance of this tournament in putting the forgotten continent back on the map in the world’s eyes.
This is of course the very first World Cup in Africa. Having been born in Nairobi and lived in various places across Africa as a kid, the World Cup coming to town should be a huge catalyst for the continent. As an event, its rare in its ability to galvanise the world for a month, capture the imagination and provide hope and possibility to the billions of people watching it. Not least of which the huge population across Africa whose lives are so very different from our own.
And that’s what got us thinking….this event really could be a real force for positive change but has there been enough real innovation around the advertising money being spent? Are the organisers and advertisers are missing a trick?
It’s been estimated that $1.5 billion (yes, that’s right….BILLION) has been spent on advertising for this event. Elsewhere it’s estimated that $1.6 billion has also gone against sponsorship.
Whatever the actual numbers are, we’re talking about an enormous amount of money. Think of all the human energy that’s gone into getting everything just perfect for these 4 weeks. Think about the real impact of all that effort. Some of the ads might float your boat, others not. But they pretty soon become wallpaper, competing with each other for attention and frankly when everyone is shouting, are any of them being heard? How much is going to waste?
Indeed, the early evidence suggests that such massive investment is not having the intended effect. A massive 88% of people interviewed said that their opinion of the sponsors hadn’t changed as as a result of their link to the tournament and 84% of people said that they were no more likely to buy a brand as a result of its sponsorship of the tournament…
Based on that, you can’t help but wonder if at least some of the money and effort might have been pooled to do something a bit better – something tangible for the host continent possibly?
Pepsi have set a precedent for this earlier in the year pulling out of the Super Bowl and launching their innovative Refresh Everything campaign
Taking that idea further, what if the top 10 advertisers had teamed together to fund a project that could really make a difference around the World Cup? If 10% of all the spending had been pooled to create a project worth $150 million? How much benefit could that have had to both the contributors, and the continent?
It would be a big bold move requiring strong collaboration and leadership. When you think of the pressing needs of the African people in areas like basic sanitation, health, medicine, education and housing, it makes the idea of needing to sell more beer, crisps and sneakers seem a little insignificant. But in Africa, $150 million could go a very long way…..
So, here’s the open challenge to the marketing community……how could you find new ways to engage the world during these kinds of events? Ideas like these that can meet not only your own commercial agenda, but creatively address the bigger social agenda?
Now that really would be something worth talking about
Photo: courtesy of Picture Taker 2, Flickr
And the early signs suggest the massive investments aren’t paying off…http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/1009918/World-Cup-lets-down-multi-million-p…But at least you can count on Greenpeace for some smart, purposeful innovation with true legacy beyond marketing collateral waste.http://www.greenpeace.org/africa/en/campaigns/Climate-change/Solar-World-Cup/
Comment by dansolo — June 15, 2010 @ 2:02 pm
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Comment by Zona Staebell — December 26, 2010 @ 4:40 pm