Marketing, Fan Engagement & CSR
Football has been one of the most successful advertising vehicles for decades, with brands everywhere wanting to be associated with teams, players and competitions to boost sales and improve their image. While football’s marketability is a constant, the way advertising content is created has changed enormously.
The ultimate showcase
If there is one event today that inspires brands to produce creative advertising, it is the FIFA World Cup™. With the best players on show and the whole world watching for a month-long festival of televised football, there is no better showcase.
It was not always so inspired. Until the 1990s, football commercials stuck to a simple formula: a player would hold up a product, recite a short script extolling its benefits and go home a little richer.
Hooked on the silver screen
As the concept of storytelling gained traction in the mid-90s, however, brands saw the potential of using fresh new ways to sell their products; they went from telling the audience how good the product was to coaxing them to buy into an exciting narrative. Players were no longer players, but the protagonists of adventures.
Brands were so keen to give viewers a cinematic experience that they hired some of the most successful contemporary directors, such as Terry Gilliam and John Woo, to get creative for the 1998 and 2002 FIFA World Cups.
Through coordinated marketing campaigns, in the months before the World Cup, players became heroes fighting evil, trying to beat sumo soldiers or plotting a heist. The new storytelling in football commercials revolutionised the industry and attracted young fans to a sport that had previously struggled to remain relevant to audiences.
Appealing to fan passion
In 2002, adidas presented “Futbolitis”, a commercial where stars such as Zinédine Zidane and David Beckham appeared in a hospital due to a new disease derived from their love for football. Using humour, the sports giant fabricated a masterpiece that is considered one of the best in the advertising canon.
Four years later, two Spanish kids were the protagonists of the commercial “José + 10”, where a boy named José and his friend create their teams with then active players like Zidane and Kaká, and legends like Franz Beckenbauer and Michel Platini. Brands have continued to bet on this technique to show their players as more than just athletes.
More than a commercial, it was a reminder for millions of football fans of their own childhood, when all they needed to be happy was to have a ball, a patch of ground and a dream of winning the World Cup. The audience were José and his friend, buying into the emotion of the commercial.
Ready, Player One
As the new millennium entered its second decade, social media became an increasingly established ecosystem where people could interact and consume content. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram came to change the world as we know it. Meanwhile, video games and eSports were seriously on the rise, rivalling other entertainment areas such as music or cinema.
This was reflected in the shifts in how football commercials were created, as well as the role of the players. New ads used digital technologies, making them uncannily similar to video games such as the EA SPORTS FIFA franchise. Players were not portrayed as movie stars, but as video-game characters, showing off their skills on the pitch.
Destination: virality
Today, the ultimate goal for a brand is to make a commercial go viral: that is, for it to be watched, liked, commented on and shared across the whole digital ecosystem. Engagement is a fundamental KPI for brands, and football fans are no longer passive recipients. They interact, give feedback and spread the message within seconds of a campaign launch.
Thanks to social media, footballers have gained the status of influencers. One post from Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo on Instagram can reach far more people than their sponsors could ever hope to. And they are not the only stars who have that reach. That is why brands recruit from the worlds of music, film, eSports and social media for their commercials.
The adidas commercial for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ is a great example: a total of 56 celebrities participated. Of course, adidas’ biggest footballing brand ambassadors were there: Lionel Messi, Mohamed Salah and Paul Pogba. But so too were athletes from other disciplines, such as tennis player Caroline Wozniacki and NBA star Damian Lillard.
Football has lent itself to all the opportunities that other industries can offer. This adaptation keeps the football industry relevant in an era when competitors for sports fans’ attentions are everywhere.
If brands want to be relevant and connect with audiences in innovative and interactive ways, they need to understand and embrace change. In football, brands have seen that they can seize different narratives from other industries to engage and attract new customers.
