Sponsors score with World Cup

Budweiser, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s have praised their sponsorships of the Fifa World Cup this summer, claiming the big investment proved a resounding success.

AB InBev, maker of Budweiser beer, and the other two multinationals – who are each believed to be paying Fifa $25m per year for the exclusive sponsorship rights – all said in recent second-quarter earnings calls that their World Cup sponsorships had boosted sales.

In the UK, Budweiser beer sales were up 18.6 per cent in the quarter over the comparable period in 2009, in large part because of World Cup-related Budweiser promotions, AB InBev said.
In China, Budweiser and Harbin, another AB InBev brand, also benefited from such promotions, the company added.

Muhtar Kent, Coca-Cola chief executive, attributed the group’s 7 per cent increase in Latin American sales over the comparable period in 2009 largely to World Cup sponsorship.
During its earnings call last month, McDonald’s said its World Cup sponsorship helped the fast food group in the UK, where football-related promotions of its Big Mac and fries generated a spurt in sales.

However, it was not all a success for the global hamburger chain. Pete Bensen, the company’s finance chief, told investors that the football matches were so popular in Europe that traffic in McDonald’s stores dropped off in June.

“Europeans love to stay home and watch the soccer matches and a lot of those matches were timed such that they were on during the dinner hour in Europe,” Mr Bensen said. “So, we estimate that maybe it was up to a point of a hit in June on the sales, and obviously the tournament continued on into July.”

Greg Luckman, chief executive of the sports division of Group M, WPP Group’s media company, said Budweiser had generated “incredible engagement” with its customers.

In addition to running commercials for Budweiser and some of its country-specific local brands during the football telecasts, Budweiser sponsored a “man of the match” vote following every one of the 64 games, which generated 1.5m fan votes.

In digital marketing efforts, 2.7m fans participated in Budweiser’s “paint your face” promotion through Facebook and the company’s web series, “Bud House”, registered 7m views online.

 “It’s become increasingly harder to reach your target audience,” Mr Luckman said. “To have those kinds of results and get people to choose to engage in your content Coca-Cola began “activating” its sponsorship almost a year ago, with its Fifa World Cup “trophy tour”, which brought the championship trophy to 94 cities in 84 countries, giving it direct exposure to an estimated 1m consumers who flocked to these events.

Valere Tjolle

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Valere Tjolle is editor of the Sustainable Tourism Report Suitewww.travelmole.com/stories/1143624.php