Sports Marketing: The World Effect

With the victory from twelve steps against the last world champion, the Argentine National Team also obtained a gigantic victory. PTo start off, the official senior team of the Argentine Football Association (AFA) pocketed US$42 million plus the US$1.5 million that FIFA granted as compensation for the preparation of each of the 32 participants. In addition, another US$10 million was made that Conmebol (which brings together the soccer associations of South America) awarded to the champion of that origin. It was not pure philanthropy, but it was understood that there was a “spillover effect” on the rest of the partners who, in this way, revalued their place in the world… of business with capital letters. It is that for 20 years there had not been a “sudaca” champion (with the exception of the Argentine runner-up in Brazil 2014).

Country Brand. Until before the start of the competition, the bookmakers indicated that Argentina paid 8.50 for every dollar invested in case of winning the championshipsomething more than Brazil (5.50) Y France (7.50). An eventual semifinal with Brazil and another key with France-Spain would have shown that logic takes over the World Cups. But it wasn’t like that, but the 2nd and 3rd teams in the previous calculations ended up playing a final that was beyond expectations. About the schools and the economic universe that is generated around this cluster of stars.

“In the only area where I can sit down to talk about business on an equal footing with the big firms in the world, is in relation to football. In this, we are respected as a great country brand ”, reflected an entrepreneur who made the construction of communication spaces with the traction of the soccer passion his great global business adventure. The Argentine victory, in a team with few shining stars (except the case of Messi, of course) compared to Brazil or France, also marks the triumph of an idea and the validity of sports DNA that is easily adapted to the major European leagues.

Of the 26 players on the squad, only substitute goalkeeper Franco Armani (36) played locally. The rest were already part of medium and high performance teams in England, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal and the Netherlands, to name the majority. But many of them had their great media and marketing springboard to revalue their file, change to a more powerful club or simply summon sponsors to link their name to a specific product. Post Mundial, not only Messi is the one who will continue billing. It was the case of three young figures who seemed to have a destiny as a substitute bench before the game with Saudi Arabia, Enzo Fernández (21), currently at Portuguese Benfica, Julián Álvarez (22) from Manchester City and Alexis Mac Allister (23) from English Brighton. They ended up playing the grand final as key pieces of the champion.

older audience. The consultant Daniel Vico synthesizes the data that amazes by the enormous spectacle in front of the audiences eager for “news facts” like this one. In Argentina, the added television rating reached 63 points: 6.3 million TVs turned on watching the grand finale. But also, it generated traffic of 25 million messages via WhatsApp per second, Google registered the highest data traffic in history and the photo of Messi raising the cup became a record for “likes” for Instagram: 72 million.

Such exposure could not generate indifference among the sponsors who had bet on a team in formation for some time, after the debacle, including a 3-4 defeat against France, precisely, in the round of 16 of Russia 2018. “Being a sponsor of the Argentine National Team is always a source of pride. It not only has to do with what is strictly sporting, but with everything that is behind soccer; values, commitment, responsibility and teamwork. Today the AFA and all its teams follow the messages that we have as a company”, comment fernando arangoCommunications Manager mcdonald’s. Specifically, this success partner allows them, in addition to the use of images and licenses that we have, to generate proposals linked to product launches or actions or activities for which AFA’s endorsement is important. Taking advantage of the World Cup fever, this week the company launched the Grand McCampeones hamburger as a tribute and also celebrating the extension of the contract until the next World Cup, signed before the start of the Qatar.

The most visible partner was adidas: Of the seven teams in the team, the National Team was the only one to pass the round of 16, so the challenge for the brand was even greater and its result, a great goal. For the brand it means a great achievement that one of its many teams lifts the World Cup. As they affirm, it has a global effect that is difficult to calculate in terms of reputation and sales projection of the winning garment. “In the case of the World Cup in Qatar, everything is enhanced by the figure of Lionel Messi, the best player in the world and ambassador of the brand for many years,” they broadcast. Confirm an increase in product sales AFA of 55% compared to the 2018 World Cup in Russia, but they also predict that the team’s shirt will continue to have good sales in the coming months, since they see that the demand for it will remain very high after the Cup is won Y the empathy that the team generated with the fan.

The new version of the shirt is produced with the long-awaited third star and the official FIFA World Champion patch, which Argentina will wear for the next 4 years. The first batch of available shirts has already sold out, stock that will be replenished during this week and throughout the weeks.

Another successful partner was the Chilean brewer CCU, that since 2018 has been linking its brands to that of the National Team when the chances of succeeding in the commitment were much lower, even, than last November. “For Schneider in particular, the success of the Selection was translated into sales: in the e-commerce channel, in October, the brand sold four times more than the previous year and during November it was close to tripling the sales of October of the same year.. That is to say, that, in the months of the World Cup, the performance of the brand was superior to that of the previous year, in the run-up to the matches we worked with well-directed promotions and the result was very good”, he details. Guadalupe Ries Rye, Schneider Brand Grouper and Regional Brands. “Without a doubt, 2022 closed better than we would have dreamed. Being sponsors with Schneider of the National Team, consecrating himself champion of the most important tournament in the world, with a consolidated team and with the connection he had with all the Argentine people; It is something incredible”, he is proud. C.As sponsors they have authorization to use the image of players (three together, at least), brand presence in all their communications, access to the AFA property, events with players in the future, authorization to carry out promotions linked to the selection and use of the logo in merchandising and advertisements.

Another winning brand was YPF, although in this case, its presence supporting La Scaloneta could be considered natural due to its status as an Argentine oil company. However, his commitment went further and he leveraged himself in the image of captain Lionel Messi and made the most of his game.

Now the challenge, for the brands, the AFA and the same players, will be to manage the valuable asset that they knew how to build. In the financial statements it will appear as “intangible” but it turned out to be a great business catalyst.

by Marcelo Alfano

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