The World Cup 2022 in Qatar is about to start! The entire world will be watching, so what better chance to promote your brand than during such an event?
When talking about real-time marketing, there is no field better than the World Cup 2022 to take advantage of the opportunities to showcase your brand. We can all agree that one of the key things in digital marketing is going where the customers are – or in this case, where the fans are.
Whether you are a football fan or not, this is a huge opportunity for your business to stand out from the crowd. By running a digital marketing campaign for the World Cup 2022, you can reach your target audience in a timely and impactful way. Let me tell you how!
1. Be part of your audience
Create content that is tailored to your audience. For example, if you are running a World Cup-themed social media campaign in France, the best time to publish something football-related will be right after the French team have won a match, not right after they have lost! If you are running campaigns in multiple countries, remember that translating your content will not be enough – you will have to make sure your message is adapted, localised and relevant to each audience you are talking to.
2. Be on time
It is a good idea to have a few posts/pieces of content planned in advance, as this will definitely make your life easier, but you should only post what is timely and relevant. Make sure to keep up-to-date with everything going on with the team of interest in the country where you are running your campaign. You want to make sure you are properly engaging with your target audience, i.e. you cannot post about a team winning an important match a day or two after the match has finished! The key here is to publish relevant posts at the right times. This will ensure a much better response from your audience, who will be more likely to engage with timely content, such as commenting on it or sharing it with their audience.
3. Be relevant
If your company is related to sport, then the World Cup 2022 is likely to be one of the busiest times of the year for you. But what should you do if your core business has nothing to do with football, or even sport in general? In that case, it is crucial that you find some connection between your brand and the World Cup 2022, so that a World Cup-themed campaign actually makes sense for your brand. Before you start, make sure you find this connection and make sure to stick to this theme throughout the campaign.
The food company Dr Oetker did it in Belgium. It launched a campaign where users were invited to guess the final score for each of Belgium’s matches. Who guessed it right, or was the closest, won a TV, whilst everyone else received a free pizza or discount coupons. A more spontaneous example of brands making themselves relevant to the World Cup happened back in 2014, when Luis Suarez infamously bit an opponent during a match! Many food brands took advantage of this to promote their products and showcase some funny posts on social media, as you can see in the screenshots below.
4. Be present on the right channels
Your marketing efforts could be further boosted by using more than just one channel. Why only use Twitter, when you can be on Instagram, YouTube and/or Twitch, as well? That is where all the smack-talk, stats and score predictions are happening, together with teams launching their kits and team brand activities. It could represent a great opportunity for you to reach your customers on channels you had not thought of before, so long as you have the right content. Just make sure to find out where your particular audience is, as not all channels will be relevant for every type of brand.
5. Be on top of it
With the World Cup 2022 being such a huge event, there will be a lot of competition out there, with many brands trying to tie in with the World Cup 2022 and coming up with football-related marketing campaigns. Therefore, to stand out, you will need to do something different! Show your audience that your brand understands them and try to connect with them, interact with them, and start meaningful conversations with them. This is where storytelling becomes crucial! A great example of storytelling is this article by The New York Times called “The World’s Ball” which explores how the actual ball evolved over the years, starting from the first leather World Cup ball used in 1930, right through to what we have nowadays.
Conclusion
I hope this blog post has given marketers some food for thought as we gear up to the World Cup 2022! Tapping into trends, events and popular culture can be a great marketing strategy and can really help drive engagement and brand awareness. Just remember that since many brands will be doing the same thing, you need to do it well in order to stand out and be remembered for the right reasons. Hopefully the tips given in this blog post provide a good starting point to point you in the right direction. Good luck!
Giuseppe Pezzullo
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