Rewind 4 years, and you might recall Adidas and Nike as the top Marketing contenders for World Cup gear, with Adidas as an official sponsor, and Nike as their ambush Marketing competitor. Both brands were extremely successful with their campaigns, partly because the 2010 World Cup events showed the highest numbers for a sporting event ever on social, providing a great way to increase engagement amongst soccer fans.
Fast forward to 2014, and not a lot has changed in the battle of the boots and jerseys. Adidas has again claimed a spot as an official sponsor, with Nike looming in the background ready to pounce. In fact, Nike wasted no time, and was the first brand to launch a World Cup spot this year with the inspirational theme ‘Risk Everything’.
And Adidas should take note of Nike’s presence, especially since Nike brought the pressure last year when Adidas sales slumped in Western Europe. Truth be told, it’s anyone’s game when it comes to which brand will come out on top after this year’s World Cup.
Segmentation- From Planning to Launching
Elaborating on last week’s post, we plan to reveal some Marketing tactics that might help each of these brands (and smaller brands) gain the World Cup Marketing advantage, by moving away from the campaign ‘Planning’ phase and into the ‘Active’ phase.
To start, let’s look at the changes in the @FIFAWorldCup Personas. Last week, the most engaged Persona was ‘Wholesome Males’. Another sample of tweets this week reveals that ‘Reliable Males’ are now just as engaged as ‘Wholesome Males’.
‘Reliable’ and ‘Wholesome’ Males lead the pack for @FIFAWorldCup engagement.
So how can brands use this information? Let’s start with Adidas. They’ve hit social hard for their last few soccer-themed campaigns, introducing several hashtags (including #FastOrFail for their AdiZero f50 boot, and #GetReady for their Body Care line). A very smart move on their part.
Now it might also be smart for them to use real-time segmentation to ‘boost’ any online campaigns running concurrently with their TV spots. This week, that means speaking to the ‘Wholesome’ and ‘Reliable’ Personas that are actively engaged with @FIFAWorldCup and soccer.
Campaign Content Shouldn’t Stay Static
Maybe that entails creating some fresh, new content (social, online advertising, etc) that these Personas can relate to better, because as mentioned last week, personality types unconsciously ‘Respond To’ or ‘Get Turned Off’ by certain language. The newly engaged ‘Reliable Male’ Persona break-down is below:
‘Reliable’ people respond to challenge and action, and are turned off by fluff.
Popular Hashtags Lead Back to You
Another way to boost their campaigns might be to use the favorite hashtags from both Personas, to encourage engagement with the Adidas campaigns. The current ‘Reliable Male’ favorite hashtag list is below (and what do you know, #Adidas made the cut). Using these hashtags in addition to the unique campaign hashtags might bring in more eyeballs from the online soccer audience who Adidas is looking to sell to.
Use your audience’s favorite hashtags to get more eyeballs on your content.
Next week we’ll look at the @FIFAWorldCup top shared media and interests, and discuss how Marketers can use that data to make unique media placement and brand influencer decisions.
Want to look at your own brand audience’s personality breakdown or favorite hashtags? Click here.