Archive for the ‘2018 World Cup bid’ Category

The big news today coming out of Russia is that the Sochi 2014 Organising Committee for the Winter Olympic Games has claimed they have recently raised a record US$1.2 billion in sponsorship revenues; surpassing LOCOG’s recent US$1.1 billion announcement (£700 million). Impressive, yes. Surprising, no.

We all know Russia and its economy are growing behemoths. With a population just shy of 150 million including an incredibly rich upper class and massively growing middle class, global brands and companies understandably want a piece of the action as well as Russian companies wanting to announce themselves on the world stage. Sponsorship of the Sochi Winter Olympics is the perfect platform.

Include in the mix incredible governmental support and pressure, this trend of massive sponsorship deals for global sporting events is set to continue. Russian F1 race or FIFA 2018 World Cup anyone?

Ben Bradley

The commercial opportunities sponsorship offers is bigger than the current FIFA crisis.

Current and potential sponsors will not be deterred by the current reputational issues going on within FIFA but they will be disappointed at the corporate level. The World Cup is one of the most coveted sponsorships and, whilst embarrassing, the politics of the sport don’t tend to negatively affect the fans consumption of the actual sport and therefore the sponsor’s activation programmes. Similar to last year’s Pakistan cricket scandal, the fans will care that the players are cheating but they are not going to stop buying Pepsi as a result. However, FIFA must get to grips with the current issues once and for all. Companies sponsor in order to enhance their reputations and so the negative publicity around the governing body cannot continue. Interesting that Blatter pledged ‘zero tolerance’ yesterday in his vision for the next 4 years, exactly the same words as he did in his 2002 campaign….

RP

Never before has a successful World Cup bid had so much ambition and vision as the Qatar 2022 bid. The bid strap line ‘expect amazing’ has never been so understated. Having seen the mock ups for the stadia in person, incredible features such as air conditioning and live TV feeds wrapped around the outside are overshadowed by the promise to pack them up and give them away to other countries  after the tournament. However the biggest accomplishment is that the Qatar World Cup has the opportunity to bring Qatar and the Middle East closer together commercially and culturally. Qatar is rapidly investing in its infrastructure and never before has the World Cup had such an opportunity to transform a country, a real coup for the FIFA brand.

RP

This is a big blow to The Football Association who were looking for that much needed boost following a disappointing World Cup performance. Despite the result, the FA bid team delivered one of the best technical bids and with a personal touch. They have some of the strongest sponsorship platforms around and fantastic form in delivering for brands – now they must continue to harness football’s tremendous commercial pulling power and innovate by restructuring their business offering.

RP

Despite the question marks over the voting procedure, the FIFA delegates were consistent with selecting the Russian 2018 and Qatar 2022 bids.  Both countries will see their infrastructures and economies transformed over the years. Despite its critics, FIFA has opted to use the tremendous power of the World Cup brand as a catalyst to transform nations with massive investments into the infrastructure of both countries required. This will also give the global sponsorship industry new impetus with the World Cup now going to countries such as Brazil, Russia and Qatar – it’s a clear opportunity for international sponsors to target new economies and for new sponsors to globalise their brands.

RP