Fifa 2010 World Cup Sponsors Could Pay $125m
Cape Town, South Africa — Some of the world’s top football and sponsorship experts spoke at the Octagon Football Conference held at the Hilton Hotel in Johannesburg The biggest announcement to the big brand marketers attending was – if you want to be one of six Worldwide Partners involved in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, you will need an estimated $125 million. Not too high a price when you are reaching 2.78 million stadium attendees and a television audience of 30 billion in 209 territories. However, as any sponsoring company knows, the costs don’t stop with buying a sponsorship rights package. A second budget needs to be available to leverage maximum value from the sponsorship.
Octagon South Africa Group Managing Director Neill Duffy, who also chaired the conference, said he was pleased to hear the commercial structure will be changing for the 2010 World Cup. ‘There will be only six ‘tier one’ partners, eight FIFA World Cup sponsors and four to six national sponsors,’ he said. ‘The cost of the
other packages is currently speculative. My message to corporate South Africa is – if these sponsorships are financially out of reach, there are lots of smaller opportunities in between each FIFA World Cup to build an
association with this overwhelmingly popular game, and to integrate your products with the masses of SA consumers, who are passionate followers of football.’
With the tender process starting on the 20 December 2004, the conference answered a lot of questions for the attending promoters of most of South Africa’s largest brands. Asked which brands and in particular
which SA brands were likely to get involved at a high level, Phil Carling, Octagon UK Senior Vice President, answered: ‘The top six partnerships are likely to be multinationals that have a football sponsorship pedigree.
Only Coke and Philips have been with this game from the onset and are likely to continue. Mass target market brands in the industry categories such as airline, automobile, fuel, digital, soft drink, financial services,
alcohol beverage and a restaurant chain are the most likely to get involved. FIFA’s goal is to get a major South African brand on board that has global ambitions and my best guess is probably South African Breweries.’
Having $40 million as the sponsorship entry fee for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, begs the question – what does the $125 million buy prospective sponsors in 2010. Hospitality rights, 500 tickets per match, designation,
accreditation, category exclusivity, media exposure, broadcast rights, internet, on screen credits, rotation boards and public viewing rights,’ said Carling. Danny Jordaan, 2010 FIFA World Cup Bid CEO, who spoke about the overall impact the FIFA World Cup will have on South Africa said: ‘One major partner, a technical supplier, will be announced this December and FIFA hopes to have all local and international sponsorships sold by 2007.’
Speaking about television broadcast rights from a local perspective was Mvuzo Mbebe, MD for SABC Sports: ‘The SABC intends taking a more flexible approach towards potential sponsors. We will be asking what the brand wants to achieve and we will be developing packages that not only work for both of us but also for the sport. We encourage marketers to take a long-term view. Build a relationship around soccer now especially the
brands that are targeted towards LSM’s 5 – 8 where there is currently 11 million soccer fans and is set to increase. There are lots of opportunities between June 2005 and June 2010. There are also all the FIFA qualifying matches before 2006 that present an opportunity. One thing for sure, we will be more conducive to speaking to those companies that have invested in Soccer prior to the 2010 World Cup.’
Carling said there is a now a more modern way of looking at sponsorships. and companies need to ask if there a brand fit and if there going to be a business return. ‘ Make sure that part of your package as a sponsor, is
access to the audience,’ he said. ‘One way of doing this is to create an extension to a sponsorship like simple merchandise sales, which often makes back the sponsorship fee.’
‘New media is also going to play a major role in how sponsors will engage with its audience,’ says Vice President of New Media at Octagon UK Dan Markham, ‘In Japan we already have cell phones that can transmit television waves. By 2010, we will be able to sit down on a park bench and watch the whole game on our mobile phone screens.’ Mbebe humorously argued on why anyone would want to spend approximately R1.50 a minute watching a game when television was for ‘free’. However, Markham emphasized that cell phones would play a major role and that the content of the sponsor’s message across all mediums needs to be simple, engaging, interactive, very creative and if possible induce viral marketing.
Duffy says: ‘In 2010, South Africa will be the focus of the world and research has shown that brands that add value to the soccer fans’ enjoyment of the game, will get the best return on its investment.’ Of ambush
advertising, Duffy said it has been a problem in the past, but Government needs to enforce new legislation protecting the sponsor’s rights. ‘We envisage brand ‘police’ employed by FIFA at every game, enforcing this
legislation.
‘The best advice I can give mass target market brands is to use the next six-year period to become synonymous with football through smaller, more affordable sponsorships. And use tactical, clever and creative advertising to build an association to the game.’ Other speakers and topics at the conference were: Stuart Baxter, Head Coach
of Bafana Bafana and Simon Wardle from Octagon US, who was sharing for the first time his research into soccer fan passions in the UK, US and China. He said that there was a direct and positive correlation between a
person’s passion and using brands. ‘Successfully build that ‘passion’ relationship with the target market and a sponsor is far more likely to achieve brand loyalty,’ said Wardle.
Octagon is one of the world’s leading sports and entertainment event marketing companies with global expertise in consulting, athletes & personalities, event management, property representation, marketing solutions, licensing and merchandising, talent procurement and television rights and production. As part of The Interpublic Group (NYSE:IPG), one of the world’s leading organizations of advertising agencies and marketing services, Octagon employs more than 1,000 people in 60 offices around the world. For further information please visit: www.octagon.com.
Media Information:
Neill Duffy
Octagon
3rd Floor, Annex A, Longkloof Studios
Darters Road, Gardens
Cape Town
South Africa
Tel: +27 (0) 21 481 7700
neill.duffy@octagon.com