Social Media Tipped to Rule Soccer World Cup Advertising

  With the World Cup kick-off in Brazil just days away, broadcasters are making final preparations for the quadrennial, global TV sports jamboree, but in an increasingly mobile and social world the marketing battle is going digital.

  Traditional media sectors including TV and radio are predicted to enjoy their usual advertising revenue bounce. However, the real winner, if not yet in overall revenue then certainly in terms of where marketing resources and effort are being directed, is social media such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.

  According to The Guardian, Adidas has launched its biggest ever campaign to support its sponsorship of the World Cup and tellingly has opted to spend more on digital marketing than TV ads. For the 2010 World Cup just 20% of marketing spend was digital. “It’s not about a need to do ‘the big TV ad’,” says Tom Ramsden, global brand marketing director for Adidas football. “This will undoubtedly be the most social World Cup ever and probably the most social event in history.”

  The importance, and power, of a social media strategy is underlined by Twitter which says there have already been more posts about the World Cup before a ball has been kicked in Brazil than for the entire tournament in 2010. “The 2010 World Cup was the largest period of sustained activity for any event in Twitter’s history,” says Lewis Wiltshire, the head of Twitter’s global World Cup effort. “In early March we had already passed the total number of tweets generated around that tournament, so Brazil is huge.”