It was just a few days back when all of us (at least the
guys at my hostel) used to be glued to the Television sets in the common room.
These guys are a bunch of football fanatics who used to stay up till late night
so as to watch the FIFA World Cup 2014. I also stayed up for a few games (not
all, b’coz I pursue a hobby called sleeping).
The recently concluded tournament was loaded with special moments
and some interesting events which caught the eye of the people all over the
world.
Some of these events also caught the eye of marketers around
the world (including me). It was really interesting to note how companies and
businesses around the world rose up to the occasion and tweaked their campaigns
to reach out to their customers during the tournament.
The infamous “bite” by Uruguayan and Liverpool star Suarez was
one of the events which many brands around the world leveraged. Marketing
techniques were tweaks, ad campaigns were changed, some of the major brands also
bombarded the timelines of their followers on social networking sites Twitter
and Facebook.
Soon after the incident the brand “Listerine” the world
renowned mouth wash tweeted the following post.
Apart from Listerine, Bud Light also tried to leverage the
moment and tweeted a picture showing a person biting their bottle’s cap.
Both these tweets were part of the #PowerToYourMouth
campaign.
Other companies like McDonald’s and Snickers also tried to
make the most of the moment.
There were some negative reactions as well
The official sponsor of the Fifa World Cup, Adidas who had
signed up Suarez as the Global Brand Ambassadors of the World Cup immediately
reacted to the incidence by sacking Suarez from its world campaign. Adidas also showed their support for the four
month ban which was imposed on Suarez by FIFA.
This is a perfect example of how brands nowadays can remain
alert in order to save themselves from the negative impact of such occurrences.
