Comparison of Impact of Social Media vs Traditional Methods in Promoting Global Events

This study evaluates the effectiveness of social media and traditional methods in promoting major global events, focusing on the FIFA World Cup. It discusses the impact, reach, and preferences of fans towards different promotional strategies.

Comparison of the Impact of social media on promoting major global
events against traditional method
Student name:
Student ID:

Executive summary
With the adaptation of newly developed technology, millions of people are now sharing videos,
photos and many more contents actively on social media. This is how the new platform has been
developed for the sports fans. This study is all about the promotion of FIFA World Cup by using
social media or traditional methods. With the help of several analytical techniques, comparison
and contrast has been done between the impacts of social media and traditional methods for
promoting this game. Traditional methods as well as the social and online methods both are
beneficial for getting the exact updates of FIFA World Cup. people mainly prefer the social or
online media to promote the game with applying various methods. It does not mean that
traditional methods of promotion leave behind.

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Discussion........................................................................................................................................4
Comparison between the Impacts of social media on promoting major global events against
traditional method:...........................................................................................................................4
Promotion of FIFA World Cup and its impact on social media against traditional method:..........6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8

Introduction
Experiences of modern sports have been changed a lot for the fans and followers throughout the
world. Now with the adaptation of newly developed technology, millions of people are now
sharing videos, photos and many more contents actively on social media. This is how the new
platform has been developed for the sports fans. This has been observed by survey that, soccer
has got the highest level of popularity among the sports fans to digital media. All the hottest
topics related to football always come first in the social media starting from the opening of a
premier event. The main interesting thing is that, approximately 75% of sports fans engagement
is occurred just for FIFA games.
Here in this report, critical evaluation has been done between the impacts of social media on the
promotion of FIFA World Cup and the traditional methods of promoting the same event. Doing
critical comparison and contrast along with proper and valid arguments the overall analysis can
leave a positive impact.
Discussion
Technological development has reached such a level that leaves no stones unturned to assist the
new generation. Digital media has made it possible for the people to share various videos, photos
and many other online contents instantly on various social networking sites. As described earlier,
FIFA has obtained the highest reputation on the social media rather than any other sports. By
analyzing all the previous versions of competition, this can be possible to predict the news ways
of technology that can be implemented. This has been shown that in terms of entertainment,
World Cup is the best thing to look for.
Comparison between the Impacts of social media on promoting major global events against
traditional method:
On 2014 FIFA World Cup, the final match between Argentina and Germany was so amazing and
breathtaking that it took the attraction of more than 280 millions of viewers over social media.
According to Arnaud and Riordan, 2013, in the FIFA World Cup 2014 event that was held in

Brazil, there were millions of spectators. This is the largest tournament where a large number of
fans and followers spent their valuable times to share this on internet. Promotion of FIFA World
Cup is mainly done with the help of social media where varying number of social networking
sites was utilized. As described by Abeza, et al. 2013, strong media relationships has to be
developed to maximize the opportunities of women’s football mainly on the exposure of media.
According to Walsh et al. 2013, every time, the help of social media does not promote the game,
but it can also be done with several traditional methods.
For promoting the world cup FIFA, televisions commercials, printed materials, can also be used
as various traditional methods. As per Walsh et al. 2013, the opening match that was help
between Croatia and Brazil, has attracted over 12.2 million of online spectators who had tweeted
instantly during the ongoing match. It was really amazing for the FIFA world cup. On Facebook,
the instant promotion was also notified by which a large number of football lovers were
benefitted. As described by Geidne et al. 2013, the promotion was also done by using several
most important traditional methods. For promoting this particular game, newly created business
cards and flyers, different articles, press releases, were use. Free publicity was done with
attaching the posters and banners created instantly.
But according to Parnell et al. 2013, online or social media promotions are always get the first
priority over millions of football lovers rather than traditional methods. This is due to the
advancement of technology nothing else. By promoting the game with the use of traditional
methods such as posters and instantly created banners cannot provide the instant game review
and show the results. However, as per Hastie et al. 2013, through Facebook notifications,
Twitter, YouTube channels, FIFA fans can easily get immediate notification by using their
smartphones.
There is a strong argument between a large group of people regarding whether the online
promotional method is helpful or the traditional. Some age group of people, in the previous
generation who are not habituated with online or any other social media, traditional methods of
promotion is better for them. According to Rowe et al. 2013, though Facebook or online
applications of FIFA, instant notifications come instantly. However, as described by Hastie et al.
2013, various global campaigns can also promote the match with ease that only requires the
human support. Mainly on the YouTube front, some special brands are very much active. They

upload instant video of the FIFA World Cup football. As this is getting popular, more and more
people are now subscribing their channels. Millions of FIFA lovers, who are very much willing
to watch the matches online, cannot face further trouble if they install the application on their
smartphones.
Promotion of FIFA World Cup and its impact on social media against traditional method:
However, in traditional methods of promotion, people take advantage of the free publicity. It
mainly invites a lot of reporters, chefs, photographers, celebrities and filmmakers to share and
promote the event. As described by Foster et al. 2013, as online or social media has leave a
greater impact on the new generation of people, these are not taken as the hot cakes. Promotion
of FIFA World Cup was mainly done by using photographs, banners, and leaflets with very
lucrative pictures. The main was to attract the attention of general people to view the matches.
Though, they use several advertising websites, and flyers, these were most likely to be adapted.
Providing the photographs in most popular restaurants, institutions and retail markets with
varieties of promotional materials attract the game lovers. But as described by Walsh et al. 2013,
with the development of several new technologies, followers of this FIFA were promoted
through numerous online football applications. With the help of these apps on smartphones and
varieties of other online gaming portals, most of the events are seen so that there is no utilization
of any other traditional methods.
Development and distribution of press releases also provides vast amount of information about
the FIFA World Cup. It also attracts the attention of football fans to some extent. According to
Abeza et al. 2013, in rural areas where there is no access of internet connection till now, these
information help a lot to those people. They get the news regarding FIFA World Cup through the
use of Radio and Newsprints. These are the only access for those rural people in several
developing countries because in most of the rural area they still depend on TV, radio,
newspapers rather using the internet connection. But it can be expected that within few years,
they will also get the access of internet that enables them to view the World Cup through the
social media.
According to Arnaud and Riordan, 2013, food bloggers are also used as one of the most
important traditional methods of FIFA World Cup promotion. All the people who are active

FIFA lovers use these food blogs to get the updates. One thing that has been described earlier in
this study, that with the use of traditional methods, instant updates of FIFA cannot be obtained.
For that, online media or social media help a lot to get those instantly.
For the FIFA World Cup, 2014, huge success was attained with the help of various campaigns. It
instantly promoted the game on live channels on You Tube. There were more than 82 million of
clicks on You Tube channels since the event was posted. FIFA had also its own apps that can be
installed on every smartphones through the use of Google Play store. 90 millions of people were
using these apps that have been observed by a survey report. According to Eagleman, 2013,
immediate Facebook updates, twitter notifications helped a lot to all the FIFA lovers to watch
live gaming. For the title, almost 25 to 50 million of USD have been sponsored by the partners of
FIFA to promote the game online. These are all considered as digital and social initiatives that
are highly essential.
Conclusion
This study is all about the promotion of FIFA World Cup by using social media or traditional
methods. With the help of several analytical techniques, comparison and contrast has been done
between the impacts of social media and traditional methods for promoting this game.
Traditional methods as well as the social and online methods both are beneficial for getting the
exact updates of FIFA World Cup. But, since the last few years, as the technology has developed
to a great extent, social media has become the first priority to most of the football fans and
followers. For this reason, people mainly prefer the social or online media to promote the game
with applying various methods. It does not mean that traditional methods of promotion leave
behind. Both the methods are useful and anyone of this method can be applied for promoting
this game.

References
Eagleman, A.N., 2013. Acceptance, motivations, and usage of social media as a marketing
communications tool amongst employees of sport national governing bodies. Sport Management
Review, 16(4), pp.488-497.
Arnaud, P. and Riordan, J. eds., 2013. Sport and International Politics: Impact of Facism and
Communism on Sport. Routledge.
Abeza, G., O’Reilly, N. and Reid, I., 2013. Relationship marketing and social media in sport.
International Journal of Sport Communication, 6(2), pp.120-142.
Walsh, P., Clavio, G., Lovell, M.D. and Blaszka, M., 2013. Differences in event brand
personality between social media users and non-users. Sport Marketing Quarterly, 22(4), p.214.
Foster, C., Richards, J., Thorogood, M. and Hillsdon, M., 2013. Remote and web 2.0
interventions for promoting physical activity. Cochrane Database Syst Rev, 9(9).
Rowe, K., Shilbury, D., Ferkins, L. and Hinckson, E., 2013. Sport development and physical
activity promotion: An integrated model to enhance collaboration and understanding. Sport
Management Review, 16(3), pp.364-377.
Hastie, P.A., Calderón, A., Rolim, R.J. and Guarino, A.J., 2013. The development of skill and
knowledge during a sport education season of track and field athletics. Research quarterly for
exercise and sport, 84(3), pp.336-344.
Hylton, K. ed., 2013. Sports development. Routledge.
Geidne, S., Quennerstedt, M. and Eriksson, C., 2013. The youth sports club as a health-
promoting setting: An integrative review of research. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health,
41(3), pp.269-283.

Parnell, D., Stratton, G., Drust, B. and Richardson, D., 2013. Football in the community
schemes: exploring the effectiveness of an intervention in promoting healthful behaviour change.
Soccer & Society, 14(1), pp.35-51.