BEG609 - Business Events: A Comparison of FIFA World Cup and Olympics

This report provides a comparative analysis of two mega-events: the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games. It begins with a brief background of both events, including their history and target markets. The core of the report examines the social, cultural, economic, and environmental impacts of each event, highlighting both positive and negative consequences. It then delves into the marketing strategies employed to promote these events, discussing various approaches such as mass marketing, celebrity endorsements, and the use of social media. The report also includes recommendations for improvement, suggesting strategies to enhance the events' popularity and effectiveness. Finally, the report concludes with a summary of the key findings and insights from the comparison.

Running head: BUSINESS EVENTS IN GLOBAL CONTEXT
Business Events in Global Context
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Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
Background of the events:..........................................................................................................3
Social, cultural, economic and environmental impacts:.............................................................4
Marketing strategies implemented to promote event:................................................................6
Recommendation for improvement:..........................................................................................8
Conclusion:..............................................................................................................................10
References:...............................................................................................................................11
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Introduction:
The organizations conducts the mega event with the intension of building both brand
recognition and establishing strong business connection. The business event is defined as the
public and private activity that comprises of people with common interest and held in a
particular venue. The need of conducting business event is influenced by the focus of the
company to educate people, to promote products, to acquire resources and to collaborate in
order to resolve any kind of given issue (Masterman, 2014). The aim of this paper is to make
comparison in between two mega events like FIFA World-Cup & Olympics. Brief
background of both the events will be presented in the paper and impact will also be assessed.
This paper will also put forth the discussion of the marketing strategies that have been
implemented in order to promote these events. Finally, recommendation will be provided to
the authority of both the events in order to make necessary improvement.
Background of the events:
FIFA World Cup is one of the largest events andquadrennial tournament of football
which determine the world champion of sports. This is one of the most popular and
international competition of football, which is performed by the members of Fédération
Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) - the global governing body of sports. This is
the most popular sporting event around the globe, catching the attention of millions of
viewers. The first tournament was organised in the year 1930 in Uruguay. Since that time, it
is used to happen once in every four year. The strategy of living football has developed the
vision for FIFA in the way of conducting football tournament with utmost success. Recently,
FIFA has implemented 2.0 plan with the intension of promoting football, protect its integrity
and thereby bring the game for all (www.fifa.com. 2020).
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Olympic is another leading international sports event, which presented both summer
and winter sports competition. In this event, thousands ofathletes take part in variety of
competition. This is the foremost sports competition around the world, in which more than
150 counties take part. This game is arranged by The International Olympic Committee-
which is the not-for-profit international organisation, in which the executives are responsible
for decision making (International Olympic Committee. 2020). Olympic was first help in the
year 1986 in Greece and James Connolly was the winner of this game.
Social, cultural, economic and environmental impacts:
FIFA world cup:
The mega event can both positive and negative impact on the host community. Being
one of the largest international sporting event, FIFA world cup can have a major impact on
the contemporary society. Major profit in the international sports event comes from the sale
of ticket and television TRP. However, the host country doesn’t get this profit and the entire
money is being distributed to the tax payers. Employment is one of the major social impacts
of FIFA world cup (Du & Tao, 2020). During the event, the local selling vendors can sell
goods in front of stadium and thereby improve their financial condition. For instance, during
FIFA world cup 2014 in Brazil, in-spite of making instruction, FIFA worldcup has allowed
the local vendors to sell goods. Tourism sector can get highest benefit from the FIFA world
cup.
During the event, people from different part of world come to the host country. This is
the way, through which the local hotels make money. In this way, FIFA world cup plays a
pivotal role in the way of strengthening the local economy of host country. Economic
development and employment are most significant impact of FIFA World cup. For instance,
during the FIFA world cup 2018, both the economy and life style of Russia were largely
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influenced. During this event, Russia has earned USD 31 billion (Lonbrella.co.uk. 2020). In
addition, more than 10,000 jobs were also created in Russia during FIFA World cup 2018.
Figure 1: FIFA Words Cup 2018
(Source: Lonbrella.co.uk. 2020)
Cultural diplomacy is one of the major aspects of FIFA world cup. From the very
initial stage, FIFA world cup authority was using the tags “Скажи нет расизму”, which
means “Say no to racism”, which is to be wear by each of the people. This is one of the major
steps, towards resolving racism, which was poignant towards the history and international
reputation of Russia. During FIFA world cup, 2018 the plethora of foreign sports fan was
integrated in order to allow them to enter in the Russian federation (GeoHistory. 2020). In
the cotemporary times, environmental protection is one of the most significant matters of
consideration. However, FIFA world cup was always remain inconsistent towards protecting
the environment. During the FIFA world cup 2014, the rate of carbon emission was
extremely high. However, during 2019, sustainability strategy was implemented by world
cup committee in order to minimise the impact on environment during the event
(Sportanddev.org. 2020).
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Olympic:
Olympic game can have a major impact on the economy of host country and boost the
economy a lot. Due to infrastructure improvement, multiple local jobs are created during
Olympic, which can have a firm impact on the regional and national economy. In addition to
that, the local hospitality industry was get immense benefit during the event as numerous
guests visit hotel during the event. Acknowledging the female into sports was first started
during Olympic. It had been observed that during % members were female 2019, more than
30. In the year 2018, first fully gender balanced Olympic event was conducted by allowing
women both in sports and in organising committee (International Olympic Committee.
2020). In addition, allowing people without making any kind of discrimination that on the
basis of race and disability is also a major social impact of Olympic. Protecting the
environment is one of the major priorities of Olympic.
Marketing strategies implemented to promote event:
FIFA world cup and Olympic Games have gained immense popularity over the years.
Nowadays sports is no longer a medium of entertainment, lifestyle or occupation since it has
become a business opportunity for earning high profits. Through various marketing,
advertising and promotional strategies these profits are generated. However as the years are
passing advertising and promotion experts are forming new unique strategies for attracting
people from all over the world.Few of the popular marketing strategies of FIFA world cup are
discussed below:
 The marketing team of FIFA ensures mass marketing and big budget advertising for
the world cup. The promotions of FIFA world cup are always on higher level due to
their big budget. The use of celebrity singers such as Shakira to promote songs such
as Waka-Waka or Road to Russia become instant viral worldwide and remain within
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the minds of people for years. Promotion is also done through slogans sometimes
funny sometimes fan based (Shipway & Miles, 2019). The promotion process is
implemented through either traditional marketing or online marketing.
Figure 2: Shakira, promoting in FIFA world cup
(Source: The Hollywood Reporter. (2020)
 FIFA world cup gains sponsorship from globally recognized brands such as Coca
Cola, VISA, Emirates, Hyundai-Kia Motors, Adidas and Sony. Through these brands
FIFA world cup enables people to become much more involved in the soccer game,
generating energy and excitement among the people. These brands also develops
various campaign such as telling stories about loyalty of fans, performing quiz shows
relating to the FIFA teams and football game. As these brands are globally
recognized their campaigns are implemented on more than 200 countries.
Some of the marketing and promotional strategies of Olympics are mentioned below:
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 The committee board members of Olympic have implemented a new strategy to
improve the relation between the public and the Olympic team. Their strategy is to
produce three advertisements featuring three famous sports personalities who are
popular among the crowd (Girish & Lee, 2019). It will be seen that those three
sportsmen will be struggling to enter in the Olympic team that too in a humorous way
along with a slogan related to Olympics. Olympics have also formed partnership with
different clothing brands such as Adidas and Nike to feature those branded clothes in
their advertisements. These companies also feature their equipment such as
snowboards, skies and skates in the advertisements and sometimes also form deals
with the sportsmen, featuring in the advertisements, providing the cost of the
advertisements as these are highly expensive (BBC News. 2020).
 Olympics brings in new technologies for promoting their events and games. The new
advanced technology helps people to watch the Olympics games and other related
information from any corner in the world. Olympics takes advantage of the extensive
use of internet by most of the population bridges the communication gap and
enhances the viewer’s experiences. New technologies in the internet enables the
people to watch live stream footage of the games. Television broadcast is another
medium extensively used by Olympics for coverage of the games and events
(Masterman, 2014). Along with internet and television Olympics also uses the social
media platforms such as Snapchat and twitter for advertising, broadcasting events and
campaigning.
Recommendation for improvement:
As per the recommendation it can be stated that, the FIFA World Cup, can focus on
tying up with larger brands , which can enhance the popularity of the event-FIFA World Cup.
Apart from tying up with nationally as well as globally renowned sports brands like Dick's
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Sporting Goods (DKS), Nike, Skechers,Adidas, Asics, Columbia Sportswear as well as
Northface, FIFAWorld Cup; should also attempt to collaborate with other large brans. For
instance, tying up with Hyundai, Quatar Airways, will be good options to promote World
Cup Events. Prior to tie up with several brands the public relation officers employed by FIFA
should focus on several points. Firstly, whether the target audience avail or use the products
as well as services of the brands with which tied up or planning to tie up. Airlines companies
are one of the best options for tying up.
This is because the football crazy people travel by internationally renowned airlines,
to meet their thirst of watching FIFA World Cup (McKay, et al. 2016). FIFA World Cup, in
this context, can be promoted with the help of the tie ups like- Quatar Airways. It can also be
recommended that, the tie up decision should be taken depending on the popularity of
international airlines companies or companies receiving the best ratings, in terms of customer
services. Further, it can be stated that, FIFA should use, celebrity endorsement, one of the
best way of promoting their events more effectively (Bizzini, Junge & Dvorak, 2013). In this
context, music videos, jingles as well as performance of pop stars, footballers are the most
common way to popularize the event of World Cup more. FIFA World Cup should be
promoted using more innovative strategies, like teasers showing footballers playing football
tricks and performing daily life activities (Bizzini & Dvorak, 2015). Such teasers will not
only draw the interests of the existing football fans, as well as viewers to the event, but also
evoke the interest of watching FIFA World Cup, among the new section of the target
audience, like the younger generation who have started watching footballs, or the newly
retired persons who, have the time to enjoy the event now. Similarly Olympics can be
promoted further, with the help of more innovative form of celebrity endorsement. Apart
from the performance of the celebrities on the theme song, talk shows can be arranged. For
instance, talk shows over social media, Netflix, Electronic media in which the winners of
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several Olympic tournaments gather and share each other’s fun stories success stories
(Mountjoy, et al. 2018).
Conclusion:
Hence, in the conclusion, it can be stated that, FIFA World Cup can be considered as
the quadrennial tournament of football which was arranged to determine the world
champions, in the domain of football. This is one of the most popular and international
competition of football, which is performed by the members of Fédération Internationale de
Football Association (FIFA). On the other hand, Olympic is one of the most significant sports
events which provides a platform to the young and fresh talents, in the field of sports and
from nearly 150 countries over the world to debut. The International Olympic Committee-
which is the not-for-profit international organisation, in which the executives are responsible
for decision making (International Olympic Committee. 2020). Tying up with international
sports brands as well as most renowned airlines, celebrity endorsement, social media
campaigns are part of the promotional strategies adopted by both of these global sports
events.
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References:
BBC News. (2020). Nike reports soaring marketing costs. [online] Available at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-28051656 [Accessed 21 Feb. 2020].
Bizzini, M., & Dvorak, J. (2015). FIFA 11+: an effective programme to prevent football
injuries in various player groups worldwide—a narrative review. Br J Sports
Med, 49(9), 577-579.
Bizzini, M., Junge, A., & Dvorak, J. (2013). Implementation of the FIFA 11+ football warm
up program: how to approach and convince the Football associations to invest in
prevention. Br J Sports Med, 47(12), 803-806.
Du, L., & Tao, S. (2020). Difficulties and Solutions for the Traffic Arrangement and
Management during International Sports Events. In ICTE 2019 (pp. 249-254). Reston,
VA: American Society of Civil Engineers.
GeoHistory. (2020). The Cultural Diplomacy of the FIFA World Cup. [online] Available at:
https://geohistory.today/cultural-diplomacy-fifa/ [Accessed 21 Feb. 2020].
Girish, V. G., & Lee, C. K. (2019). The relationships of brand experience, sports event image
and loyalty. International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship.
International Olympic Committee. (2020). IOC - International Olympic Committee. [online]
Available at: https://www.olympic.org/the-ioc [Accessed 20 Feb. 2020].
International Olympic Committee. (2020). Key dates in the history of women in the Olympic
Movement. [online] Available at:
https://www.olympic.org/women-in-sport/background/key-dates [Accessed 21 Feb.
2020].
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Lonbrella.co.uk. (2020). The real impact of the FIFA’s World Cup. [online] Available at:
https://www.lonbrella.co.uk/post/the-real-impact-of-the-fifa-s-world-cup [Accessed 20
Feb. 2020].
Masterman, G. (2014). Strategic sports event management. Routledge.
McKay, C. D., Merrett, C. K., & Emery, C. A. (2016). Predictors of FIFA 11+
implementation intention in female adolescent soccer: an application of the health action
process approach (HAPA) model. International journal of environmental research and
public health, 13(7), 657.
Mountjoy, M., Costa, A., Budgett, R., Dvorak, J., Engebretsen, L., Miller, S., ... & Carr, J.
(2018). Health promotion through sport: international sport federations’ priorities,
actions and opportunities. Br J Sports Med, 52(1), 54-60.
Shipway, R., & Miles, L. (2019). Bouncing back and jumping forward: scoping the resilience
landscape of international sports events and implications for events and festivals. Event
Management, 23(4-5), 4-5.
Sportanddev.org. (2020). Environmental sustainability and the Women’s World Cup |
sportanddev.org. [online] Available at:
https://www.sportanddev.org/en/article/news/environmental-sustainability-and-
womens-world-cup [Accessed 21 Feb. 2020].
The Hollywood Reporter. (2020). Justin Bieber and James Corden Open "Yummy"-Inspired
Food Truck. [online] Available at: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/justin-
bieber-james-corden-open-food-truck-late-late-show-watch-1280173 [Accessed 21 Feb.
2020].
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www.fifa.com. (2020). Who we are - FIFA.com. [online] Available at:
https://www.fifa.com/who-we-are/ [Accessed 20 Feb. 2020].
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