FIFA World Cup Marketing: Social Media vs. Traditional Methods

This report delves into the evolving landscape of FIFA World Cup marketing, contrasting the effectiveness of social media strategies against traditional promotional methods. It highlights the significant role social media plays in modern sports marketing, emphasizing its impact on fan engagement, global reach, and revenue generation. The analysis includes a comparison of promotional activities before and after the adoption of digital platforms, using examples from various FIFA World Cups, including the 2010 and 2014 events. The report discusses how social media has enabled increased brand value for sponsors, enhanced communication with fans, and generated unprecedented levels of interaction. The report concludes that social media is a crucial tool for sports marketers seeking to connect with mass audiences, increase event revenues, and boost brand awareness, ultimately leading to improved economic outcomes for host nations and sponsors alike. The report uses various sources to provide a comprehensive overview of the topic and is available on Desklib.

INTRODUCTION TO CRITICAL
THINKING

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Digital marketing has changed the scenario of market. In the recent era, many companies
are taking support of social networking sites in order to promote their products and services
(Thomaz and et.al, 2017). Many international games are being promoted through digital media
platform. Present study will compare the impact of social media on promoting FIFA world cup
against more traditional methods of marketing.
MAIN BODY
Social media plays a significant role in organization and society. The use of social
networking sites has become a worldwide trend. People like to watch international games such as
cricket, football, etc. (Kim and et.al, 2015). Though it is not possible for each person to watch
such sport activities in actual stadium thus, they take support of various platforms such as TV
and Facebook to get updated details of these games. Over a period of time, use of social media
has been increased in sport industry. FIFA world cup is an international sport event that takes
place in every four year. This is the most awaited moment for people who have interest in
football.
Till 2010, concerned authorities were using sport channels to telecast live match, but
development of social media has raised the expectations. In the year 2013, official application of
FIFA world cup was launched by authorities (Knott, Fyall and Jones, 2015). This was exclusive
coverage that has given all updated live details of the biggest football event to all sport lovers. In
previous world cup authorities have not received numerous public views because of using
traditional promotional methods. These were one way communication methods in which
population was unable to give their reviews. But after launching Facebook application of FIFA
world cup, more than 672 million views have been received on its app.
Brazil FIFA world cup of 2014 has achieved the highest tweets per second peaks as
compares to 2012 Olympics of London. FIFA world cup 2010 held in South Africa. At that time,
event was being promoted through television. But it was difficult for authorities and sponsors to
make connection with fans through television (Bailey and et.al, 2017).
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Figure 1: Digital Promotion
(Source: 2014 FIFA World Cup Puts Spotlight on Social Media Marketing, 2015)
In the modern era, sport authorities are taking support of digital platform in order to
promote event and reach to mass audience. FIFA U17 world cup of 2017 is the great example of
this promotional activity (Buldu and et.al, 2018). In this event, authorities have made changes in
their promotional strategies and they have promoted the game by using digital media rather than
using traditional marketing tools. This has helped the India “the host nation” to showcase its
large fans. Use of social media has helped in increasing the brand value and profitability of its
sponsors. Adidas, Coca-cola, Hundai, Visa, Qatar airways, etc. are the main sponsors of FIFA
world cup. At the initial phase in 2004, authorities have promoted this event through radio and
sport channels. At that time, these sponsors were failed to attract people and thus, giving
sponsorship was not worthwhile for them. But use of digital marketing tactics has supported
these brands in creating a unique brand image in the mind of consumers (Coche, 2016).
Social media applications support consumers in making communication with others.
Digital platforms enable people to get involved at the global scale as compared to traditional
methods. At the time of FIFA world cup 2002, authorities were taking support of traditional
media platforms but now, use of social media has increased 80% traffic on sponsor’s website.
This marketing technique has opened unprecedented ways to coordinate with audience and
making them positive towards the brand (Mainwaring and Fricska, 2016). The main reason of
promoting international event is to earn more profit and make connection with mass audience. In
FIFA world cup 2010, organizers have announced that ticket will be available for local people at
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lower price who will book their tickets through Facebook application of FIFA. At that time, local
population was able to get ticket of this international sport at just $20 (Popp and Woratschek,
2016). This has given chance to approx 1 million South African people to watch this football
match live.
FIFA world cup 2018 held in Russia. Country that hosts such mega events gets positively
affected by this because it helps in economic development of nations to great extent. When
Russia has become the host country then Facebook and Twitter pages of FIFA world cup has
updated images of Russia. It has attracted many visitors towards the nation. They get to know
about the beauty of this place and many people have made plan to visit this destination (South
Africa spent £2.4bn to host the 2010 World Cup. What happened next, 2010). In the year 2010,
South Africa has hosted FIFA world cup in the country. Before organizing such mega event,
government has to make many investment in order to improve infrastructure, telecommunication
and transportation facilities of the nation. It was a proud moment for the region but government
of country had to spent approx 2.4 bn for developing world class stadiums and developing roads
as well as airports. But, due to use of traditional promotional methods, country was unable to
attract people towards the game. Revenues generated through this event were less than total
spending (World Cup spending, profits set to fall short of record sums, 2018). At that time,
government has realised that it is essential to make effective communication with population so
that they can take interest to watch live matches.
Due to poor technologies, till the year 2010, FIFA world cup authorities were using
traditional methods of promoting the events. They had to pay huge amount to sport channels for
broadcasting this event. But digital media has changed the entire scenario, recent FIFA world
cup that was held in Brazil has generated $4 billion revenues which was 66% more than revenue
generated by FIFA world cup 2010. FIFA has generated revenues through television, marketing
rights and corporate partners (2014 FIFA World Cup Puts Spotlight on Social Media Marketing,
2015). Use of social networking sites to promote international sports event has given benefit to
sponsors as well as their profit has been increased to a great extent. Now, they love to throw
money at FIFA world cup. In the year 2010, when authorities were promoting sports event
through television then there were 909 million television viewers. But use of Facebook and
Twitter has increased the number of viewers by 33% (Thomaz and et.al, 2017).
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Sport industry is now using digital media techniques. This helped them in making close
connection with their fans. Social media has supported in making effective communication with
sponsors, fans, clubs, etc. By promoting FIFA on digital platform, marketers have increased 360
degree engagement opportunities. Twitter is the most popular digital media platform. At the time
of FIFA world cup 2014, authorities have received 672 million Tweets (Kim and et.al, 2015).
Media updates were so attractive that have increased the number of live viewers in this event.
This has helped authorities in generating higher revenues by selling the tickets. There were many
people who have booked their tickets through Facebook application of FIFA. Alex Stone, social
media manager of FIFA, has announced that recently authorities are using 10 Facebook pages, an
instagram account along with some YouTube accounts. On its Twitter account, FIFA live match
is being telecasted in five different languages live.
On these social sites, authorities are updating details related to daily score, ranking and
high performer. Millions of viewers give their comments that increase traffic on its website and
social accounts (Popp and Woratschek, 2016). Earlier, when authorities were using traditional
methods of promotion then entire event was being broadcasted in a single language that is
English. At that time, it was difficult to make connection with audience that is why marketers
and sponsors were unable to get profit out of it. Use of Twitter and Facebook has helped in
reaching to a billion of people through social channels. Twitter encourages users to give full
support to their national team through Tweets. Now, there are many followers of this
international game and they are giving wishes to their favourite players (Mainwaring and
Fricska, 2016).
Earlier, Brazil and South Africa were less likely places because in traditional promotional
techniques, online match updates were telecasted but in social media, authorities are giving full
details regarding host country, sponsors, etc. This makes people aware and helps marketers in
generating huge revenues. By using social networking sites, many people have planned to visit
this destination which has positive impact on improving the economic position of nations (South
Africa spent £2.4bn to host the 2010 World Cup. What happened next?, 2010).
FIFA social media application has made connection with the global audience. Approx. 24
million applications of FIFA world cup were downloaded. Furthermore, there are 19 billion
Twitter impressions. Over a period of time number of followers has been increased by 110%.
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This has increased the brand loyalty and recognition (World Cup spending, profits set to fall
short of record sums, 2018).
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that social media marketing is considered as
the most effective tool that helps markets in making connection with mass audience. This helps
in increasing the revenues of any sport event and increasing awareness of sponsor brands. Use of
social media platforms have positively impacted on increasing the ranking of event and
improving economic position of country.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Thomaz, G. M. and et.al., 2017. Content mining framework in social media: A FIFA world cup
2014 case analysis. Information & Management. 54(6). pp.786-801.
Knott, B., Fyall, A. and Jones, I., 2015. The nation branding opportunities provided by a sport
mega-event: South Africa and the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Journal of Destination
Marketing & Management. 4(1). pp.46-56.
Bailey, K. and et.al., 2017. Negotiating “new” narratives: Rio de Janeiro and the “media
geography” of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Journal of Sport and Social Issues. 41(1).
pp.70-93.
Buldu, J. M. and et.al., 2018. Using network science to analyze football passing networks:
dynamics, space, time and the multilayer nature of the game. arXiv preprint
arXiv:1807.00534.
Coche, R., 2016. Promoting women’s soccer through social media: how the US federation used
Twitter for the 2011 World Cup. Soccer & Society. 17(1). pp.90-108.
Popp, B. and Woratschek, H., 2016. Sport, Social Media and Online Communities. When Sport
Meets Business: Capabilities, Challenges, Critiques. pp.120.
Kim, J. W. and et.al., 2015, April. Social media dynamics of global co-presence during the 2014
FIFA World Cup. In Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human
Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 2623-2632). ACM.
Mainwaring, L. and Fricska, G., 2016, April. Lightning safety efforts in Canada 2009 to 2015. In
Preprints of the 6th international lightning meteorology conference, Vaisala, San Diego
(pp. 18-21).
Online
2014 FIFA World Cup Puts Spotlight on Social Media Marketing. 2015. [Online]. Available
through: <https://www.origamilogic.com/blog/2014-fifa-world-cup-puts-spotlight-social-
media-marketing/>.
South Africa spent £2.4bn to host the 2010 World Cup. What happened next. 2010. [Online].
Available through: <https://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/sep/23/south-africa-
2010-world-cup-what-happened>
World Cup spending, profits set to fall short of record sums. 2018. [Online]. Available through:
<https://sports.abs-cbn.com/2018fifaworldcup/news/2018/06/06/world-cup-spending-
profits-set-fall-short-record-sums-42558>
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