How to achieve a breakthrough in marketing during the World Cup?

For brands, the World Cup not only generates emotional values ​​such as passion and joy, but also brings commercial values ​​such as attention, popularity, sales and reputation. Long before the start of the game, many brands have already used the atmosphere of the World Cup and football elements to build momentum, but Telunsu chose a communication perspective that is completely different from the main theme of the World Cup. Let's follow the author to see Telunsu's "reverse operation".

The World Cup is in full swing. Some teams have created new miracles and rewritten the pattern of the World Cup, while some teams have become more courageous after a short-term setback. For fans, every game of the World Cup is like an emotional catalyst that can instantly ignite the passion and excitement deep in the hearts of fans. For brands, in addition to generating emotional values ​​such as passion and joy, the World Cup can also bring commercial values ​​such as attention, popularity, sales and reputation to the brand, so the brand marketing war outside the green field is equally fierce.

Long before the start of the tournament, many brands have used the World Cup atmosphere and football elements to build momentum, such as signing popular players to endorse their brands, creating social topics in conjunction with the tournament, conducting prize-winning guessing on the results of the tournament, and interacting through games, etc. Among this series of communication content based on passion, enthusiasm, and hormones, Mr. Bingfa noticed a very special case - the "reverse operation" from Telunsu .

As the official sponsor of the World Cup, Telunsu chose a communication perspective that was completely different from the main theme of the World Cup. During the competition, Telunsu also used children from multiple countries as the core creative idea to produce a short film that was both soft and international.

In fact, those who follow Deluxe can find that the "going against the grain" content is just the key "incision" that Deluxe opened in the World Cup marketing. The insights and details behind these contents are the real reasons for penetrating the minds of the vast number of users and injecting a distinct personality into the brand.

1. In a field full of “pay-to-win players”, a new approach is needed to efficiently capture traffic

According to data released by Global Data, Chinese companies sponsored the Qatar World Cup with $1.395 billion, surpassing the $1.1 billion sponsored by American companies, becoming the largest sponsor of the World Cup. Brands that did not get official sponsorship rights have also signed contracts with top teams and popular stars, trying to gain more attention by strongly binding with the event.

However, as the competition progresses, the emotions of the fans have long been seriously overdrawn by the homogenized World Cup content. It is not easy to cross their attention "threshold", and it is even more difficult to impress the public and establish a positive perception of the brand on this basis. Although in the Telunsu short film, football and the green field are still the main lines for establishing brand awareness and emotional connection, the brand did not choose the traditional perspective of "blood + struggle + passion", but took a different approach and used more flexible content to create a breathing space in the World Cup tornado.

This short film uses the experiences of children from different countries, genders, and skin colors to tell the joy and touch that football brings to everyone. Whether it is sunny or rainy, whether it is a beach or a grassy field, everyone will always experience romance and joy in the process. The children's innocent smiles and running with open arms not only evoke everyone's childhood memories of football, but also plant a warm seed in their hearts, cleverly achieving emotional resonance with users.

Not only that, the short film also uses a warm tone to tell everyone that although never giving up is the most charming emotion in the arena, the greatest significance of football is still to bring more health and happiness to the participants. In fact, this is very similar to the emotional core of Telunsu accompanying every consumer who pursues a better life. It is easy to accumulate brand favorability while efficiently capturing traffic.

2. Using the “32 countries’ grass language” as a creative point, cleverly linking the World Cup with public sentiment

When talking about the World Cup held every four years, fans are naturally very excited. However, looking beyond the fan circle, the content created around the game is difficult to bring deep emotional touch. It is based on this insight that Telunsu has found a very clever connection point , allowing the elements of the World Cup to enter everyone's daily life.

With 30 days left before the Qatar World Cup, Telunsu launched a collection gift box with the theme of "32 Countries' Herbs" . In the promotional video released at the same time, the audience also saw the representative plants of 32 countries participating in the World Cup, such as the four-leaf clover of the United Kingdom, the edelweiss of Switzerland, the cornflower of Germany, the lavender of France, and the camel thorn of Qatar, through a football that flew from Ulanbu, flew through various countries and finally arrived in Qatar. In the scene-based expression, the audience felt the brand's concept of "no matter which land, it can breed better" that they wanted to convey.

As the official sponsor of the World Cup, Telunsu chose a form of cooperation that broke the convention to activate the sponsorship rights, which brought a sense of surprise to the public from the beginning. In addition, they also incorporated the idea of ​​"32 countries' grass language" into each stage of the process. For example, in the short film recently released, we can also see the representative flowers of different countries from the pictures of children playing in different countries. This is also a key opportunity to let the atmosphere of the World Cup enter the public group.

For fans , these plants carry their favorite teams and their spirit. The tenacious and colorful Centaurea cyanus symbolizes the German team, which is also tenacious and good at fighting against adversity; the firm and beautiful petals of the Schlumbergera remind people of the passionate and gorgeous Samba spirit of the Brazilian team. Behind each representative plant is an exciting spirit of the game, and also a youthful memory that fans can understand. So from this point of view, Telunsu put the representative plants of 32 countries into the collection gift box, not only to occupy the position of official sponsor, but also to pay tribute to the team spirit through the language of grass, and collect the best moments of history with the fans.

For non-fans , these grass words not only symbolize the benchmark spirit on the field, but also symbolize everyone's attitude towards life - the four-leaf clover full of freedom, the edelweiss representing bravery, and the camel thorn representing tenacious life. Everyone can find substitution and resonance in these grass words. These plants also have a high category relevance, allowing everyone to deepen their understanding of the Ulan Buh Desert Oasis while getting to know the representative flowers of 32 countries. More importantly, the packaging this time follows the aesthetic tonality that Telunsu has always had, and the color matching and overall appearance are very beautiful. Even many foreign consumers have noticed this organic milk produced in the desert.

3. Incorporate brand warmth into the communication layout to establish an emotional connection with users

In fact, whether it is the audience's numbness to the homogeneous marketing of the World Cup or the brand's own homogeneity troubles, it is ultimately because too many marketing campaigns are obsessed with the World Cup itself when planning, ignoring the brand's own value concept and identity, and not considering the public's emotional perspective. The epidemic has been repeated for three years, and people have accumulated too much desire for a better life. Many people are not only concerned about the outcome of each game in the World Cup, but also want to draw motivation to move forward bravely from those players who stand up after falling.

In fact, since the decision to promote the brand differentiation strategy in 2005, Trunusu has accumulated valuable public recognition with the slogan "Not all milk is called Trunusu". In April 2021, the Desert Organic Milk released by Trunusu became a star product among high-end milks as soon as it was launched. These organic milks are produced from the oasis of the Ulan Buh Desert in the promotional video. And on last year's 818 Member Day, Trunusu also gave back the Beibei pumpkin produced in the desert oasis as a gift to consumers, so that more people can see the hope born in the desert. They have proved with their actions that even in the desert, high-quality milk and plants can be produced, just as the theme of the World Cup conveys, "No matter which piece of land, it can breed better."

From this perspective, Truensu is not trying to gain more publicity through this football festival, but to use the World Cup as a key opportunity to communicate with consumers and attract more consumers to come and talk to the brand. For Truensu, the real charm of the World Cup is not the victory or defeat of each game, but to let more people know that they should go all out for their dreams and do their best to become a better self. In fact, this is exactly in line with Truensu's desire to provide consumers with better spiritual support and nutritional support.

The most important thing is that they did not convey these attitudes by shouting slogans, but used a more advanced and warm way to heal those who are in adversity in the current environment and encourage consumers to work towards a "better" direction. Every user communication and every practical action demonstrates the brand's kind and warm image, building a closer emotional connection between the brand and consumers.

4. Final Thoughts

The era of exposure-based sports marketing has passed. If you want to stand out in such a super traffic pool, you still need to keep thinking and being creative. And Telunsu also showed us some strategies worth learning and drawing lessons from through a series of communications during the World Cup.

First, we should "go against the grain" in the choice of communication tone, and use flexible content to create a differentiated breakthrough in the passionate and enthusiastic atmosphere of the World Cup. Secondly, we should make a breakthrough in the target group. We should mobilize the attention and participation of a wider range of people on the basis of activating the fan circle, so as to drive the brand's voice to break through the circle. Finally, while expanding the influence horizontally, we should deepen the emotional communication with the crowd vertically, so that consumers can feel the brand's emotional and spiritual attention and support for themselves while recognizing the product.

What’s more crucial is that brands also need to combine their current development stage and brand tone when doing World Cup marketing. Brands like Telunsu, which have no shortage of traffic and popularity and have established a consensus of “high-end milk” in the minds of consumers, need to use a more advanced perspective to build brand language and establish brand recognition based on traditional marketing. We also expect that Telunsu, which has already entered the next stage of development, will continue to play better marketing in the future with its “high-end” characteristics.

Author: Mr. Bingfa

Source: WeChat public account "Marketing Art of War (ID: lanhaiyingxiao)"