The key to World Cup marketing

Starting from the World Cup, this article objectively and comprehensively analyzes the key to World Cup marketing from the three elements of emotion, stance and expression, as well as daily tools. It is recommended for those who need to do World Cup marketing.

Today's World Cup is no longer a simple football match.

It is not only a quadrennial event for fans and teams, but also more like a corporate brand marketing carnival . According to the list of Chinese sponsors for the 2022 Qatar World Cup, there are as many as 26 partners (data as of November 22, 2022).

If an enterprise wants to break through the fierce atmosphere of "you sing and I come on stage" and play a good hand in diversified media and channels, the most basic test is "marketing insight" .

What is insight?

From a psychological perspective, I summarize it as a thorough analysis of people's emotional cognition, motivation for action, and interest relations of individuals (groups), which involves three elements: emotion, position, and expression.

1. What are emotions?

People's attitudes and experiences toward objective things, as well as their reactions to related things, are a general term for a series of subjective cognitive experiences. It is generally believed that emotions are a kind of psychological activity between "individual wishes" and "needs".

To put it simply, I am happy, I am upset, I am irritable, I am anxious, etc., these are all emotional experiences. The emotions in the World Cup are the celebration of goals, the consolation of goals, the forced cheering, and the joy and enthusiasm of the whistle. Where do emotions come from? Psychobiologists divide it into two aspects: "basic" and "complex" .

The former comes from the "physiological" level . Just like, you will be happy when you see beautiful things, and you will be nervous when you encounter dangerous situations. They all have unique autonomic nervous systems that are innate.

The latter comes from the "cognitive level" , just like when your child gets first place in the class in the exam, you feel proud; you work very hard, get a bonus of 10,000 and are praised in public. This series of thoughts and behaviors are processed through thinking and are acquired.

Obviously, basic emotions are very easy to arouse. If you slap a child, he will feel very painful and will inevitably react. To explore complex emotions, we have to start from sociology, cultural background, and social communication. This involves the key element, namely "standpoint."

2. What is a stance?

Views, opinions, ways of dealing with things, and even attitudes; have no stance, are rather vague in thought, and have no obvious inclination towards work, life, and family, which directly leads to unclear views when speaking.

In the World Cup, the stance is "standing on the team". Standing on the class affiliation, ethnic affiliation, group affiliation, national affiliation, as well as values, world outlook, cultural literacy and other human factors. Some people are good at observation, and after summarizing with empirical methods, they deduce that a certain team will win. When watching the game at night, the sense of value belonging comes from a certain team.

Some people are not good at observation and like to be lively. They think whichever team has a high atmosphere on the Internet will win. Some people even like a certain city, which can be a reason for them to choose a side.

The company has a referee, A/B team three perspectives. Some companies are very smart, before they start, they start topics and check-in discussion activities on social media to get everyone involved; for example, "TikTok, Weibo", no matter what you talk about? Come, anyway, I am a user gathering place, and I will collect everything.

Some companies play the role of A or B, for example, TCL signed with Brazil, Wanda Sports signed with Argentina, Mengniu Lotion chose Messi, etc., and started to warm up on various platforms after playing. Some companies will say, we have no budget, no sponsorship, which role is suitable for us? This involves the issue of allocation. In reality, whether you are the platform or the brand indirectly determines everything.

Just like, if a brand wants to be a "referee", first you need to have your own "small platform and small group", otherwise how can you distribute the two ends? Therefore, what role you can play depends on your own attributes; after having a position, the brand can form a group with the team and fans and wait for the result after the PK; but, it is not enough.

Just like a tug-of-war game, after the teams are divided and a command is given, the players on both sides of the river will hold the rope tightly to "pull each other". The momentum also needs to be shocking, and the onlookers beating drums and shouting, which brings a sense of oppression and can also compete for the final victory on the mental level. All of this needs to be expressed.

3. What is expression?

To express is to show thoughts, emotions and opinions from the inside out; to communicate is to use objects, events, feelings, reason and language as the content and to pass them to the recipients through tools, so as to vent and explain and achieve the purpose of communication. In the World Cup, brand expression plays two roles.

One is to cosplay the character and express what you want to say, like "I am Messi, I am very excited now", combining the character's characteristics and writing various words you want to say, commonly known as "mouth substitute".

The second is to cosplay team roles. The brand stands on the team's side, and invites fans to interact around a series of topics, and then cheer together. It is worth mentioning that there are many jokes in the roles that can be explored, just like the marketing blitz between P&G and the World Cup celebrity "Squid Liu", which is still worth referring to today.

When you understand the three basic elements of "emotion, stance, and expression", it is time to show off your brand. The brand needs to use the tool of "creativity" to release all the emotional points.

4. What are the daily tools?

Online H5, posters, promotional videos (micro-short films), even product packaging, handbags, theme colors; offline ornaments, schedule posters, music, LOGO stickers, etc., can make people see clearly at a glance and strengthen the attributes of standing in the team. Can you see which is more important, emotion, stance, or expression?

Of course, it is "expression". The brand's ability to play the role of mouthpiece is entirely dependent on the power of content. Content is the lever to pry emotions. How should the position be set? Find it from emotions and from the position.

Only by understanding the relationship between the three can you play with the fan base. You may say that everyone is using these methods, how can you stand out from the crowd of brands? Here are two more tips:

1) Contrast

2) Win-win

for example:

During the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, two rivals, took the joint venture to the extreme. With the theme of "reconciliation", they released a lot of "position-related content" during the World Cup. Not only did they associate their brands with the World Cup, but they also shook hands and made peace in the name of "country" (both brands belong to Germany), elevating the marketing activities to patriotic sentiments and elevating the brand concept.

for example:

The finals are coming soon, and the company is welcoming the year-end celebration. The "founder" is showing his love for a certain team. If the other national team wins the championship at a certain time, the products ordered between a certain date and a certain month will be given away for free. You can probably "feel" the effect of this contrast on social media. Even if it is really free, how much can you give away?

In other words, the exposure brought by the marketing effect is far greater than the cost of sending out the goods.

Therefore, it is becoming increasingly difficult to please people. How can we "cultivate" ourselves to win their hearts? Remember the three elements of marketing insight: "emotion, stance, and expression" . If you can use contrast in your expression, I think you will have good luck.

In short, any large-scale marketing activity is a strategic consideration for the enterprise; having said that, no matter how the activities change, what users want to buy from the brand will always be inseparable from the words "emotion" and "discount".

Author: Wang Zhiyuan

WeChat public account: Wang Zhiyuan