Nigerian brands jostle to ride the wave of 2018 World Cup
Every four years, the Fifa-organized World Cup comes with emotion and enthusiastic feeling in different nations. The 2018 event, kicking off in Russia on June 14 is no exception as it has started attracting attention among Nigerians and big brands and this is expected to reflect on the marketing budget of companies for next year.
Already, brands like Emzor, Aiteo Group and others have joined the passion with congratulatory adverts for Nigeria stating that ‘Russia here we come’. The brands congratulated Nigeria on its qualification to the World Cup, an event that transcends religion, ethnicity, politics, language and age. According to analysts, this trend is expected to continue up to June 2018.
It is also expected that large chunk of the 2018 marketing budget by many companies would be devoted to the global event largely on account of Nigeria’s qualification as brands seek greater eye-balls.
But Jenkins Alumona, the CEO of Strategic Outcomes, an integrated marketing communication firm based in Lagos and sports enthusiast agreed that companies would key in to the event, he however said that budget for it would depend on the economy.
“Following Nigeria’s qualification and as football popularity grows, there would likely be an increase in the marketing budget next year on account of the global event but this depends on the performance of the economy”, he said.
Jerry Oche, Chief Executive Officer of Zowasel, an eCommerce marketplace who also estimated that brands would largely key in to the event believed that most marketing platforms would be used by brands during the World Cup for consumer connection.
In his view, John Ehiguese, the CEO of MediaCraft, a public relation agency believed that there would be a big rush by corporate to be part of the World Cup as the platform presents a brand mileage opportunity for them. “The 2018 World Cup would be the focus of most brands next year and we are expecting excitement in the media industry”
The 2018 FIFA World Cup which would end on July 15, 2018 would present opportunity not only to sponsor global brands but to many brand around the world who want to tap in to the opportunity. But according to experts, some advert messages would be lost during the one month event but the most creative messages would be remembered and make impact on the brands months after the World Cup.
Reports indicate that the World Cup competition in Brazil in 2014 reached a global in-house TV audience of about 3.2 billion and this could increase for the Russia- hosted event as football population continues to increase
A total of 32 teams will battle it out to be crowned World Champions, and a total of 64 games will be played during the event. Germany is the defending champions who beat Brazil 7 -1 in 2014 in Brazil to win the Cup.
Daniel Obi