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News June 14, 2018

U.S. World Cup Absence Affecting Promo

By  John Corrigan

Although the FIFA World Cup is the most widely viewed and followed sporting event in the world, interest within the North American promotional products industry appears to be down for this year’s edition. Without the U.S. having a team involved in the tournament, distributors said their phones have been silent and their inboxes empty.

“We typically do several projects around major global sporting events such as the Olympic Games, World Cup, Track & Field Championships, etc.,” said Nickolai Mathison, general manager at Sonoma Promo (asi 88188). “We aren’t doing any World Cup projects this year, so I would guess the lack of U.S. involvement has impacted the industry.”

Jeff Holt, vice president of sales and marketing at Washington-based Image Source Inc. (asi/230121), echoed Mathison’s sentiments. “The U.S. not qualifying has had a great impact on domestic interest and sales,” Holt said.

Supplier Trevor Gnesin, CEO of Logomark (asi/67866), added bluntly: “If your team is not involved, no one buys product to support the tournament.”

Marketing the World Cup to U.S. consumers without them having a dog in the race has been a challenge even outside the promotional products space. Fox Sports spent more than $400 million in 2011 to outbid ESPN for the rights to the four FIFA World Cup tournaments from 2015 to 2022. Now the network has been forced to change its advertising campaign from rallying around the home team to focusing on epic rivalries and pop culture tie-ins like Deadpool.

“It’s seismic on one level because you know that there’s a large percentage of the audience that are going to show up just to watch the U.S. team,” Robert Gottlieb, executive vice president of marketing at Fox Sports, told Adweek. “And then the hope is once they watch a U.S. game on a Tuesday morning, now they’re vested and are into the tournament. We know we lost a large chunk of that, and there’s no way we’re going to be able to market our way back to the U.S. team being in the tournament, and what that interest would cause.”

Meanwhile, the BBC’s marketing campaign for the World Cup has focused on the tournament’s rich history. The British television network a created a short film to illustrate iconic moments on the field through animated tapestry, accompanied by a traditional Russian folk song that pays tribute to the 2018 World Cup’s host.

Despite the lack of interest within the promo industry, major retail brands such as Adidas and Louis Vuitton have capitalized on soccer’s biggest international tournament, producing an elaborate travel collection. FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, has also entered the swag game with a smorgasbord of quirky, fun and over-the-top merchandise.

The 2018 FIFA World Cup kicks off Thursday, June 14, as Russia plays Saudi Arabia.