The 2018 World Cup is upon us and fans across the globe are abuzz. While cheering on your favorite team, don’t forget to leverage the massive audience to ensure a big win for your brand! There is no shortage of opportunities to reach audiences on location or watching from afar.
With the rise of cord cutting, viewers can stream exclusive highlights from Fox Sports via Twitter, original content from Snapchat, and of course, plenty of UGC on YouTube and across social media. E-marketer has called this year’s tournament the “Digital Cup.”
It’s more than that, it’s the “Mobile World Cup,” according to Will Scougal, head of creative strategy, EMEA at Snap, arguing that the creative options of the camera give fans a richer experience onsite and sharing with friends.
Brands like Nike and Adidas agree, teaming up to deliver custom Bitmoji for the event!
Source: The Drum
While almost half of the online population will watch the event, An Ipsos report says a quarter plan to watch digitally. Research from Oath suggests a quarter (23%) of World Cup viewers will leverage smartphones as part of a multi-screen experience.
Source: Ipsos
Ipsos also found that digital viewing will be highest among internet users in developing countries, often referred to as mobile first – 47% in China, 45% in India and 44% in Saudi Arabia.
What does it all mean for advertisers? Smaato presented ad spend data from the 2014 World Cup, in countries of the top-performing teams. According to spending on their platform, spending increased by a third in the eight teams in countries finals, with Germany a clear winner with a 78% increase in spend.
While sports apps will see an obvious boost in both user acquisition and monetization, there are opportunities for food delivery, shopping, rideshare, news, and even dating. Don’t forget geo-fencing to send custom messages to stadium goers or those watching events in bars or at home.
Wondering where to focus your ad spend? According to research from GlobalWebIndex, social apps will see the highest activity, with European viewers spending time in YouTube (90%), Facebook (76%), WhatsApp (65%), Facebook Messenger (49%), Instagram (48%) and Twitter (39%). Meanwhile, China’s social apps dominate that market, including WeChat (88%), Youku (71%), Sina Weibo (70%), QZone (63%), Tencent Weibo (49%) and Tudou (44%).