It has been three days since Spain became the champion of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Paul the octopus was right. Now that the thirty days of intensive soccer viewing by more than 500 million people is over, we can go back and analyze everything else that was happening around the game, specifically the intense marketing. When Spain scored the winning goal, one of the FIFA partners came up in the digital signs surrounding the field. Do you remember who it was? That's right, Adidas. Even if you don't remember, you could go back and watch the play again on the news, online, or pick up the newspaper and find the image on the front page. This partnership gained them not only immense coverage in the most important moment of this year's World Cup, but also the referees wore Adidas uniforms, the soccer balls were Adidas-branded and televised ads for soccer apparel and equipment during the matches could only feature Adidas as well. In addition, Adidas was the official sponsor for 12 of 32 teams that made it to the World Cup, including Spain. How's that for 'bang for your buck'?

In this year's World Cup, there were three brands that became the first business companies from their countries to become FIFA World Cup Sponsors: Yingli Solar (a Chinese solar panel manufacturer), Seara (Brazil's unit of Marfrig Alimentos SA, which is the world's 4th largest meatpacker), and Mahindra Satyam (an Indian software company). According to Businessweek, Alan Gould, CEO of Nielsen IAG, stated, "You're seeing something of a democratization of global branding." To invest in the World Cup in a major way is certainly a major indicator that they are seeking aggressively to become a global player." Advertising in the World Cup used to always be dominated by sponsors from richer countries that would benefit from higher revenue due to the increased exposure; therefore, this is a new wave of smaller brands searching for bigger results.

Huge brands and smaller brands whether they are global or local, can benefit from advertising in sports. Soccer has proven to be the sport that brings people of different ages, cultures, and languages from all over the world together to experience joy, anxiety, anger, sadness, and pride. Brands are connecting themselves with this very popular and emotional sport. To do some connecting yourself, you won't have to wait until the next World Cup: FIFA and other soccer organizations offer almost yearly tournaments. In fact, the options from FIFA alone include the Confederations Cup, the Club World Cup, the Futsal World Cup, the Beach Soccer World Cup, the Men's Olympic Football Tournament, the Interactive World Cup, the Blue Stars/Youth Cup and more.

For effective ways to sponsor sporting events please contact your US Media Consulting Representative at 305-722-5500.