Johannesburg - The World Cup has sparked an explosion of patriotic advertising which captures the sudden soccer-frenzied ebullience of the public, and demonstrates yet again sport’s unique power to unite the nation. At least temporarily.
Even with no hope of Bafana Bafana ever getting near the winners’ podium, supporters are splurging on flags and vuvuzelas, and dressing for a game on Football Fridays. It leaves the 1995 Rugby World Cup in the shade.
But FIFA must be tearing its metaphorical hair out. All you have to do is show a vuvuzela-trumpeting sample of the rainbow nation dressed in yellow shirts and funny hats to make an immediate connection to the World Cup. The average fan probably couldn’t tell you whether MTN or Vodacom is a sponsor, but he will be equally aware of their marketing activity.
And seemingly none of them have broken the Draconian rules laid down by FIFA to protect its sponsors from ambush marketing.
Official sponsor MTN’s big-budget Ayoba ad by MetropolitanRepublic is a joyous outpouring of enthusiasm and excitement. But cellphone rival Vodacom, which sponsors Bafana Bafana, has enlisted rugby’s Player 23, supported by 1995 rugby heroes like Kobus Wiese and Joel Stransky to join the 2010 supporters club. “It’s the year 2010 and we’re gonna gooi like its 95 all over again,” says Jan.
It’s one of five commercials making up the “Join the voice behind Bafana Bafana” campaign, and it has given Vodacom immense visibililty.
Probably the biggest agency beneficiary of this bonanza is World Cup agency Ogilvy, which has done work for sponsors and non-sponsors, from SA Tourism and the Local Organising Committee to BP and Castrol. For Fifa it has advised, “make sure you can say, I was there.” For Supersport the line is, “Once in a lifetime.”
Castle Lager revellers are shown holding sparklers spelling out “Welcome to our home, Bru.” An award-winning campaign for BP amusingly depicts diverse groups involved in soccer matches – café owners versus mamas, taxi drivers against divas.
Ogilvy Johannesburg MD Julian Ribeiro agrees there is a proliferation of ads that achieve immediate association with the World Cup – without breaking the rules. “Their rules and regulations can only go so far,” he says.
But there is a disappointing sameness to the advertising, which is frequently
characterized by multiracial scenes of good ole boys in gyrating celebration. “We’ve tried to avoid this by steering clear of stereotypes,” says Ribeiro. “You won’t find crowds of celebrating fans in our ads. We’ve looked for fresh ways of making the point.”
“Every one of our clients has kept us busy during the build-up,” says Jupiter DR Johannesburg executive creative director Tom Cullinan.
“Edgars and Jet are official merchandisers and big campaigns have seen kit fly off the shelves. Sasol has used the agency to develop an internal morale-building programme for staff.
Many ads are relatively simple, driven by emotion rather than creative cleverness.
A commercial conceived by The Agency and produced by Frieze Films for Telkom features vignettes of supporters from participating nations settling down in front of their TV sets to witness the kickoff. Waiting in anticipation, a distracted waitress overfills a cup of coffee, a baker endlessly kneads her bread. Then joy erupts as the championship gets under way.
FIFA has been pretty heavy-handed in enforcing its rules, but these restrictions seem to stimulate advertising creativity. Kulula.com, banned from calling itself the “Unofficial carrier of the you-know-what”, changed its headline to “Not next year, not last year, but somewhere in between.”
Nando’s spoofed Visa’s slogan “We were there” with a witty “I ate there” campaign.
But FIFA stopped a Pretoria tavern from displaying World Cup terms and flags; Metcash was prevented from marketing “2010 Pops” (lollypops) coupled with images of the South African flag and footballs.
According to Andre van der Merwe, of the intellectual property law firm DM Kisch, “Any combination of the terms ‘South Africa’, ‘2010’ and ‘Soccer/World Cup’ can only be used by official sponsors. FIFA stipulates there should be no association between any business and FIFA trade marks, which include the official emblem, mascot, posters and the trophy.”
You could get away with "Football in South Africa" or "South African soccer," says Van der Merwe. But in the current euphoric climate you don’t need to use the banned terms for the public to make the connection. Right now, everything is about soccer.
- Fin24.com