The 2010 FIFA World Cup is upon us, kicking-off June 11 in Africa. Although not a big soccer fan, World Cup is once every 4 years, so I decided to make an exception. I’ve compiled a list of the little things [careful, pdf] that will help you follow your favorite country, all the way to the Finals. If you have something to add, comment away and I’ll include it in the original list.
Have to say that I’m somewhat disappointed at the minimal usage FIFA are doing with social media services in one of the most (maybe even #1) popular sports in the world – no official twitter account, facebook group, foursquare venues, youtube channel (not active), only non-official blog. I know it’s in a developing continent, but still, there will be plenty of soccer-loving-social-media-junkies out there, that can help those at home keep track of the action. The World Cup sponsors however (and South Africa’s government), are not counting on FIFA, and promoting their own campaigns, such as Sony-Ericcson’s Twitter Cup, which shows an interactive stadium that fills based on the number of tweets. Budweiser will host Bud House [twitter], a rendition of The Real World, focused on soccer of course. Coca-Cola will launch their advertising campaign May 15, in 90 markets and heavy YouTube partnership, under the ‘Quest‘ name.
That’s it, for now. In the meantime, the NBA Playoffs are at Conference Semi-Finals (East/West) – you can follow the action at nba.com or youtube.com.
Couple of months ago I wrote here about FIFA World Cup 2010, pointing out the digital campaigns of the major sponsors. Last week, the translated version was published in issue 7 of Marketing Now, a quarterly newsletter by The College of Management, School of Marketing & Advertising. You can read the online version here (Hebrew, IE only) or download the PDF (again, in Hebrew).