By Mark Baber
April 3 – Official World Cup sponsor Coca-Cola has launched its 2014 World Cup marketing programme, titled ‘The World’s Cup’, which celebrates football as a force for good in the world.
The two-minute launch video unveiled yesterday tells the story of fans, from places where football has helped overcome hardship, being invited to attend the World Cup in Brazil. The video features fans from Otsuchi, Japan, a town which was devastated by the earthquake/tsunami of 11 March 2011; from a run-down area in ‘Eastern Europe’; from an isolated community in the Amazon; and from Ramallah, in the Palestinian West Bank.
The campaign is supported by documentary-style short films, an original musical anthem and a photomosaic of fan’s faces and messages as well as the FIFA World Cup Trophy tour.
Joseph Tripodi, executive vice president and chief marketing and commercial officer for Coca-Cola said: “Just as Brasil is everyone’s country and Coca-Cola is everyone’s drink, the FIFA World Cup is everyone’s cup.”
“Through ‘The World’s Cup’, Coca-Cola wants to celebrate real people playing football, demonstrating how the game is a force for a more inclusive and connected world.”
Tripodi told the Associated Press that Coke was prepared for the eventuality of public protests in Brazil over the period of the World Cup. “We hope there is no unrest. But we recognise these things happen. You always have to be smart to have all kinds of Plan Bs, Plan Cs and Ds to prepare for any contingency. And if certain things happen you might have to change the tonality of your marketing or communications … to make sure our messaging better reflected the mood in a particular country.”
The theme of Pepsi’s World Cup video launch – also on Wednesday – was in sharp contract to Coke’s message of football’s power to overcome hardship and promote inclusivity. Pepsi’s video features celebrity players (including Messi, van Persie, Wiltshere, David Luiz, Sergio Agüero. Dempsey and Sergio Ramos) together with musicians Stony and Janelle Monáe in a lighthearted romp through the streets of Rio de Janeiro.
Kristin Patrick, Pepsi’s global chief marketing officer, said of the Pepsi campaign: “We were inspired by the power and unity that sports and music bring to the world. Our content plan to capture this spirit celebrates the creative passion of footballers with music and how both of these awesome forces inspire us to ‘Live for Now.’ “
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