Media Coverage

June 25th, 2014

Why Marketers Can’t Bank On World Cup Ads

Why Marketers Can’t Bank On World Cup Ads

Author

Steven Perlberg

Wall Street Journal

 by Steven Perlberg, Wall Street Journal

Getty Images

As Team U.S.A. gears up for a pivotal World Cup match against Germany on Thursday, the prevailing feeling this summer has been that soccer fandom has finally arrived stateside.

But for advertisers, “the beautiful game” remains a niche sport. Ads with soccer content tend not to translate as well across a broader audience as do those connected to the Super Bowl or the Olympics, according to ad tracker Ace Metrix.

Ace Metrix, which tracks insights about ad likability and the likelihood a viewer will make a purchase, found that World Cup-related commercials score 6% lower than normal everyday advertising among viewers. In contrast, ads related to the Olympics and the Super Bowl score 7% and 3% above average, respectively.

That’s because, unlike the World Cup, the Olympics and Super Bowl have more of a mass appeal among American audiences, according to Ace Metrix executive vice president Jonathan Symonds.

“Sports are somewhat polarizing,” said Mr. Symonds. “The World Cup trails the regular ads and I think that’s fundamentally a result of the polarizing nature of soccer.”

Still, marketers are clearly paying more attention to soccer and its growing legion of devotees. TV ad dollars for the sport, once a punchline among American sports fans, have spiked 43% since the last World Cup, from $265 million to $378 million, according to Nielsen. Sunday’s thrilling battle between the U.S. and Portugal drew 18.2 million viewers on ESPN alone, according to the network. That’s more than the viewership of all but one World Series game last year and more than any of the NBA Finals games. Univision added an additional 6.5 million viewers watching in Spanish.

All of that has advertisers wondering if soccer will become a major marketing opportunity once this summer’s tournament ends.

Perhaps only among soccer fans. Ace Metrix found that, unsurprisingly, World Cup-related ads resonate with people who planned to watch at least one game. Those “fans” scored ads 57% higher on Ace Metrix’s scale than non-fans. About half of Ace Metrix’s over 5,000 respondents said they didn’t plan on watching a game at all.

Individual marketers, including Clorox’s Glad and Procter and Gamble’s Crest, have seen success with World Cup ads on Ace Metrix’s scale. And the most prolific World Cup marketer? Beats Audio, whose star-studded “game before the game” ad has become popular on social media.

 

Source: Wall Street Journal Online

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