World Cup Sponsorship, a Special News Report

While Nike has been dominant in soccer advertising in past years, this tournament saw Adidas become the World Champions. Adidas began to overtake its rival through the success of a Star Wars themed advert featuring Beckham, Snoop Dogg et al.

With the huge furore over the Jabulani match ball, a NM Incite survey showed Adidas overtook Nike in terms of buzz on blogs and social media networks. Adidas landed the final blow by its shirt sponsorship of the Soccer World Cup winners Spain.

The NM Incite survey has also revealed that during the first two weeks of the World Cup, FIFA Partners and World Cup Sponsors dominated online buzz. In fact out of the 10 most talked about brands 8 had World Cup affiliations (only Pepsi and Carlsberg did not have ties).

This World Cup halo effect spread to other markets as Budweiser, Hyundai and McDonald’s all saw a surge in internet buzz.