Make sweet Caroline your sweet brand success
What a night! July 7th 2021 put the nation through the ringer. The England men’s football team finally made a final, putting an end to decades of disappointment, over-hyped expectations and perceived under-achievement. And didn’t they do it in some style and class? On and off the pitch. It’s a bonanza for the national mood and a big one for associated brands.
Tapping into national euphoria pays a rich dividend.
Moments like this, as we English supporters know, are rare. They live long in the memory. They also present a rare opportunity for brands looking to tap into the rich dividend that can flow from an outpouring of national euphoria. Now, the world of sporting events and sponsorship is a risky one – you never know in advance what the outcome will be. It can veer from crushing failure (who wants to remember Iceland?) to spectacular, Southgate orchestrated, success.
That risk is far greater for the official sponsorship and licensing partners of teams and events. They stump up considerable sums and support resource and, when all the stadia have emptied, results recorded, memories (good or bad) made, they uncross their fingers.
There is another way. Turning on the taps to benefit from an achievement that grips the nation can be achieved in a more timely, flexible, and rich dividend paying way. Brands offering promotions, ‘thank-you’s’, customer incentives and rewards can stimulate customer behaviour. Being agile, with partner-led promotions gives brands the ‘luxury’ of being able to better gauge likely returns. In advance of tournaments sales of TVs, fridges, BBQs (for the Qatar 2022 winter World Cup?) rise – the perfect opportunity to tie-in promotions to a rising tide of optimism and expectation. During tournaments FMCG brands can hedge outcomes and offer salivating partner promotions – out to market at lightning speed and able to truly mine any rich seam of success.
Start to cater for Qatar
Irrespective of the outcome of the Final against Italy, this England team, by exorcising past ghosts, has created a realistic expectation that the 2022 World Cup in Qatar can continue a run of success.
Fans, the public, politicians, celebrities – everyone wants to be a part of it and remembers how they felt. They remember the raw emotion, the riptide of excitement, the release of unbridled joy. And they want more.
Smart brands will look ahead to Qatar 2022 and plan promotions and incentives that are agile, rewarding and associate their products with a moment in time that could be remembered for a lifetime. Talk to us – together we can start to sketch strategies and options for unique and innovative sales, customer acquisition and loyalty marketing campaigns.
Who’d have thought that football fires so much dopamine and potential till-ringing?