The 2010 FIFA World Cup begins today and global marketers including Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Nike are describing it as a larger event than even the 2008 Beijing Olympics. That scale — combined with the intensity of interest in the sport, the national pride of fans and the fact that it’s the first major global sporting event ever held on the African continent — figures to sell a lot of sneakers and soft drinks.

“It’s the No. 1 event in all of sports,” Trevor Edwards, Nike’s VP-brand and category management, recently told the company’s investors, adding that the World Cup will be viewed by “half the world’s population.”

This is why FIFA sponsors — a group to which Nike doesn’t belong, by the way — spend up to $40 million for the privilege.

Coke, for instance, says its campaign for the World Cup will be the largest in the company’s history, as well as its most integrated. The company’s entire platform is built around the ebullient goal celebrations of soccer players, which Coke easily links to its long-held “Open Happiness” tagline.

The marketer’s TV commercials, from Argentinean agency Santo, chronicle the history of goal-scoring celebrations. Coke has a 120-country, 17-language deal with YouTube to encourage viewers to film and post their own goal dances, and it even has persuaded FIFA to condone the awarding of a fan-voted trophy for the player with the best goal dance. There’s also a celebration-themed anthem from Somali-born artist K’naan that is already charting on iTunes, and celebration-themed packaging and retail work, among other things.

“Consumers today are so connected and brands are talking to them in so many ways,” said Emmanuel Seuge, Coke’s group director of worldwide sports and entertainment marketing. “We need to be super-focused and super, super clear if we expect to break through the clutter.” [Read more...]