Hasta La Creative!

I was born and raised in Argentina ftbol country. And as such, the World Cup is something you can’t avoid. We would (and we still) wait patiently for the largest sporting event in the world to kick off every four years. You have likely heard the stats, but to give you some context in 2010, at least 3.2 billion people watched the World Cup around the world. That’s roughly 46 percent of the global population! There are very few media events of this magnitude left, where people still gather around the TV and even the radio in some rural areas to watch their country’s greatest players and athletes battle it out on the field on behalf of their countrymen.

Outside of the competition itself, two of the biggest components that make it possible, media and advertising, have changed profoundly since I watched my first World Cup in 1982. While still requiring major coordination, marketers only had a few options back then: TV, print, out-of-home, and radio. Today any brand official sponsor or not has the ability to join the bandwagon across a multitude of media options. And even though the teams haven’t walked on the field yet, some of the world’s biggest brands have already been battling it out on digital screens.

So I cannot help but wonder how global brands like Coke, Adidas, McDonald’s and any of the official sponsors planning a campaign of such magnitude approach this event. How can a brand effectively produce a campaign where its products might actually traverse ALL of the 204 countries where the World Cup will be broadcasted, across all media channels, and audiences?

Continue reading at AdAge.com