11 May 2010

Most successful FMCG World Cup campaigns will integrate creative with targeted vouchers

FMCG marketers looking to cash in on this summer’s football fever risk scoring an own-goal with poorly targeted advertising campaigns that tenuously link their products to the World Cup, according to the 2010 FMCG World Cup Report from atmAd, the UK’s largest Digital Out Of Home advertising network which commissioned independent research of 1,766 British consumers.

According to the 2010 FMCG World Cup Report, 35 per cent of British consumers will only respond to World Cup-linked advertising if it is from one of the 13 official FIFA World Cup sponsors or partners such as Coca-Cola and Budweiser. Those same consumers will react negatively to any other campaign they perceive to be ‘jumping on the bandwagon’, especially if the brand’s products have little or nothing to do with the tournament.

However, there is still a major opportunity for FMCG brands that are not official sponsors. Almost one in three (28 per cent) British consumers would be receptive to World Cup-related ads from any such brand as long as their content and execution is particularly creative. A further one in five Britons (22 per cent) are happy for any brand to associate itself with the World Cup this summer so long as the advertising is relevant.

The most successful FMCG World Cup campaigns, however, will be those that use vouchers in the right time and place to convert a well executed creative into sales at the checkout. 40 per cent of consumers would purchase a product if they could print out a reminder or discount voucher at the point their interest was grabbed by an advert such as a digital screen or cash machine on their way into the supermarket.

“The World Cup is a great opportunity for brands, but over the years consumers have become more discerning and FMCG brands risk scoring an own goal if their link to the tournament is tenuous and their campaign is not especially creative,” says Justin Stark, Director of National Sales, atmAd. “The most successful FMCG World Cup campaigns will not only demonstrate creativity, but also integrate and facilitate an immediate and relevant call-to-action. Digital out of home will be increasingly important in this summer’s FMCG marketing campaigns as it has the ability to connect with consumers in a way that television, radio or print cannot. It can reach consumers on their way to supermarkets and provide printed vouchers at the moment it captures their attention and so drive additional sales in a way that traditionally only prominent store placement could have done.”

Methodology:

The research commissioned by atmAd and conducted by Maximiles, a full-accredited international market research company polling a nationally representative sample of 1,755 UK adults aged 18+.