ADVERTISING & PROMOTION: The real winners at Euro 96

Southgate may have been berated by his mum for not belting the ball, but

no one can accuse marketers of not exploiting Euro ’96.

For the 11 main sponsors - Canon, Carlsberg, Coca-Cola, Fuji,

Mastercard, JVC, McDonald’s, Philips, Snickers, Vauxhall and Umbro - the

tournament was the focus of this year’s marketing strategy. Each paid

pounds 3.5m for the link and estimates put their related marketing at

another pounds 100m.

As the dust settles at Wembley, the battle for marketing champion is

still being fought. The sponsors may have had their merchandise and

their pitch perimeter ads thrust in front of TV audiences, but other

brands proved effective advertising could link brands to the event at a

much lower cost.

For breakdown service Green Flag, the gamble of backing a flagging

England team with a four-year pounds 4m deal paid off as its logo made

every lead news bulletin and the front page of every national.

Nike’s pounds 500,000 poster campaign through Simons Palmer Clemmow &

Johnson turned out to be far from an own goal, despite griping media

coverage. Its inclusions of teams, players and referees who subsequently

left the picture drew great publicity. The campaign also linked the

brand, traditionally associated with basketball and tennis, to football.

Now the football boots are back in the locker, we asked four groups to

give their opinion on marketing around the event.

The industry body

Roy Mantle, head of PR and sponsorship for Guinness Brewing GB and

chairman of the sponsorship action group at ISBA: ‘There has been an

awful lot of clutter and it is difficult to stampÿ20brand authority on it.

The media encourage guerrilla campaigns because they run anything. They

could maybe help official sponsors by saying they will only promote

recognised sponsors.’

The official sponsors

Spokesman for bookmaker Ladbrokes: ‘The tournament has turned out to be

the biggest betting event in Britain, with total turnover of pounds 80m

across the industry.’

Spokeswoman for official soft drink manufacturer Coca-Cola: ‘We wanted

to act as sponsor, not just slap our name on the event. With sponsorship

we actually give something back to the sport and to the consumer.’

Mara Heffler, senior vice-president global sponsorship, for official

credit card MasterCard: ‘There is no doubt in any of our minds there has

been a significant increase in brand awareness.’

The ambushers

James Kydd, marketing director for Virgin Cola, which ran a pounds

100,000 press campaign: ‘In terms of value for money we did brilliantly.

At least we had a sense of humour about it all.’

The consumer

Paul Simpson, editor, soccer magazine FourFourTwo: ‘I’m not sure how

much notice matchgoers took of the sponsors, although I suspect sponsors

were aiming at a TV audience. I didn’t see people ordering lots of

Carlsberg.’

Victorious Green Flag

Green Flag signed a pounds 4m deal to sponsor the England team’s

training kit at the beginning of last year, to last until after the

World Cup in 1998. Although not an official sponsor, a spokesman for the

company believes its involvement in the tournament, as part of the

ongoing investment, paid off.

‘As we were not an official sponsor we couldn’t be on the boards or use

the logo in advertising. But our logo was more closely associated with

the team. The sponsorship was of the people rather than the event.

‘Every time a player was photographed, our logo was there. We set up

shots but others, such as Terry Venables driving away from Bisham Abbey

for the last time, were just lucky.’

This article was first published on Marketing