Ketchum Paris has been appointed by sports sponsorship company ISL
to publicise the official sponsors of the football World Cup in
France.
The agency will assist ISL in the largest scale promotion of sponsors
that has ever been carried out. The aim is make consumers recognise that
official sponsors pour money into football, while brands that simply
associate themselves with the event via ’guerrilla’ marketing add
nothing to the game. The official sponsors of the World Cup are: Adidas,
Budweiser, Canon, Coca-Cola, Fujifilm, Gillette, JVC, MasterCard,
McDonald’s, Opel, Philips and Snickers.
The impetus for the campaign came from last year’s Euro 96 Football
Championships, when it was generally accepted that brands like Nike,
which mounted a large poster campaign at the time of the event, gained
at least as much benefit as the official sponsors.
Ketchum will co-ordinate media relations in France for the sponsors,
starting from the World Cup draw in Marseille on 4 December. Much of the
work will then be focused around the event, which will take place next
June and July.
ISL vice-president, football, Vittorio Jenny, said that Ketchum would be
responsible for various ’stunts’ which would publicise the involvement
of the 12 sponsors and complement each company’s own marketing.
Fleishman-Hillard carried out PR for ISL’s Sponsor Recognition Programme
during the 1994 World Cup in the USA. But the work was much lower key
than what is planned for next year’s event. F-H have been retained to
work on liaising with advertising agencies, giving advice on how far
they can go in linking their clients’ brands with the World Cup.
