When festive meets football
On 20th November in the UK, the first ever Winter World Cup in the Northern hemisphere collided with peak advertising season and disrupted our usual festive TV viewing experiences.
With this Qatar World Cup/Christmas mash-up in full swing, we look at how brands are handling the challenges and opportunities of this battle for eyeballs so far.
To protest or promote
The controversies and human rights issues surrounding host nation Qatar mean that sports brands looking to make noise around the World Cup should be thinking carefully about the messages they’re sending out – and whether it’s appropriate for their brand to advertise at all. Yet, it’s also a huge risk to choose to boycott advertising products or services around peak festive season.
Choosing to loudly protest this World Cup also risks bad publicity backlash, as brewery and pub chain Brewdog recently discovered. After launching their “anti-sponsors” campaign, social media accused them of being hypocritical since advertising on Instagram that their UK pubs would be showing every World Cup game. They had also previously signed a deal with Qatar’s only alcohol producer to sell Brewdog in Qatar during the tournament – this didn’t go unnoticed.
Tackling two themes together
With Christmas and the World Cup competing for attention, many marketers have faced the challenge of conquering two themes in one campaign. Rather than bombarding viewers with double the amount of ads, the best campaigns remain targeted and relevant to their intended audience.
This can really pay off if done well. New eBay Ads statistics reveal that around 40% of viewers are watching this non-traditional winter World Cup from home1, instead of the pub screenings so popular in summer. This has created an unprecedented opportunity for TV ads.
1. Paddy Power – poking fun
Sports betting company Paddy Power is poking fun at the festive-football clash in their “Where were you in ‘22” campaign – humorously pairing Christmas cliches with football icons and ripping both to shreds.
Paddy Power Christmas Advert | Where were you in ‘22
2. Aldi – festive icon with a twist
As statistics also show that over one third of World Cup viewers are more excited about the tournament than Christmas1, there’s also an opportunity for non-sports brands to incorporate some football fever into their usual festive advertising.
It can be argued that Aldi do this well, releasing two consecutive TV ads in their “Feast on football – let’s do it/Christmas” campaign that playfully parodies first Nike’s iconic “samba ball” ad, then classic Christmas film “Home Alone” in a pun-filled Christmas World Cup mash-up. Aldi cleverly marries the two themes in one narrative while primarily using part 1 to engage football fans and part 2 to promote their festive feast products.
3. Sports Direct – playing with stereotypes
Sportswear retailer Sports Direct are known for their product-heavy festive adverts, and always maximise their presence on prime-time TV around Black Friday sales and in the Christmas count-down.
Their 2022 “Give me football” campaign is as packed with sports clothing and accessories as ever, but this year the retailer emphasises the unconventional Christmas period by playing with the stereotypes of traditional Christmas ads in a trio of 20 second mini ads.
These ads avoid out-right references to the World Cup but focus heavily on football and feature a range of football legends. This could be Sports Directs answer to dodging the controversies around Qatar 2022 while directly advertising their fashion range to that same audience.
Sports Direct Christmas Advert 2022 | Eric Cantona x Thierry Henry x Declan Rice x Mason Mount
Higher costs v greater wins
For many brands who normally engage with TV audiences ahead of Christmas, they have had to choose between paying higher premiums on ITV ads – the official UK broadcaster of the Qatar World Cup – and missing out on peak season advertising space.
It’s almost unthinkable to miss out on ad space in-between record-breaking viewing figures on ITV – England v USA captivated 15.1m viewers and surpassed I’m a Celeb to become ITV’s most watched programme this year2. This match also took place on Black Friday – one of the biggest marketing opportunities in the calendar.
Yet, ITV’s price to advertise for 30 seconds during the key breaks in this game were around £550,0003. Prices drop to around £70,000 to £150,000 for ad space in between matches that don’t involve home nations – but as the first quarter of 2023 will still be much cheaper, many marketers have had to decide whether to delay airtime until the New Year.
To help the double-whammy costs of Christmas World Cup marketing, ITV are offering brands 20% off for World Cup airtime on their main channel. Sports brands in particular also need to carefully consider how big the pay-off could be. Nearly one third of World Cup watchers have agreed that many of their Christmas gift purchases will be football related1.
Sources and references
- https://www.performancemarketingworld.com/article/1806046/football-v-christmas-29-world-cup-viewers-set-buy-football-themed-christmas-gifts
- https://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2022/11/28/streaming-record-for-itv-world-cup-coverage/
- https://www.campaignasia.com/article/world-cup-2022-festive-footballs-big-money-gamble/481716
