The 2014 World Cup, which kicks off just hours from now, is expected to see the most social media activity ever. As the Global Marketing Director for Adidas Football, Tom Ramsden, stated, "This will undoubtedly be the most social World Cup ever and probably the most social event in history." Because of this, social media will be at the forefront of many marketing campaigns.
The head of Twitter's (TWTR) global World Cup effort, Lewis Wiltshire, stated, "The 2010 World Cup was the largest period of sustained activity in Twitter's history. In early March we had already passed the total number of tweets generated around that tournament, so Brazil is huge." Since Twitter understands the magnitude of World Cup for their business, the company has added special features that will make the World Cup more interactive for its users. These exclusive World Cup features include fixture cards, match alerts, and custom hashtag pages. Twitter's special World Cup features will allow companies like Nike (NKE) and Adidas to interactively advertise to their target market - World Cup fans - as the companies battle for supremacy in the estimated $17 billion soccer-products market. As Mr. Ramsden stated, "Social media allows us to tell more stories than a 30 or 60 second TV spot may typically afford." Due to this fact, Adidas has decided to spend more on social media advertising than on TV advertising. Even Adidas' marketing dollars that are allocated towards TV ads are being used to draw people to social media like Twitter by using the tag line "all in". Nike too has purchased less TV ads, as the company is increasingly focusing its advertising efforts on social media to promote its brand. Nike is using their star-studded player, Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo on Twitter to promote their commercials by retweeting them. After Ronaldo, the world's most followed athlete, retweeted one of Nike's World Cup ads it triggered a surge in views of over seventy million in just a few days.
With the 2014 World Cup set to become a record-breaking event on social media, Twitter is well positioned to capitalize on it with its new tailored features for the event. And as Twitter users become more active on the site during the World Cup, the company's revenue should see a significant boost due to all the increased advertising efforts from large corporations like Nike and Adidas wanting to be a part of the conversation.
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