Brand Marketing Carnival: Mobile Strategy for the World Cup

The World Cup is not only a brand carnival for global business giants, but also a great opportunity for commercial promotion for local businesses, because various offline consumption places related to watching the World Cup will become places for fans to consume and revel.

A survey from Zhimeng Consulting shows that 28% of World Cup fans will invite good friends to watch the game together in bars, restaurants and other places, and 18% said they would take the opportunity to watch the game with clients during the World Cup.

These data show a market of localized life service merchants and brand retail terminals related to the World Cup life circle of fans. So, what effect will these localized life service merchants and retail terminals produce when they are connected with the hottest mobile Internet marketing? As the first World Cup held using 4G network, Brazil World Cup will also become a "premiere" of localized mobile marketing.

Mobile localization + O2O

Although the World Cup is held far away in Brazil, it has attracted global attention. It is reported that 80% of the 6.8 billion mobile smart devices in the world are equipped with GPS, and geographic location data has begun to penetrate into every mobile space. Therefore, mobile localized advertising combined with geographic positioning has become a must-have for companies in mobile marketing during the World Cup.

During the World Cup, people not only watch the games and hang out with fans, but also related O2O businesses such as social networking, catering, and group buying have become hot topics of the 2014 World Cup. For example, you can participate in football commentary online and organize online friends to go to offline stadiums to try their hand at football. You can also start an organization online and invite three or five friends to watch the game together in a bar or square, and use social networking, group buying and other businesses to get preferential consumption.

To provide fans with a brand new viewing experience, Gome Online and Baidu Wallet launched the World Cup event "Invite the whole country to drink beer for free". From 18:00 on May 28 to 24:00 on June 6, fans only need to log in to Gome Online or Baidu Wallet and pay a symbolic fee of 1 cent to pick up 6 cans of Harbin Beer at Gome Online's offline stores.

"This interactive service based on the consumer's location can leverage local advantages to interact with consumers on a regular basis, especially taking advantage of the viewing and consumption boom during the World Cup, which is a good time," said Gu Yan, vice president of lomark, China's largest localized mobile advertising platform.

In addition, localized advertising can also play a unique role during the World Cup. According to the "China Localized Mobile Advertising Market Special Report" released by Analysys, the local mobile advertising market is expected to reach 10.142 billion yuan in 2014, a year-on-year increase of 93.6%, and the World Cup may boost the development of localized mobile advertising.

Xiao Mingchao, a business trend observer, said that merchants can combine the user's geographical location during the World Cup to push relevant information about the World Cup that the user may be interested in to the user's mobile phone, such as restaurant food recommendations in the surrounding area, the best places to watch the World Cup, entertainment venue discount information, etc. In fact, many people will go to Brazil during the World Cup, and retailers can use geolocation to drive consumers to their stores to consume. They can also use other tools such as Foursquare or other "check-in" applications to provide coupons to increase sales.

Wonderful stories + interaction

How can Shenzhen users interact with the World Cup in Brazil in real time? Stories are always the best choice to connect the messy clues, and they are also the form of advertising that is most easily accepted by the audience. To this end, lomark helped Shenzhen's largest professional eyewear chain, Dr. Eyewear, and the Italian brand Police Eyewear to design an event that stimulated widespread participation and interaction among netizens.

Dot Media Lomark designed an interactive game called "Help Neymar find the World Cup". Through a touch-screen shooting game, the Police glasses brand was embedded in the game - the football star Neymar put on glasses, transformed from a football star into a handsome detective, shot the thief, and found the stolen World Cup. Through this highly interactive activity, the audience influence of Brazilian football star Neymar was fully utilized to spread and promote the Police sunglasses brand.

It is reported that during the 2014 World Cup, McDonald's will become a "fan gas station" that never closes, and more than 620 24-hour McDonald's restaurants in China will provide live broadcasts of the entire event. Xiao Mingchao believes that during this period, if some location-related apps are used to interact with consumers, users can have a more real experience of the brand.

In Gu Yan's opinion, in addition to conveying brand appeals, the most direct benefit of localized marketing is to attract traffic. For example, through LBS location services, the nearest physical eyewear store can be found to promote user consumption behavior and convert advertising effects into actual value.

Dedicated APP + special activities

During the World Cup from June 5 to July 31, CR Vanguard will launch a football guessing game called "Enjoy Football Night and Win Snowflake Millions of Luxury Gifts". Nearly 500 CR Vanguard hypermarkets across the country will participate, of which 230 hypermarkets will provide free WIFI and hold guessing games. Customers interested in participating in the game can follow the instructions on store posters or consult on-site service staff, go to designated areas with free WIFI (except Dapeng Store, Caitian Store, and Henggang Store) to download the "Football Guessing Game" to participate in this event, and will eventually give out luxury gift packages worth 4.5 million yuan.

"This kind of localized APP will also attract more users and downloads during the World Cup if it is well planned," said Xiao Mingchao. For local location-related businesses such as beer and fast food restaurants, a dedicated APP for the World Cup can be launched. For example, many fans like to order takeout, and data shows that the sales of food such as pizza, chicken wings, hamburgers, and takeout such as beer will increase during major games. During last year's Super Bowl, Americans ate a whopping 1.23 billion chicken wings.

In addition, adding some special consumer-perceived activities during the World Cup will further highlight the brand's activity. For example, during the World Cup, Haier renovated some large stores in South America, providing fans with large screens, sofas, beer, telescopes, etc. to attract fans; and Beijing's Jinbaiwan Roast Duck replaced the store manager of each store with a senior fan. For example, a store manager is a Dutch fan. When customers enter the store, they are asked three questions, such as "How many goals were scored in the last World Cup?" before they can enter. This store also provides extended business hours and extra meals, and has two modes: farewell party and celebration party. If the Netherlands loses, the store manager will be very sad and offer a 30% discount on all items. These interesting special activities may deepen the stickiness between consumers and brands.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.