The eerie silence of commuters on the train this morning after England exited the World Cup was strange. Usually it’s filled with tired souls dragging themselves into Central London unhappy about another day in their 9 to 5, but today it was a different type of silence. Today the silence was infused with a sense of, “we were almost there,” sadness.
Since 1966 England have been hoping to lift the famous Gold World Cup trophy aloft, and the closest we’ve come to that was on penalties in 1990 as I’m sure you’re now tired of hearing. Many years of disappointedly underachieving performances was shattered over the last 28 days, as Gareth Southgate’s young lions performed out of their socks to narrowly be beaten by a Croatian side that has never reached the finals. In the end, it didn’t come home for England…or did it?
Outside of football and back to adland, it truly did come home for the brands who heavily invested in the World Cup with a stream of content being shown across all mediums. You seriously couldn’t look left, right, on your TV or mobile device without seeing some sort of branded content dedicated to the World Cup. The success of England reaching the semi-finals engaged the British public like never before, and strategically placed ads definitely bolstered the economy during the 28 days. I know, I know, the weather certainly helped too with prolonged sunshine which added to the feel good factor, but the consumption of social media and the delivery of branded content hit record heights as fans and the average consumer shared, then shared some more with their online communities. This World Cup even introduced the public to branded memes for the first time.
It seems the appetite for big sporting events, branded content and the use of influencers will not be slowing down anytime soon, and a lot of this content created is not as expensive as you may think. In two years time when England play at Euro 2020, it may be worth it to your brand to think about getting some strategic content in place, it may well just increase your visibility 10-fold or help with sales to no end on your product or service. Don’t believe me? Neither did the whole nation that we could win a penalty shootout…but look what happened with that. 😉
