FIFA 21 Campaign Review

Recognised as one of the biggest sporting events in the world, the FFA World Cup is often
the perfect occasion for each host country to promote or change public attitude about itself.
This essay is written based on the successful PR case of FFA 2010 in South Africa, with the
aim to analyse and evaluate the campaign's background, goals and objectives, target publics,
key messages, strategy and tactics. Recommendations will also be made in order to
consolidate the success of future campaigns.

(a) Situation Analysis
Here, the analysis can be generally divided into problems and opportunities. To start with the
potential problems of the campaign, two main factors can be identified: First of all, for a global
sporting event like the World Cup, it is particular important yet difficult for the host
organisation to ensure success, and the organiser's reputation is constantly at stake. Whilst
this is the first time of FFA being held in the African continent, Africa's unique characteristics
may result in severe mistakes especially when managing sensitive issues such as humanity
and environmental matters. The uncontrollability of media opinion combined with the high
media attention have also contributed to a higher PR risk, therefore the FFA marketing team
had to be extremely careful as they assess their campaign plan. Secondly, tourism wise,
South Africa has developed a global reputation of being an unsafe destination (Ferreira,
1999), especially during major sport events like the World Cup, where "[there] is a high
intensity of large crowds over a relatively short period. and [thus] an ideal platform for
potential terrorist attacks. (Donaldson & Ferreira, 2007) The concern lies in when people feel
threatened or unsafe, they are very likely to generate a negative impression of the country as
a whole, which makes it harder for the event to succeed as audience may not want to come in
to the country and create buzz.

On the other hand, however, opportunities are also presented in a few different ways. The
first element is surely the improvement of social technology. Tansill (2010) broke down this
new change in her article, stating, "Twitter did not launch until July 2006. Facebook didn't
become public until September 2006. Now, only 4 years later, Facebook has over 400
million members and more than 50 million tweets are sent each day. These platforms, which
were infants during the last World Cup, are now globally available and hugely popular. n
addition, despite the difficulty in managing sensitive topics, these factors could also be the
key of success if managed effectively, especially with FFA's experienced team. While the
mystery of the African continent can be used in the campaign as a creative selling point, the
humanity and environment issues also allow rooms for charity events and sponsorship to
come in, generating positive publicity for the event. n fact, the opportunities stated above did
become some of the main pushes during FFA's successful 2010 campaign, and will be
further discussed in the sections below.

(b) Goals and Objectives

The goal of the campaign is to successfully develop a marketing program which not only
"[allows] football fans to interact with FFA events (FFA, 2010) but also "[ensures] greater
visibility for FFA event brands and marketing assets (FFA, 2010) so that the sponsors'
Return on nvestment could be maximized. Objective wise, based on the premise of the
ultimate campaign goal, one main objective is naturally to effectively manage sponsor
relationship and ensure maximum RO. On the other hand, the promotion and marketing is
also emphasized, as FFA aims to manage the marketing program in ways that benefit all
stakeholders including end consumers, host nation and sponsors. Furthermore, another
objective lies in the maintenance of FFA's brand identity and position as best in the class in
the sports marketing and sponsorship field. (FFA, 2010)









(c) Target Public



nstead of merely targeting the football fanatics, the scope of target audience for this
campaign in particular transcends across most geographic, demographic and social
boundaries. The reason lies in the high popularity of the World Cup, in which the public
interest in the event outweighs the global interest in sports in general. The selection of the
target public is also supported by researches conducted by FFA's 15-market global research
program, where the public opinion towards football, traditional sports and the World Cup was
examined. (FFA, 2010)

nterestingly, another underlying target public of the campaign may in fact be the current FFA
sponsors as well as potential future sponsors. As one of the main objectives of the campaign
was to demonstrate FFA's dedication in building beneficial sponsor relationships, it is fair to
hypothesise that FFA attempted to communicate with these people too besides general
public in order to attract more financial support.

(d) Key messages
The main two key messages FFA aimed to deliver to its audience through this campaign
were, first, FFA can give every audience the ultimate FFA experience no matter where they
are, and second, FFA is a socially responsible event that gives back to its community while
supporting great cause. On the other hand, to its second target audience, which are the
sponsors of the event, FFA's key message lies in communicating the fact that FFA is the
best event in the sports sponsorship field, which always prioritises its sponsors in order to
reach maximum benefits for them.

(e) Strategy
n response to the objectives, the strategies of the campaign went a two-headed approach,
focusing equally on fan engagement as well as social responsibility. On the fan engagement
side, one primary strategy was to develop innovative and tailor-made marketing and
hospitality programmes, in order to entice the target public. Social responsibility wise, to
enhance FFA as well as all stakeholders' benefits and brand equity by getting involved in
charity programs of sorts. Also, another strategy simply outlined FFA's commitment towards
sponsor relationship, throughout both constant communication and a dedicated sponsorship
team.

(f) Tactics
Underneath the tagline: 20 Centres for 2010 (where 20 centres were built in 20 different cities
in Africa, offering services to youth including public health, education and a soccer field),
multiple sub-campaigns were run instantaneously in response to the strategies, wrapped up
by the same humanitarian approach. On one hand, audience experience and engagement
were highlighted through FIFA Fan Fest, a free-access platform "staged simultaneously in
16 venues across five continents around the world throughout the 31 tournament days.
(FFA, 2010) Besides live game broadcasting, entertainment events such as concerts, cultural
shows, DJ performances, fan activities by the Sponsors as well as FFA nteractive World
Cup competitions were also featured. Food, beverages and merchandise facilities were
provided in order to deliver the same audience experience as being in a live game.

On the other hand, %.et Fund provides the event partners an access to build on their social
responsibility profile as they participate in programmes to aid the local community in key
areas including education, health and environment. According to FFA's report, "n total,
120,000 tickets to FFA World Cup matches were awarded through the initiative, with FFA
Partners adidas, Coca-Cola, Hyundai, Kia, Sony and Visa taking a leading role in distributing
them.

Besides traditional press releases, these sub-campaigns have actually generated high
amount of free publicity for FFA to keep the buzz going. However, the use of social media
remains to be another important tactic incorporated in FFA 2010By combining interactive
technology such as Twitter, Facebook, Mobile Phone Apps and (Live) Streaming system such
as YouTube, the FFA team and its Partners were able to communicate with its target market
through a two-way interaction. To enhance the guest experience in South Africa, FFA also
worked with the local government to develop a hospitality program.

(g) Evaluation and Recommendations

n retrospect, the strategies and tactics were a huge success as objectives and goals were
met exceptionally. Whilst the Fan Fest was readily reported by more than 5,000 accredited
media members worldwide and had attracted more than six million Fan Fest visitors with
97% high satisfaction rate (FFA, 2010); the %.et Fund leveraged both the organiser and
partners' reputations in supporting great causes and giving back to the society. Furthermore,
positive feedbacks were also given by the sponsors post-campaign. Although there was little
information outlining the exact sponsor RO, the relationship between FFA and its sponsors
could however be hypothesized as highly promising as most of the FFA Partners and
Sponsors have maintained a long-term relationship with the event and many organisations
even broke their own sponsorship records in terms of both the money sponsored and the
contract duration. (Baker, 2010)

Although FFA is already a global phenomenon throughout years of effective campaigning,
this year's improved emphases on fan engagement and society giveback have just marked
an even higher standard for its future events, and all these wouldn't succeed without the
infusion of local culture in each area. Therefore, in order to take the





Ferreira, S (1999). `Crime a threat to tourism in South Africa, Tourism Geographies, 1 (3),
pp.316-324.

http://blog.ogilvypr.com/2010/05/worldcup/

http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/organisation/marketing/programmes/index.html

http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/organisation/marketing/targets.html

http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/organisation/marketing/programmes/fanfest.html

http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/organisation/marketing/programmes/ticketfund.html

http://www.cup2010.info/Sponsors/sponsors.html