We love seeing creative video work and with the 2022 World Cup nearly upon us (even if slightly delayed this year), we thought; ‘what better time than to celebrate some great World Cup adverts?’
Football might not be everyone’s cup of tea (we literally have a 50/50 split in the office), but it’s undeniable that it brings out some amazing content when it comes to the commercial explosion that is a major tournament.
In this edition of the STM blog, we will look at some of the best World Cup adverts.
Nike – Joga Bonito
One of a series of World Cup adverts.
Everyone remembers the Ronaldinho video of him volleying the ball off the bar time and time again, but if for some reason you don’t; it was the first video on YouTube to reach one million views.
It was part of a series called Joga Bonito, Play Beautifully in English, fronted up by the infinitely cool Eric Cantona.
It was a series that got all of the best footballers in the world to show off their mad skillz ahead of the 2006 World Cup. If you weren’t sending these videos to each other on bluetooth then you didn’t have a proper childhood.
Combining the street football element with the greatest players gave everyone something to relate to and the results were incredible. The videos went viral, the dedicated online tv channel boomed and Nike launched a 3v3 tournament on the back of it.
In June 2006, Nike announced that its Joga Bonito campaign had record traffic to Nikefootball.com. The site recorded two million visits per week. The Joga Bonito site received 760,000 visits a week. They also claimed that 448,000 people participated in its Joga3 futsal tournaments and the videos are still played today.
Mars – Singing for England
In this World Cup advert, without question the greatest England football song was reused by Mars prior to the 2010 World Cup, with John Barnes recreating his eternal rap.
Tapping into the inevitable ‘it’s coming home’ feeling, Mars connected to the people as an official partner of the England football team (seems somewhat counterintuitive but sure) and launched behind the scenes content on their website.
Nike – Write the future
Maybe the best football advert, let alone World Cup advert, ever made, this advert became an anti prophecy in its own right. With features from seemingly everyone of note, all of the ‘protagonists’ of the piece went on to have miserable World Cups and it was suggested that there was a Nike curse. Still, worth a watch, if not for Homer Simpson’s cameo.
Dre Beats – The game before the game
As with all Dre Beats adverts, the product placement isn’t the most subtle, but it’s still a great video. Showing the players getting in the right mental space while their respective countries prepare for the World Cup and go through their own rituals is a great way to show off what it means to people worldwide. The results?
$50m in PR value
26m+ views on YouTube
1,502,265,009 global impressions
33% growth in YouTube subscribers
130% growth in online headphone sales
Splendid.
Adidas – Footballitis
Just a bit silly really!
But what wasn’t so silly was the fact that after they’d wheeled out their star studded roster of athletes and spent £25m on sponsoring the World Cup alongside their Footballitis campaign, they had their biggest surge in sales in over four years; an 11% increase.
ESPN – Ian Darke
The last of our World Cup adverts, Ian Darke commentating on an incredibly awkward first date in preparation for the 2014 World Cup. It’s that simple!
As head honcho of their commentary team, it went down a storm!
There we have it. Six great World Cup adverts!
Maybe there are some ideas in there that you might be transferable to your industry, or some creative sparks have been lit.
We hope you enjoyed and if you have any questions about marketing videos, please feel free to get in touch with us through our contact page.
Thanks for reading this blog on great world cup adverts.
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