The Power of Football: Winning brand lovers

This half-day BrandOvation seminar, presented by international brand leadership expert, Dr Nikolaus Eberl (featured weekly on CNBC: Business 2010, and in the Business Day: 2010 Column) examines the motivational drivers that turn football followers into fervent brand advocates.

Just days before the Euro 2008 tournament was kicked off, a poll was conducted to gauge the levels of emotional engagement of European football fans. According to the straw poll, one out of two football fans surveyed confessed they preferred watching important matches to having sex.

The poll also saw 60% of the 2000 supporters polled declare that football was like a religion to them. With 208 countries and more than 260-million registered football players, “the beautiful game” has for decades been eliciting emotions on and off the pitch that rival those experienced at religious gatherings.

In an era when many organisations pledge allegiance to the gospel of brand loyalty and brand advocacy, it is time to have a closer look at what exactly constitutes the power of football and how the drivers of motivational intelligence can be applied to similar effect in the areas of marketing and branding.

The author of the bestselling book “BrandOvation: How Germany won the World Cup of Nation Branding”, and the sequel “The Hero's Journey: Building a Nation of World Champions”, Dr Nikolaus Eberl holds a PhD from the Free University of Berlin and a Postgraduate Diploma from The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore.

Dr Eberl's research study on Germany's nation branding success story during the 2006 FIFA World Cup was featured extensively by Carte Blanche (viewers' choice, 1 and 5 July 2007), and he is currently engaged in internal branding for the 2010 FIFA World Cup (including 2010 Commentary for the Business Day and CNBC Africa).

Venue

Date: 14 January 2010
Location: BrandOvation Campus, Johannesburg
Cost: R1,750
More info: Auckland Park

Date: 11 February 2010
Location: BrandOvation Campus, Auckland Park, Johannesburg
Cost: R1,750

Date: 10 March 2009
Location: BrandOvation Campus, Auckland Park, Johannesburg
Cost: R1,750

Contact: Dr Nikolaus Eberl
Company name: BrandOvation
Telephone number: 083 270 6010 / 11
Email address