While a few global corporations had the luxury of throwing money at above the line advertising campaigns, the cost to do so was simply prohibitive for the vast majority of businesses. For example, ITV Plc, the UK's largest commercial broadcaster, reportedly charged 300,000 pounds (over R3 million) for space during certain matches. This meant that most brands were required to be far more innovative in their attempts cut through the clutter and capture the attention of their respective target markets.
A small few have done so brilliantly using relatively low cost publicity stunts and campaigns. As a public relations practitioner, I have thoroughly enjoyed watching how some of these cleverly (and some not so cleverly) conceived and executed initiatives have unfolded in the public domain.
Below is my top 5 list of the most effective World Cup related PR stunts achieved on a shoe string budget.
Paul the Psychic Octopus
Sea Life in Oberhausen, Germany, struck a chord with soccer fans around the globe with a "psychic" octopus named Paul, who seemed to have an uncanny knack for predicting winners for games in which Germany was participating. His handlers placed mussels in glass cubes that contained flags of the two opposing teams. The first mussel Paul chose was deemed to be his prediction for the game. Amazingly, Paul had a 100% success rate in his selections. The result - Paul became a media darling and Sea Life achieved enormous levels of brand awareness.
I contacted Sea Life's head of PR, Mark Oakley, to find out whether he could have predicted the media frenzy around Paul (and Sea Life). He said that while Sea Life expected a good level of interest initially, the fact that it reached global proportions was undoubtedly a result of Paul's 100% accuracy.
As with most things in life, success is 99% about hard work and 1% about luck, and Lord help you if you don't have that 1%. The only disappointing aspect about the campaign is that the Sea Life website has no reference to Paul. It would do well to leverage Paul's new found celebrity status through viral elements, such as placing a webcam focused on his tank, or creating an "octoblog" for the eight legged wonder.
Dutch brewer crashes World Cup sponsor party
Dutch brewer, Bavaria, made headlines when more than 30 women showed up at the Netherlands-Denmark match wearing orange mini-dresses emblazoned with the name of the company. The stunt may have irked FIFA, soccer's governing body, but it got Bavaria a bucket load of publicity. The company has denied attempting to cash in on the World Cup, insisting the short orange mini-dresses had been given away with packs of beer. This is highly unlikely, as it is not the first time the company has fallen foul of FIFA's strict marketing laws.
Four years ago, at the Germany World Cup, scores of Dutch men watched the Netherlands play in a Stuttgart stadium in their underwear after stewards ordered them to remove orange lederhosen bearing the name of Bavaria.
Things turned a little sour however in South Africa, when some of the women wearing the dresses were arrested. I don't think Bavaria expected this and it was forced to react with a written statement asking FIFA to leave the poor women alone.
While some may have sympathy for FIFA in its bid to protect the rights of official sponsors, I think Bavaria has come out ahead of official beer sponsor, Budweiser (which did well to stay out of the fray), on this one. After all, everybody loves the underdog.
Unofficial airline responds to hysteria
Kulula, the low cost airline, continued to build on its reputation for delivering unorthodox marketing campaigns, with its clever response to the negative coverage of South Africa in the UK's press.
After the UK's Daily Star newspaper ran a front page story announcing that South Africa was almost certain to be hit by a major natural disaster such as an earthquake, the airline ran a once-off advertisement in the paper saying "Earthquakes in South Africa? That's the least of your problems."
The ad highlighted other safety concerns that tourists should be aware of such as sunburn, dehydration induced by cheap beer, the tokoloshe, the Parktown Prawn, the end of the world off Cape Point, and the city-dwelling Big Five.
Kulula also sent Zumo the white Zulu, a UK-based South African actor and kulula.com emissary to the Daily Star offices wearing a traditional Zulu outfit. Zumo created a real stir when he demanded to see the journalist responsible for the story.
It's a good example of a company using speed, humour and satire to generate some great publicity.
Free food
While it's obvious and has been done a thousand times before, restaurants around the world grabbed plenty of attention by offering special deals based on the outcome of World Cup games. In Ireland, when the country's hopes of making it to the World Cup were dashed by a handball from France's Thierry Henry, pizza chain Pizza Hut announced that for every goal scored against France in the World Cup, it would give away free pizza. Its not particulary original, but the media gave the company plenty of coverage as the story resonated with a public not yet ready to let go of its country's omission from the tournament.
Locally, Cape Town based pizzeria, Bacini's, pulled a similar stunt as it placed a large sign outside the restaurant offering free pizza for life if Bafana Bafana won the World Cup. As far as publicity stunts go, it was a good example of low risk and high reward strategy.
It also shows that sometimes you don't need to reinvent the wheel to get results.
Singing to success
A British song producer and charity activist Glenn MacDonald raised awareness for his World Cup song, 'Every boy that ever kicked a ball for England', after ambushing top BBC radio presenters with a huge sign asking "How Do You Get A Song Played Around Here If You Don't Know Simon Cowell?"
In response, a number of high profile radio DJs took away copies of his song, including Chris Evans, Zoe Ball, Tim Westwood, Jeremy Vine, and even Alastair Campbell.
