Bavaria scores over a million rand worth of free coverage

"The value of the South African newspaper and broadcast news coverage is R756,728 but this excludes magazine coverage and online coverage," said Oresti Patricios CEO of Ornico. "When the final tally for local publicity is done it is likely that Bavaria will have scored well over a million rand worth of local media publicity if not more. That's not even looking at international coverage which has been massive and in all the right media."

Ornico monitored and analysed all mentions the word Bavaria and then audited the coverage to ascertain the advertising value equivalent of the coverage. This is the value Bavaria would have paid if they had placed adverts in the same media that had afforded them coverage. "We have a very exacting and robust methodology and we use advertising parameters to determine the right values," said Patricios.

Bavaria and the colour orange caused an international and local media storm when a legion of predominantly blonde young women attended the Holland-Denmark match. The women caused quite a few heads to turn, including that of Fifa who were less than amused by orange mini-skirted onslaught. The orangeanistas were frog marched from Soccer City in Soweto and two 'ringleaders' were held and charged in terms of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa Special Measures Act (2006) and the Merchandise Marks Amendment Act (2002). The offence committed in terms of South African law that had been purposefully amended for Fifa so that the soccer body could entrench its marketing fiefdom for the world cup? "Unauthorised use of a trade mark at a protected event" and "entry into a designated area while in possession of a prohibited commercial object".

"It is irrelevant whether Bavaria staged the spectacle or not, the media clearly positioned the Dutch Brewery and the women wearing the bright orange minis as the hero of this story. FIFA was undoubtedly cast as the villain of the saga," said Patricios.

"The news value of the event was so compelling and the volume of the coverage so overwhelming that the matter instantly became a talking point for the media, opinion shapers and for people focussing on the world cup. More importantly the event was covered by most of the local media that influence or shape the national media agenda. These are newspapers, radio and television news programmes that influence the national debate, and largely shape what we're talking about or arguing over. They are media like City Press, The Mail & Guardian, Sunday Times, Beeld, Rapport, 702 Talk Radio, eTV News, The Daily Maverick and other powerful media that shape the national discourse," said Patricios.