Budweiser most talked about brand on Twitter during Fifa World Cup

Screengrab from Light Up the Fifa World Cup campaign.

In essence, the brand has exceeded performance expectations and has proudly won the digital World Cup, disrupting how traditional sports sponsorships are activated, and proving that it’s no longer enough to just stick your logo on a stadium.

The 2018 Fifa World Cup provided a platform for Budweiser, the world’s most valuable beer brand, to connect with passionate football fans around the world. “The tournament has driven global growth for our flagship brand and allowed us to reach the 3.2 billion people tuning in to the Fifa World Cup,” says Alastair Hewitt, brand director for Budweiser at SAB and AB InBev Africa.

Most talked about brand on Twitter

According to official Twitter analytics, Budweiser has been the most talked about, i.e. most mentioned, brand on Twitter during the 2018 Fifa World Cup since it commenced on 14 June, with more than 637,925 global tweets about the brand in relation to the tournament.

The 2018 World Cup campaign was the brand’s most ambitious to date – for both Budweiser and AB InBev. Budweiser, who has been sponsoring the Fifa World Cup for 32 years, engaged fans in Moscow and in more than 50 markets around the world through a variety of integrated experiential, digital and social activations.

To aid the brand’s talk-ability online throughout the World Cup, Budweiser unveiled its global campaign, “Light Up the Fifa World Cup,” in May. The advertisement encapsulated the unparalleled euphoric energy of the world’s biggest sporting event and Budweiser’s passion for energising fans as they watch and celebrate their favourite players, moments and teams.

Digital behaviour of football fans

Various interactive tools were created for fans to experience across a number of digital platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram. Locally, one of the popular tools was connected to Man of the Match whereby a custom voting tool Twitter allowed fans to engage in a personal Q&A with players, affording fans the liberty of asking Ronaldo about his goatee.

“Throughout the World Cup, we brought all our real-time global operations to one location to leverage insights into the digital behaviour of football fans. We had a team on the ground in Moscow operating 24/7 across social listening and insights, brand partners providing football expertise, creative and production teams, and media buying,” says Hewitt.

From start to finish, Budweiser’s Light Up the Fifa World Cup campaign was a truly electric one and demonstrated well how a company can bring together fans from around the world over a shared love of beer and a passion for football.