Spanning The Globe: Companies Ready World Cup Ad Campaigns

MasterCard To Continue “Priceless” Theme In World Cup Campaign

Companies using the FIFA World Cup to run global ad campaigns “face a stiff challenge: how to create ads that work in different cultures and countries,” according to Aaron Patrick of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. MasterCard will air a spot titled “Fever,” via McCann Worldgroup, that shows fans from 30 different countries cheering. Since there is no dialogue, it “works in any language.” Anheuser-Busch will show a “tweaked version of a Super Bowl ad that shows fans in a stadium holding up cards” that creates the image of Budweiser “being poured into a glass.” The ad will only appear in the U.S., U.K., Italy, Spain and China, but the company said that it “will spend more on World Cup advertising and marketing than it did at the Olympics or Super Bowl.” A-B VP/Global Media & Sports Marketing Tony Ponturo said, “If you get too complicated you will lose people with different cultures and perspectives.” Patrick reports Gillette will run an ad in 20-25 countries “that will be digitally altered to reflect local differences.” The spot will feature “cheering fans, wearing the colors and carrying the flags of their national team,” and the colors will change “depending where the ad is shown.” Gillette said that it thought the ad “would be more effective if customized” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 3/28).

BORDER WAR: BUSINESSWEEK’s Stanley Holmes reports adidas will spend about $200M during the lead-up to the World Cup for its “+10” campaign, which “revolves around the idea that one player plus 10 others equals a team.” The first ad features U.S. national team member Pablo Mastroeni and Mexican national team member Jaime Lozano, who “have three hours to recruit” players to “form one team of U.S. players and one team of Mexican-born players to square off in a sandlot soccer game” (BUSINESSWEEK, 4/3 issue).

COVER BOYS: EA Sports announced the cover athletes for the “2006 FIFA World Cup” videogame. The game, which will be available April 24 in North America and April 28 in Europe and Asia, will contain country-specific covers. Countries which do not have a team member on the cover will feature the World Cup trophy and the official emblem (EA Sports).

TEAM	ATHLETE	COUNTRIES
China	Zhi Zhen	China
England	Frank Lampard	England
Germany	Lukas Podolski	Germany
Italy	Alessandro Del Piero	Italy
Mexico	Jaime Lozano	U.S., Canada, Mexico
Portugal	Simao	Portugal
Netherlands	Arjen Robben	Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg
Switzerland	Ricardo Cabanas	Switzerland
Spain	Xavi	Spain
U.S.	Claudio Reyna	U.S., Canada, Mexico