The MOSCOW TIMES reported beer ads "may soon reappear in Russian stadiums, print media and television -- but only through the end of 2018, the year Russia hosts the FIFA World Cup," following a bill recently approved by the Russian legislature. The amendment was "proposed with an eye toward increasing regions' funding for sports events" and "temporarily reverses a series of restrictions" that were imposed in '12 as part of a wide-ranging ban on alcohol ads. The new legislation will allow beer to be advertised "during live sports broadcasts and at stadiums during sporting events" (MOSCOW TIMES, 7/6).
MASKED MASSES: AD AGE's Laurel Wentz notes a group of ad agencies has "a very Brazilian solution" for the country following an injury to Brazil F Neymar. The agencies have "printed up 120,000 masks with pictures of Neymar's face for fans to wear" during the Brazil-Germany match. The campaign is "being publicized all over Brazilian social media networks using the hashtag #somostodosneymar," which translates to "We are all Neymar." Since FIFA "has very specific rules that wouldn't allow masks of a player to be distributed at the stadium, the masks will be handed out at the airport and along the routes fans will take to get to the stadium in Belo Horizonte." Fans also "can download their own Neymar masks" (ADAGE.com, 7/8).
ANYTHING YOU CAN DO... In Portland, Alan Brettman noted Nike and adidas last week "gave an idea of the size of the global revenue pie for soccer: something slightly north" of $5B. Nike said in its end-of-year statement that it had $2.3B "in soccer sales," a 21% increase over the previous year. adidas said that it expected $2.7B "in soccer sales this year." Nike, by comparison, recorded $4.6B in revenue "from running last year," and $3.1B from basketball (Portland OREGONIAN, 7/5). Meanwhile, AD AGE's Julie Ruvolo examined adidas' World Cup HQ in Brazil under the header, "Embedded With Adidas' Social Media Team At The World Cup in Rio" (ADAGE.com, 7/7).
DOG DAYS: Atlanta-based marketing firm CSE notes Budweiser made an interesting addition to their usual #ManoftheMatch tweets with a new Puppy Predictor beginning with the quarterfinals on July 4. The handle @BudweiserPuppy had been dormant since just after A-B's Super Bowl XLVIII “Best Buddies” commercial. Now the puppy is back in a series of predictor style YouTube videos, where the puppy runs back and forth between two female goalies. The goalies each represent one country in an upcoming game. Overall, the engagement has been subpar, with less than 250 total across the eight videos/tweets released. It is a somewhat confusing extension to try out so late in the game when #ManoftheMatch has been the focus of @BudweiserFC and @Budweiser since the the World Cup started (CSE).
