Adidas "might be attracting bad online buzz" for its sponsorship of biting Uruguayan footballer Luis Suárez -- "but in the tussle to win the most World Cup social media play, the German firm says it is winning plenty of positive attention too," according to Eisenhammer & Thomasson of REUTERS. In the "off-the-pitch marketing battle" between official World Cup sponsor adidas and "arch-rival" Nike, both are looking to "dominate social media to promote their brands." With Brazil's World Cup "on track to be the most tweeted event ever -- the social media network expects far more than the 150 million tweets" sent during the 2012 London Olympics -- adidas has the "perfect arena to fight back." A Reuters survey of the Twitter handles @adidasfootball and @nikefootball, "using analytics website Tweetchup.com, shows Nike is slightly ahead so far in some key metrics including most retweets and the most favourited tweets during the event." Adidas has set up a "newsroom" in the clubhouse of Rio de Janeiro-based side Flamengo, where "around 50 Adidas staff generate real-time online content, including for the Twitter account of the World Cup's official match ball -- made by Adidas -- the Brazuca." Adidas Football Marketing Dir Tom Ramsden said that up to 80% of people watching the World Cup "will engage in social media at some point while watching a game." Ramsden said on Tuesday, "It is the key platform for us to engage with our target audience, that young teenage footballer" (REUTERS, 6/27).
ON THE PITCH: INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL's David Owen reported after the group matches had been played, "the nine Brazil 2014 teams supplied by Adidas have amassed 55.6% of points theoretically available to them." This "compares with 44.4% for Nike and 40.3% for Puma, five of whose eight World Cup teams lost their final group matches" (INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL, 6/27).
