In Latin America, 173 million people follow the World Cup, including 42 million Mexicans, according to a Yahoo report.
Mexico has one of the largest fan communities in the world, only in Russia 2028, 44,000 people traveled to watch the games.
Social networks and over-the-top (OTT) transmission devices gain space in the preference of fans to follow the matches.
With eight matches to be played to end the Qatar 2022 World Cup, brands have encountered challenges and challenges in the impact of their marketing strategies, which are adapted day by day to the gaze of the spectators. What impact do the media plans have on this international sports edition?
The last World Cup was four years ago, in Russia 2018; Since then, teams, players, sponsors, brands and fans have been part of a whole path of technological and human transformation that today leaves the door open to new marketing and advertising insights.
For example, today we see new audiences increasingly immersed in the multiplatform format: streaming, CTV, mobile, online media and social networks. In addition, the hours of the matches coincide, for many, with the working day, which means that large audiences follow the broadcasts from the home office mode or share a large part of their professional lives.
Mexico is not a foreign country to this trend, because, according to data from the study “FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 on Yahoo”, prepared by yahoo in June 2022, it has the largest Hispanic digital audience in the world (some 84 million people) and represents a unique market, with the largest number of fans in the world who travel to watch the World Cup.
Likewise, Nielsen complements this analysis in its global report “What the fans want: world soccer report 2022”, where the entire ecosystem of the media (broadcasters, streamers and platforms), as well as brands and rights owners, verified that any strategy can be capitalized on at the World Cup as long as you have a clear understanding of who your audience is, how they are being viewed and what they want to see from different regions and demographics.
And it is that the attention in audience is clear. With the Qatar 2022 World Cup on the horizon, we can say that open TV continues to be the most popular option to follow the broadcasts (81 percent) and 62 percent pay to watch the games, but at least two other alternatives are emerging that will complement a true omnichannel experience: 72 percent of the audience will follow you via social media and 68 percent will watch on over-the-top (OTT) streaming devices.
Likewise, smartphones will have a unique opportunity this year, since their penetration has increased considerably among audiences compared to 2018 and we are, this time, facing a multitasking audience that will follow the broadcasts while performing other multiple tasks, such as ordering food, check your email or play online games.
Qatar 2022: challenges of an omnichannel strategy for multitasking audiences
Contemplating all these metrics, digital experts consider that The online ecosystem should be the center of any media plan, not an extension of brand strategies. In fact, a key point before losing any opportunity to stand out in the coming weeks is to cover all the media where your audiences are, focusing on those with the highest consumption today, such as video and streaming platforms, networks social and OTT.
“Although digitization affects all ages, all channels do not target the same audiences and it is essential to analyze priorities against the number of channels available based on the budget available,” Paula Trinco, Marketing Analyst at Esto Es, tells Merca2.0.
With this vision, it could be said that online media and social networks are facing a great challenge and a great opportunity at the same time. As an example we have TikTok, a platform that has gained relevance within the top 5 and that can increasingly be seen as a tool to bring interesting, creative, fun, entertaining and trend-setting content… a differentiator between social networks that brands are taking advantage of .
“Identifying your target audience is an important component of effective campaign management, but it is equally important to know which channels are most likely to reach your target audience”says David Eastman, Commercial and Managing Director Latin America of YouGov, who recognizes that the audience of these social networks is openly multitasking.
Access to data will be key for fans of the championship of the year, but each platform has the opportunity and the challenge of finding new ways to bring relevant information closer to the viewer.
In this sense, for the Esto Es analyst, social networks and online videos have similar scope, but in terms of media there are differences.
“Gen Z and Y have a greater affinity for platforms like Twitch, TikTok, Snapchat, while Gen X and Boomers lean more towards traditional platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.”
And yes, both experts agree on their prognosis, since they focus on data as the key factor that leads them to the World Cup and opens multiple levels of analysis for future massive and multicultural events.
“With our BrandIndex tool, for example, we can track consumer perceptions of a set of fixed metrics in various markets to reveal how fans perceive brand sponsorship, and update data in real time. But also, since the World Cup impacts a spectrum of industries that goes beyond sports, we can, for example, analyze consumer intelligence regarding betting, consumer habits or even audience interest in the FIFA 23 video game. Eastman adds.
Challenges of the brands competing in Qatar 2022
With the increase in the digital audience and the multiple media options that mark the need for an omnichannel strategy in all sectors of the industry, brands have to increase their loyalty and work on user demand plans that respond to trending content. , the one that brings them closer to both the athletes and the games millions of kilometers away.
One of the opportunities presented to brands, according to Martin Perelmuter, Yahoo’s Head of Sales in Latin America, is to implement an advertising system on Connected TV (CTV): during the World Cup, people are more connected to TV than ever before, even through smart TV. Thus, CTV works in a complementary manner to an advertiser’s media schedule, allowing it to reach an audience that is not on open or cable TV. By complementing each other, it helps to increase reach and be more efficient in the pattern.
This means that any brand can benefit from the excitement surrounding sporting events by extending their television campaigns to the Internet, where consumers not only watch the games but also read content, keep up with the latest news and enjoy the experience. that the website can offer.
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