AFCON 2013: A Platform For Brands To Catch Consumers’ Attention

THE 29th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) which kicks off today in Johannesburg is the second time South Africa will be hosting the tournament. Emerging from apartheid in 1994, South Africa under President Nelson Mandela had hosted the continental showpiece for the first time in 1996.

While soccer enthusiasts would always follow the trend of performances by teams, galaxy of stars paraded by each team and expected passion that would be generated by the victory of their preferred team; brand and marketing aficionados would intermittently point their binoculars on the strength and huge marketing opportunities that exist in the sporting event. This is because most marketers would agree with the words of the Chairman of Troika Holdings, Nigeria’s largest marketing communication services group, Biodun Shobanjo, that “few forces in contemporary society influence massive numbers of people across the world more immediately than sports which is nowadays used as a strategic tool for economic advancement in emerging economies.”

Corporate organisations and their brands spend billions of dollars worldwide each year on sports marketing, leveraging on the emotional bond between sports talents and their fans to connect with millions of consumers. Creative marketing communication experts have also increasingly become adept at using this emotional bond as a platform to build patronage and loyalty for consumers when they are able to convince producers of products or services to commit their funds in support of sporting activities and personalities. The practice of sports marketing also offers a platform for independent agencies specialising in sponsorship to work with these megabrands to provide actionable insight for key decision making on how to market their products and brands to targets.

Even for host country or city, sporting event like the cup of nations offers expanding frontiers in various areas of Nation Branding.  Nation branding opportunities like AFCON 2013 can provide snapshots of a country that will remain in the collective memory of the global community for long periods of time. The snapshot taken of South Africa during the 2012 AFCON, just as it was at the 2010 World Cup, will prevail until such time that the global spotlight shines on the country again. The fact that the South African currency can be steady at this event and after, just as it did during the World Cup, amid the global crisis that gripped European and U.S. markets, can be a strong sign the will attract investor’s confidence and patronage as the brand would be perceived as having lower market risks. Corporate organisations in South Africa can also leverage on the momentum generated by the hosting success to apply the inherent lessons in motivational intelligence to achieve brand leadership and increased business contact in their respective industries.

The success of AFCON would expand the marketing frontiers of brand South Africa into the premier league of sport event hosting nations, to compete for a bigger slice of what is today a US$600 billion industry, the fastest growing driver of international tourism.

The key benchmark in measuring the marketing success of any event is based upon the word of mouth endorsement generated by the ultimate customers of the hosting country—the visitors. Called the Brand Advocacy Score, this benchmark is based on a single question: “Would you recommend this destination back home to your friends and colleagues?”

Back in 2006, when Germany hosted the world cup and exceeded all expectations by delivering not just an efficient and effective event but one that was fun-filled and exciting, 88 per cent of visitors rated their willingness to become brand ambassadors with a resounding “Yes”.  Against all odds, South Africa not only beat the 2006 benchmark by scoring the highest-ever world cup rating by converting 92 per cent of visitors to brand advocates, it now stands to reap the economic benefits from the word of mouth that is estimated to travel at the speed of 150 people touched directly or indirectly by each returning visitor turned brand advocate. Interestingly, the recent MasterCard Worldwide Insights report shows that between 2002 and 2007, the fastest growing sector in sub-Saharan African was hotels and restaurants, with annual growth of 8.7 per cent.

As every eight tourists create one sustainable job, the projected influx of an additional 10 million visitors by 2020 will have a significant impact on job creation, and further position South Africa to take a leadership role in hosting international events and attracting the lion’s share of global tourists and investors for many years to come.

This is why brand ambassadors (citizens and visitors), are the single most effective weapon in a country’s arsenal for building a global brand that will attract both visitors and investors and earn a reputation for being a place to spend your holidays and do business—tourism and foreign direct investment having become the key drivers of job creation, as the World Economic Forum has repeatedly demonstrated.     The challenge also is for countries and cities aspiring to host sporting activities to galvanize every opportunity to expand the frontiers of her marketing space for extended benefits.

However, marketing frontiers of sporting events are not limited to host countries and cities alone. CAF revealed that the TV figures of the Orange Africa Cup of Nations 2011 that was co-hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea had an estimated record of 6.6 billion cumulative TV viewers. This huge audience followed the most prestigious African Sport event with 87,072 hours of TV exposure, adding 59,965 hours of TV to the figure that was reached in Angola 2010.  “We are quite confident that we will break new records for the edition in South Africa” CAF Marketing & TV Director, Amr Shaheen, said.

Participating countries are usually the next frontiers of marketing opportunities where the bulk of the estimated TV audience would be gathered. For Nigeria, there is a noticeable frenzy among brands to ride on this tournament into the heart of soccer loving Nigerians. In the words of a respected brand analyst, Akonte Ekine, “AFCON is certainly a platform that gives brands in Nigeria opportunities to express their presence in the market place. In fact, AFCON is possibly the next big platform for any brand to exploit after the World Cup. It creates solid brand association with plenty benefits. AFCON remains a marketing platform for brands to project themselves.”

Ekine added: “However, the dismal performance by the Super Eagles in recent editions of the Africa Cup of Nations has discouraged most brands from sponsoring the AFCON. What most brands are waiting to see is how well they will perform, until they return to winning ways, brands will continue to decline in the sponsorship AFCON. Apart from Guinness, other brands seem to have shown little or no interest in sponsorship.”

But with expectations on Super Eagles of Nigerians so high, brands like Guinness and Tom-Tom have already unveiled their campaigns surrounding this event. Guinness’ campaign, “Fly with the Eagles” identifies with the intense love and passion millions of Nigerians share for football and the team’s aspiration to make the country proud at the 2013 AFCON outing.

As part of the campaign, Guinness Foreign Extra Stout has also launched a pan-Nigerian Consumer Promotion with a grand prize of an all-expense paid trip to South Africa for fans. Asides the grand prize, millions of Naira in cash prizes are also up for grabs, with four consumers carting away cash prizes of N100, 000 daily throughout the duration of the campaign amongst other fantastic prizes.

Consumers are clearly in for exciting times during this campaign, as they will be enjoying an exclusive song specially composed for the Super Eagles, which will hit the airwaves very soon. Fans will also have the opportunity to compose and upload their own songs for the team on the Guinness-VIP social media platforms. The company also has the largest Jersey imported by Guinness to assemble one million signatures of Nigerian well wishers and fans. This giant T-shirt, with all the signatures would be delivered to the Eagles contingent as a sign of goodwill from the Nigerian people.

From all ends—the host, participating countries and indeed the whole of Africa—the arena is set. It’s only after two weeks that we all will see the head that will wear the golden crown. For now, like they say in South Africa- Kinako- let the game begin.