Six years back, my friend who used to work for SAB argued that “beer sells itself” and that the brewery’s key duty was simply “to promote an enjoyable drinking experience”. A couple of months back the Fifa Local Organising Committee (LOC) raised a similar argument relating to marketing the Fifa Confederations Cup tournament (FCC). Does football as a product sell itself?

With little knowledge in brand communications — thanks to Vega, The Brand Communications School — I would move to argue that LOC was in fact 100% correct. Except, they missed the last half of the equation. That is, the producer has a duty to promote an enjoyable product experience. This speaks directly to the concept of experiential marketing or consumer activation (alas SAB).

From June 11 to 20 Rustenburg’s Waterfall Mall will host Fast Furious Futbol as part of the Confederations Cup Expo. The event will be a “4 versus 4” football challenge targeting local schools, clubs, tenants and mine communities. Participation is open to the public, starting with children from U-7, U-9, U-11, U-13, U-15 to U-17.

The above-mentioned event is just but one example of experiential marketing initiatives that could probably have been launched way back to promote the FCC and 2010 World Cup. More so, it is unique in that it targets kids, whom I believe to be one of the “key drivers” for ticket sales.

Little boys and girls adore stars like Torres, Fabregas, Robinho, Kaka, Modise, Pienaar, Cannavaro, Gattuso etc. The FCC presents one rare opportunity to witness these world superstars displaying their skills on home soil. I shudder to think, irrespective of the global economic crisis and poverty in SA, that any “affording” parent would deny their “little monsters” such a great opportunity.

In fact, I would proceed to argue that future 2010 World Cup promotions should focus on schools and young kids. It will not only drive the ticket sales but promote a passion for the sport.

From personal experience, I move from a point when I was once passionate about playing football on the field, to one where I would rather “support” SAB while watching others “strut their stuff” on the field. The climax of my football playing days was in middle and high school.

The long and short of my argument is that there is so much more passion for the game among kids and school children than in any other market sector — it should be exploited to the advantage of LOC and SA in general.

Fast Furious Futbol provides 10 days of family fun. I hope to see the event succeed in all its objectives.

• City still on course for title

This entry was posted on Monday, June 8th, 2009 at 2:38 pm and is filed under SA Soccer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.