What do you do if you really want an event to get noticed in a place that is rather ho-hum about it? One approach would be to steal ideas from events that ARE a big deal in that place and use them for your event. In this case we’re talking about the World Cup, the planetary championship of the sport we call soccer. That is on those occasions when any of us here in the US of A bother to consider the sport at all. So what event to steal ideas from? How about the Super Bowl. And what’s one of the most anticipated parts of the Super Bowl? Why the commercials of course.
Last Saturday you may have been one of the dedicated fans of the sport (like yours truly) or one of the more casual fans of soccer (that would be most of the rest of you) to watch the England versus US opening match. I am recording this program prior to the game so I can’t comment on the outcome. But I can point out the highly entertaining commercial by Adidas.
In case you haven’t seen it yet they’ve taken the Cantina scene from the original Star Wars movie, added in some soccer players like David Beckham and Franz Beckenbauer, Noel Galagher of Oasis and then handed Snoop Dogg a lightsabre. Need I say more?
I like the underlying concept though. The World Cup is a hard sell here. The sport is still not that familiar to most of us, the event goes on for a month and it’s filled with people with funny names (come on Kaka, really?) But it is the most popular sporting event in the world. Super Bowls draw about 100 million viewers. The conservative estimate for the World Cup is about three times that number and higher. So how to bring that excitement here? Make it look more like what we already know. Fluff up around the edges of the games with some creative advertising.
Oh and some wins by Team USA wouldn’t hurt at all either.
Call that the View From the Phlipside.
"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY. You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010
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