World Cup Soccer and the Hispanic Market

by Blaire Borthayre

Published on May 30, 2006

Tags: Advertising, Hispanic Marketing, Sponsorship, Word of Mouth

The month-long 2006 World Cup Soccer tournament will begin on June 9, and already commercials have been launched with soccer themes referencing the event. The heavy hitters behind those ads include 15 global brands, such as McDonalds, Coca-Cola, MasterCard, Nike, and Adidas.

ICOM, a network of independent ad agencies, reports that World Cup-related ads will account for around half of overall page space and ad time in several Western and emergent countries. Television rights have been sold for a guaranteed minimum of 1.3 billion Swiss francs with the final price expected to be much higher.

Held only once every four years, this year's tournament is poised to become a marketing circus on par with the Olympic Games. Sponsorship deals abound and corporations are tripping over themselves to cash in to the tune of a more than $1 billion. Why? Exposure, and lots of it. Some 28 billion fans watched the 2002 World Cup, and 32 billion are expected to tune in this year.

The US focuses on advertising globally since the World Cup typically evokes little excitement domestically, according to ICOM. Only one market segment in the United States veers drastically from that trend—the Hispanic community.

Six Latin American teams have spots in the tournament this year (Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Paraguay, Costa Rica, and Mexico), as does Spain. The World Cup brings out an intense following and huge fan base among 42 million Hispanics in the United States. Ironically, four out of the six Spanish-speaking World Cup countries have fewer people than that.

And yet, in spite of the outrageous potential, there is little evidence of anyone but the big-name giants taking advantage of this potential marketing bonanza. Now maybe your corporation has $200 million to spend like Nike or a mere $50 million like Anheuser Bush—but if you're like most, that's a little out of your league.

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Blaire Borthayre is a Mexican-American consultant in the field of Hispanic marketing and CEO of Hispanic Marketing Resources (www.hispanicmarketingresources.com).

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