World Cup

Even the Trinidad and Tobago team are cashing in on selling their World Cup dream. As a result of several players in the Trinidad and Tobago team being based in Scotland - and being drawn against England in the preliminary group stages - many Scottish fans have adopted them as their World Cup team.

Irn Bru is backing this mindset with a campaign by The Leith Agency featuring St Johnston striker Jason Scotland (figure out why they chose him to front the ads). The campain will run on billboards, print ads, a television commercial and even a T-shirt proclaiming that ‘Scotland is going to the World Cup’.

Mars is utilising the opportunity presented by the tournaments feverish following by renaming the chocolate bar ‘Believe’ in a bid to rally the fans down South to back England.

To counter the potential backlash from consumers north of the border, Mars is marketing the sweet’s temporary renaming in Scotland to appeal to the Tartan Army, ‘Believing’ that Scotland will qualify for the next tournament... “Believe, Ma Arse,” as one Scottish designer has already penned for his World Cup T-shirts...

Meanwhile Tennent’s has launched its ‘Wunderbar; It Could Be Wurst!’ campaign devised to capture the Scottish national psyche during the games in Germany. The campaign, one of the largest football integrated campaigns involving the lager, involves five German-themed ‘uberbars’ across Scotland. Uberbars will open in Dundee, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Perth on 9 June for the duration tournament.

Kirsty Hunter, marketing controller for Tennent’s, believes the campaign will appeal. “Wunderbar was devised as a means to capture the way all Scots are feeling right now…It Could Be Wurst!” she says. “There is no doubt that we’re gutted that Scotland didn’t make it to Germany, but at the end of the day, we have got to get on and enjoy football’s biggest spectacle. Tennent’s Wunderbar will help people do just that and we look forward to enjoying a great summer of football at Uberbars throughout Scotland.”

Clayton Graham’s Peter Clayton also believes that World Cup advertising could still be effective in countries not involved in the tournament. “On condition that the advertising is saying something new, in an original way and there is a need for the product or the service at the time, like any other time of the year really,” he says. “A really persuasive ad is a really persuasive ad. The barrier is budget and the budget required for repetition so the message sinks in and people can react to it. The problem with the World Cup is that most large companies use it badly, producing some half-thought-about corporate drivel to ‘get the name across’. Equally, I am sure that many large companies know they have to do it, feel conspicuous by their absence and may resent doing it.”

Union Direct’s Daniel Clare admits that some companies were missing the use of the World Cup due to Scotland’s absence, but that the event was large enough to utilise without the country’s presence. “This might be true for some Scottish companies given the global nature of the World Cup and the media coverage that it generates,” he says, “I don’t think this is a major limiting factor for companies, especially those with business outside Scotland.”

Union Direct’s client Scottish Widows Investment Partnership has released promotional England World Cup ‘Survival kits.’

Claire continues: “If a company’s existing or prospective customers are likely to be football fans then a link with the World Cup provides an unparalleled opportunity to get their attention over the next few weeks.”

Elsewhere, McEwan’s will use the tournament to reintroduce McEwan’s Sessions, which will take place through out bars across Scotland during the games, with folk musicians playing in between matches to entertain the customers.

As far as ad revenues in Scotland are concerned, Graham Patullo, sales director for Scottish Television says that Scotland’s absence in the tournament is felt, but does not have a hugely detrimental affect on sales in Scotland or on the audience viewing figures: “The key to us is that we know it will deliver an excellent audience which is fantastic and we do have some specific football packages in the marketplace which a number of our regional advertisers have taken advantage of, so there will be some Scottish-based commercials in football copy within the World Cup,” he says. “Yet, for as many advertisers as we bring in who want to buy the World Cup, there are a number of advertisers who potentially think ‘well, I’ll give June a bit of a miss because it’s not going to be the right audience for me and I’ll move money to another month.’ It’s a balancing act for us. It’s all about the feel of the nation and everybody would feel a bit more positive if Scotland were there. It is a tough marketplace out there, obviously with the World Cup it offers us a different product for us to sell to our advertisers.”

So, here’s to a month of fond reminiscing over 1966 and a barrage of adverts featuring Beckham and Co. Ah well...maybe in 2010 Walter and the lads’ll be there too.