It's Football, but not as we know it!

On a crisp Sunday morning, gentle breeze outside; looking forward to going down to the local watering pub with some mates.  The bartenders are preparing early in the morning: chilling the pint glasses, cleaning the tap lines, wiping down the bar.  Throwing on the team colours, getting ready to watch along with millions around the world, it's a rite of passage in this country.  Football!  Wait, Football in the summer?  Oh, that football.

What we in America call soccer and others refer to as futbol.  The average U.S. sports fan would rank soccer pretty far down the list when it comes to their favorite sport.  But this year, this World Cup will start the buzz for Americans; it will start the growth of passion for a sport that is the clear favorite across the rest of the globe. 

The television promotions for this World Cup are some of the best for any sport we have seen in recent years.  U2, arguably one of the most popular bands in the world, has teamed w/ ABC and ESPN, one of the worldwide leaders of sport, to produce some of the best promotional tune ins for any sport in quite some time.  Between ESPN, ABC and elite brands such as Gatorade (Yankee Go Home! promo), now is the call for Americans to take pride in their nation and be part of something that is truly global. 

Who will be the Men's USA Brandy Chastain in 2006?  Landon Donovan?  Who will be the next Nike spokesperson?  USA, USA, USA!

Kevin Collins, Vice President, Associate Media Director - Initiative New York

Posted by Admin on 09 June 2006 at 04:43 PM in World Cup Opinion Pieces | | Comments (0)

Hispanic media reaps World Cup rewards

The World Cup is the most watched sporting event by US Hispanics. Univision, the leading Spanish language broadcast network in the US, claims to have reached 35 million viewers(1) during the 2002 World Cup telecasts and estimates they will reach more than 50 million for the 2006 World Cup telecasts. Univision reported in November 2005 it had already sold an unprecedented 180 million dollars in advertising dollars specific to World Cup 2006(2).

Soccer is a passion for US Hispanics which is comparable only to the combined impact of the World Series, Super Bowl and NBA Championship in terms of audience involvement and ratings to the general population. This year seven Latin American teams are in competition (Mexico, Argentina, Paraguay, Ecuador, Spain, Brazil and Portugal). Mexicans make up 64% of the US Hispanic market and World Cup games featuring the Mexican national team will be among the highest rated of all Spanish language broadcast games on Univision.

The need for World Cup information will span across all media as soccer enthusiasm reaches a fever pitch leading to the final. In order to meet this demand every medium that reaches US Hispanics must carry World Cup information. This insatiable thirst for World Cup news will not be limited to traditional media but increase the use of mobile devices and the internet (match alerts, scores, updates, messaging).

US Hispanic homes are enthusiastically waiting the 2006 World Cup broadcast and will cheer, pray, cry and rejoice in support of their favorite teams on the road to a WIN.

(1) Source: Nielsen Media Research (20 million Hispanic viewers and 15 million non-Hispanic)

(2) Sources: Marketing y Medios, November 2, 2005; CNN Money, February 1, 2006

Univision is the leading Spanish language broadcast network in the US reaching 98% of US Hispanic households.

Rosa Serrano, Senior Vice President, Group Account Director, Multicultural - Initiative Atlanta

Posted by Admin on 09 June 2006 at 04:02 PM in World Cup Opinion Pieces | | Comments (0)

World Cup 2006 Countdown with Initiative

Initiative looks forward to the World Cup and invites you to follow all the action as it happens on blog.initiative...

The world is more "globalised" than ever before.  Why should soccer fans care?  Because globalisation is making the World Cup more truly international than it ever has been before.

For a long time, the World Cup was the domain of Europe and South America, with a few additional teams invited to make up the numbers. At the most recent World Cup, in 2002, two Asian teams - South Korea and Turkey - were semi-finalists. That's quite something compared with the days I remember not so long ago when the only contribution Asian teams seemed to make was to the yellow card tally.

With a broader mix of countries taking part, the World Cup is now experienced by people in all corners of the globe.  Passion, excitement, elation and disappointment have always been emotions felt by World Cup fans.  The difference is that those fans are now in places as diverse as Australia, Japan, South Africa and the USA.

With the World Cup playing a special role in billions of people's lives, Initiative will be following how fans all over the globe are watching the World Cup.  Every day we'll be commenting on developments from a fan's perspective - which matches they're watching, what they think of the tournament, their hopes and fears and so on.

Our insights will reflect the roller coaster of emotions experienced by all soccer supporters.  As your team experiences highs and lows, please come back and find out how what you're feeling compares with the rest of the world.

It should be a great tournament.  After more than 1,400 days of waiting since the last World Cup, I can't wait till 9th June for this one to start.

Kevin Alavy, Senior Analyst, Initiative London

Posted by Admin on 02 June 2006 at 08:00 AM in World Cup Opinion Pieces | | Comments (27)

« Previous