South Africa 2010: More than the Games

Beyond the games, the just concluded South Africa 2010 World Cup is indeed a huge lesson in branding and marketing, writes Ndubuisi Eluwa.

The 19th FIFA World Cup has come and gone. But it scored a lot of firsts in the mundial’s history. To start with, it was the first time the competition would be hosted on the African soil. It was the first time Spain would lift the trophy. It was the first time an European nation would win it outside of Europe. It also marked the first time two different teams from the same continent would be champions in succession. And for the first time, Joseph Blatter, FIFA president, acknowledged the need to look into and possibly embrace goal line technology; no thanks to the many atrocities committed by referees.
But beyond the field activities, analysts of sports business have scored the business side of the World Cup’s first African experience very high on all fronts. They assert that the African continent is proud that one of its own was able to dismiss widespread security apprehensions occasioned by the skeptical western media and shook off the stigma of failure which the western world has consistently associated Africa with.
Blatter, in his final comments over the 2010 World Cup rated South Africa’s organization the best ever in the history of the tournament. “Incredible! Nine out of a maximum of ten. Not even the developed countries had scored eight over ten in the past. The best they scored was seven,” he said.
Are there lessons to be learnt by brands from the South African experience?  Sports business analysts gave an emphatic yes. Spiff Sagbamah, MD/CEO of Hally Sports International who also hosts Sportz Business TV said there are huge lessons to be learnt for Nigerian brands from the just concluded 2010 South Africa World cup. For instance, research conducted by Nielsen, an American marketing and advertising research company on the 2010 FIFA World Cup shows that official sponsorship was a lot more effective in terms of exposure and conversations about sponsors. To this extent, analysts regret that Nigerian brands largely failed to leverage on this opportunity as they have not been able to see sporting events as a vehicle for achieving brand objectives.
Moving forward, they therefore, advised Nigerian brands to look beyond the Super Eagles and identify with the local league which is believed to be suffering due to lack of sponsorship.

As far as Sagbamah is concerned, there are also lots of lessons Nigeria can learn from Germany, who came third in the World Cup and scored 16 goals by coming to the competition with young players. The analysts point out that Germans invest heavily in sports academies. They also say that Germany holds over 1,600 football matches every weekend, mostly sponsored by brands that leverage on the events for brand exposures.
Sagbamah, added that FIFA scored the South African World Cup 3rd in attendance rating, registering an average of 84,000 fans for every game, “which is outstanding for a nation whose team crashed out early in the game.” And as far as the sports journalists is concerned, there is a huge lesson to be learnt by Nigerian brands from such considering the fact that the country is blessed with a large population.
His views are supported by Adetokunbo Obayan, a sports business consultant, who reasoned that going by the attendance, FIFA would have raked in over $2.5bn from the just concluded event. He adds that brands that were associated with FIFA are the better for it. “MTN is now a global brand with over 20 billion people viewing the World Cup from all over the world,” he says.
Also, whenever FIFA berths in any country it leaves the economy better than it met it attracting income from human traffic, tourism, transportation and hotel accommodation among others. Little wonder the keen bidding among member country’s to host its competitions.
It is to this extent that Sagbamah believes South Africa will never remain the same. He says, “I believe South Africans will wake up someday and thank God they hosted the World Cup. I mean, what else do you need to showcase a nation to the world? The world came, they saw and they were satisfied and said ‘Oh! You went beyond our expectations. It would have been a different ball game if the English team had progressed to the semi finals because English fans travel en masse, drink heavily, eat heavily and celebrate heavily, and all this would have translated into more income for the nation.”
Going further, he laments that Nigeria was unable to host the event due to lack of visionary leadership. “The World Cup that has been hosted in South Africa should have been in Nigeria if we had leaders. FIFA would have been happy to have the World Cup hosted in Nigeria because we have the market, we have the talent, we have got the population and – due respects to South Africa – this where the game is. But our leaders don’t think about the future. We only have politicians and politicians only think about the next election but leaders prepare for the next generation,” he points out. 
Again, Sagbamah regrets that the Super Eagles has become an inconsistent brand in recent times as it has lost considerable brand value when assessed by the techniques applied in measuring strong brands. These, he identifies to be recognition, acceptability, adorability and loyalty. While the Super Eagles may still boast some recognition, he argues that they have lost acceptability by Nigerians who have lost confidence in them; they are equally no longer adored and as such have lost the loyalty of Nigerian fans.
Across the continent, there is a feeling of pride that the first World Cup on its soil was largely successful. Skeptics were proven wrong. Crime and violence were minimal considering South Africa’s history. The gleaming stadia have been lauded, the crowds were happy, visitors were impressed, logistic challenges were overcome, brands who identified with FIFA are the better for it and the nation is basking in global praise. What more can a country want? Blatter has urged the South African government to bid for hosting rights of the Olympics and count on his support!
South Africa’s selection over Egypt and Morocco in a hosting bid that was open only to African countries was announced in 2004. The decision to leave the hosting right to African countries was part of a policy to rotate the event among confederations.