The World Cup is over and what a journey it has been. One for the neutral supporters many would say. France played well and won the World Cup, but Croatia won our hearts. Fan boys don't get started with your trolls because this is all that I will comment on the teams and the competition.
But what interests me the most is how Apple spent virtually nothing but still got all the attention at this years World Cup. Well apart from the 'Behind the Mac' Campaign and the football themed "how to shoot football on iphone X" advert, they had pretty much nothing to show for. But is that so?
Most of the companies pay huge sums of money to be sponsors of the World Cup. It is estimated that over 3 billion people tuned into the WC 2014 and FIFA is expected to generate close to $1.6 billion in revenue from marketing this year.
However, Apple as always decided not to be a part of sponsorship like they do with all major sporting events. But even without them doing anything, they have won the so-called brand wars at the WC2018.
Have a look at the picture below,
For once, let the spotlight not be on CR7, but on his teammate. Any idea what he has on his ears?, Yes, its the Apple AirPods.
Now its Neymar's turn to show off the AirPods (not that he is intending to or that Apple is paying him to do so).
Belgium's Romelu Lukaku can be seen flaunting the Beats headsets (a brand that Apple owns). I wish he had concentrated at least half as much during the match against France, uff, those two misses in the penalty box. Anyways past is past. But have you noticed the black X on the headset? Well that's FIFA's strict rule's against "ambush marketing" in action. Usually top brands pay players to wear or use its products before or during the WC games, even though that company has not paid to be an official WC sponsor. So in this case, the Beats logo is taped over.
Below is a more clear representation of the taping over.
But both the headsets have a distinct look that is easily recognizable regardless of the brand being taped over. Well at least FIFA can ask Apple to tape over the Beats, but what do they do with the rather minuscule AirPods? First of all, it has no Apple branding on it and secondly, it cannot really be obscured, can it? And when you see it on the players, its often impossible to mistake them for anything else.
Here are a few more pictures,
Mexico's breakout star Guillermo Ochoa.
England's Jesse Lingard.
Germany's Julian Draxler.
And the whole Argentina team with a mix of Beats and AirPods.
Apple has not released any statements regarding this and I'm sure they wont. I feel for the other brands who have spent large sums of money at the World Cup like Adidas, Coca-Cola, Hyundai, Kia, Gazprom, Qatar Airways, McDonalds, Hisense, Budweiser, Visa, VIVO and a whole lot of other Chinese firms. I hope the spends will be justifiable and that they were able to make huge dents in the marketing and sales objectives.
The classic saying in marketing holds true with Apple though,
"The best marketing strategy is not to have one. An exceptional product or service will sell itself and on its own merits regardless on whether its advertised or not"
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