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The FIFA World Cup is traditionally a lucrative sponsorship opportunity for brands across a wide range of sectors. The enormous tournament costs a vast amount to organise, and therefore plenty of sponsorship needs to be in place in order to support the event.
However, as one of the biggest sporting events in the world, broadcast around the globe and reaching billions of viewers, it brings a host of rewards in terms of marketing reach for those sponsors. So, who are the partners and sponsors for 2018’s event in Russia?
What Do The Rights Of Sponsorship Include?
FIFA sponsorship rights include:
- The right to use the FIFA World Cup Official Marks
- Advertising exposure around and inside the stadiums, on the FIFA official website and in all of the official FIFA publications
- Recognition of the company’s support through the extensive recognition programme for FIFA World Cup sponsors
- Protection from ambush marketing
- Opportunities for hospitality events
- Promotional and direct advertising opportunities
- Preferential access to broadcast advertising during FIFA World Cup matches
Partners also receive the opportunity to customise their sponsorship to meet their own marketing needs and strategy.
They can choose to create a composite logo or use the FIFA World Cup Official logo individually in order to not only creatively differentiate themselves from any third parties that are not involved with sponsorship but also to give themselves an outstanding marketing tool.
Therefore partners have a chance to benefit and make it a double win. Additionally, spectators also win by having an opportunity to bet on the World Cup and maximize their profits.
Which Companies Or Brands Sponsor The World Cup (Russia 2018)?
There are three distinct groups of World Cup sponsors – regional supporters, FIFA World Cup sponsors and FIFA partners. Of these three groups, it is the FIFA Partners who enjoy the closest level of association of the organization and its events, and they also have a wider role to play in supporting the worldwide development of football.
The World Cup Sponsors have a strong brand association with both the FIFA World Cup and the FIFA Confederations Cup, with selected media exposure and marketing assets as well as hospitality and ticketing offers for the football events.
Those sponsors which are Regional Supporters are permitted to promote their links with the World Cup within their own domestic market.
The sponsors and partners that are on board for the FIFA World Cup 2018 include some huge well known names across a range of industries. They include:
- Coca Cola – Partner
- Wanda Group – Partner
- Adidas – Partner
- Hyundai-Kia -Partner
- Gazprom – Partner
- Qatar Airways – Partner
- Visa – Partner
- Budweiser – World Cup Sponsor
- Vivo – World Cup Sponsor
- Hisense – World Cup Sponsor
- McDonald’s – World Cup Sponsor
- Rostelecom – Regional Supporter
- Yadea – Regional Supporter
- Mengniu – Regional Supporter
- Alfa Bank – Regional Supporter
- Alrosa – Regional Supporter
- Russian Railways – – Regional Supporter
Vivo is the official smartphone sponsor of this year’s tournament and has revealed their special edition World Cup handset to mark the occasion.
Chinese consumer electronics company Hisense is the official television sponsor of the 2018 World Cup, and hopes to expand its reach outside of its country of origin and to an international audience.
FIFA Struggles To Find Partners
Despite the lucrative marketing opportunity that the World Cup represents, this year FIFA have struggled to find partners who are willing to support the tournament.
Many of the western sponsors like Continental, Johnson & Johnson and Castrol who supported the event in the past did not renew their contracts after 2014’s tournament and the unrest in Russia has led to a decline in the number of lower tier sponsors.
While the big name stalwarts like Coca Cola and Adidas are still on board, FIFA have had to look towards the east to find sponsorship this year and Chinese and Russian companies have filled many of the gaps that western companies have left behind.
Since all of the places within the European regional supporter allocation have now been taken, there remaining sixteen regional slots for Asia, the Middle East, Africa, South America and North and Central America remain empty with the tournament due to kick off in just a few weeks.
