3 tips for a successful online campaign for the FIFA World Cup 2018

The FIFA World Cup 2018 is knocking on our doors. Is your business ready to tap into the opportunities around the global competitions and become a winner with a successful online promotion? No matter if you are in the retail, banking or betting business, the FIFA World Cup is the perfect time for you to advertise your business to the right target audience with your special brand promise. Here are three tips on how to prepare effectively your online promotion during the events.

Target your audience with relevant ads in real time

The FIFA World Cup is a real entertainment galore where we are all overwhelmed with ads in-between the games. So how can your message stand out from all that noise? From our experience, targeting the right audience with a relevant message in real time can make miracles for your business.

For example, during one of the most prominent horse races in the UK – Cheltenham 2018, we noticed that most of the betting companies are competing for the audience’ attention in a very generic way. They would all put online flashy banners that were addressing the general audience without referring to any specific target or game.

Therefore, we worked together with our client Paddy Power Betfair towards tailoring each of the messages they send out in real time. Thanks to our Streameye platform, they could customize each of the online banners for their campaign just with few clicks and thus serve relevant offers for each specific race in the event in real time.

Planning, planning, planning

Planning your campaign around such a big event like the FIFA World Cup 2018 may be crucial for your success. At least 80% of your online efforts during the events can be jeopardized because of a delayed preparation of a brief for your creative, advertising or digital agency.

Our team has gathered vast experience from the past 3 FIFA World Cup competitions and if we need to pick one key advice to give you that would be – think ahead. Some of the key questions you want to answer before you jump into execution are related to setting your goals in a measurable way and identifying the campaign tone of voice, the main digital assets you will focus on (ex. emails, social media, onsite graphics, display ads, landing pages, etc.), the key messages for your audience, the A/B test preparation and the resources needed to achieve your results.

When you have successfully defined the deliverables of your World Cup campaign, you have to make sure there is enough time to deliver them and create a priority list, if you have started preparing late. It is important to plan each step of the campaign and rely on a partner that has the correct expertise and toolset to deliver your assets on time.

Find an agile partner

Your campaign efforts would never be successful without the right partner. Even with a solid plan in place, you need to stay flexible and react fast to the events during the FIFA World Cup 2018. So be careful when you join forces with an agency and find the best balance that can make your work agile and relevant to the real-time events.

The big challenge is to identify whether a partner is really agile and able to make your campaign a success. Here are three main qualities that differentiate the agile partner from the crowd:

• Readiness to deliver always on time
• Ability to react quickly to changes in specifications and requirements
• Desire to retain and improve constantly this expertise and toolset

What is your experience with online campaigns during big sports events? Share with us your ideas on Facebook and LinkedIn.