Marketing with World Cup.docVIP

Marketing with World Cup Now we need to see how much money we can earn from the World Cup of this time. We of course want to sponsor more World Cup games in the future， Liang Tian， PR director of Yingli Solar Holdings Limited（Yingli） ten days before the opening of the 2014 Brazil World Cup. This was the second time for Yingli to sponsor the World Cup. However， no enterprise can afford carelessness in such an important event. “We only reached the agreement three or four months before the South Africa World Cup， leaving us no time to ponder over other things. This time， we spent three years preparing for this year’s event. We are a bit nervous for the result，” Liang Tian said. According to Forbes’ list of most valuable sports events， the World Cup ranked No. 3. In 2013 its brand value reached US$160 million. The games have been watched 26 billion times through 198 channels. All these turned it into a heaven for the marketing. However， in such a grand international sports event， it is hard to see the Chinese sponsors. Presently， most of the Chinese companies that have been marketing with the World Cup， apart from Yingli， are just using its concept. The platform they are using is just the copyright owner， say， the TV station that transmits the event live. However， it is not uncertain whether this pattern is profitable or not. Is Official Sponsor a Worthy Title？ Simply from the investment， the cost of sponsoring the World Cup is as high as delivering an advertisement in CCTV during the World Cup. In addition， the investment in the pre-game period is only one tenth of that in the post-game period. That means the sponsorship or ad delivery is just the beginning. The investment in the marketing after the game is the real money consumer. “That depends on the aspirations of the enterprises. Do they want to improve their brand awareness or their sales？”said a former director of a well-established sports marketing company. “In our Chinese people’s opinions， do you want a better