On the World Cup Road

Marketing schemes based on international sporting events are like college examinations. Everyone gets the same questions, but no two answers are alike. I have certainly had a great time searching for marketing programmes built around this year’s World Cup. What I found was plenty of interesting special events, contests, temporary services and amenities, as well as a few sales promotions (see cover story on page 16). I was somewhat surprised, however, not to find too many footie-inspired gifts with purchase.
In an industry that is known for offering gift-with-purchase schemes of all sorts, particularly during special trading seasons, one would expect to be inundated with shopping centre gift offers. This is especially true when so many centres offered similar World Cup-related amenities and special events—from viewing lounges to football skills workshops. A branded and eye-catching footie souvenir would certainly enhance a centre’s offer—Fussi Deluxe’s football voodoo dolls would have made for a news headline or two.
For many centres, the underlying reasons for offering generic gifts with purchases such as centre vouchers are limited budgets and the need to turn each gift into a bounce-back shopping opportunity. But while the financial reasoning holds, centres are still missing a good opportunity to set themselves apart by making their marketing programmes a little different from the competition.
For an event with as high a profile as the World Cup, a small amount of money spent to design a footie-related programme, even just a logo and tagline to place on special-edition gift cheques would seem like a smart investment. The World Cup, like the Olympics, only comes every four years, making that month-long event a truly special experience for fans. While keeping an eye on the bottom line, there are surely innovative gifts to offer shoppers and remind them, well beyond an event’s closing ceremonies, that your centre is the provider of a memorable retail experience.