How to Unlock the Advertising Benefits of the World Cup With Meta

Meta collectively holds two of the most influential advertising platforms, Facebook and Instagram, both of which utilize immersive advertising features that deliver unprecedented value to marketing efforts. For brands that are able to harness the power of Meta’s family of app’s they will undoubtedly see substantial benefits to their attribution marketing, and in order to embrace the commercial benefits, brands should aim to combine their efforts across Meta platforms. For example, brands hoping to reach broader audiences, integrating Instagram videography with Facebook’s dominant reachability, will not only maximize the potential of looping ads, but also expand viewership. Thus, applying this knowledge to large profile events, such as the World Cup, is a sure fire combination. The World Cup brings incomparable viewership and impressions, missing out on such an advertising opportunity would decrease the brand’s growing capabilities. 

For digital marketers, major sporting events are like Christmas, presenting a window of time that the majority of the audience’s attention will be unified under a common interest. Brands can align their promotional content with the football theme to achieve better campaign results. The Fifa World Cup carries significant engagement, and without a doubt capitalizing on this advertising potential is necessary to keep up with, or in fact move ahead of competitors. Fans will witness fierce competition on the football pitch, but marketers have the chance to showcase their skills in the advertising arena. The true winners of this tournament will thrive on compelling digital marketing efforts, driving consumers’ buying interests and product awareness. 

Win Viewer Attention & Drive Buying Intent With Instagram!

Instagram has been popular since its inception, especially amongst millennials, with users flocking to the platform to discover creative and original posts, boasting an attractive 800 million monthly active users, with over 150 million engaged daily. In recent years, the platform has been seen shifting its priority from images to videography. In today’s world video marketing has become the single most important content marketing strategy, with popularity continually growing amongst audiences globally, and it’s not hard to see why, offering short, easily-digestible and quite often, entertaining storylines, that also gives our eyes a break from the overabundance of text and images online. 

With the onset of the World Cup, and growing interest in video contents, now is the perfect opportunity to implement this format in your marketing campaigns. According to Meta‘s research, reels are in fact the most influential contributor to engagement growth. The last World Cup generated over 11 million Instagram stories related to football. 

Without a doubt, people engage in online storytelling. Therefore, placing commercial content between stories and reels will undoubtedly help brands increase the effectiveness of their efforts, especially during the short opportunistic window offered up by The World Cup. Across Meta’s channels, interests in sports merge communities with fans, athletes, media associations, and brands. The platform’s artificial intelligence technology further powers the connection brands should use in their campaigns. A study conducted by Oxford and Kantar has found a clear correlation between building brand equity and using multiple advertising formats. The more diverse social media presence delivers richer and textured story-telling, which creates a potential for brands to be 2.6x more effective. Charge your performance campaign this World Cup with 4+ different advertising formats. On Instagram, brands have an extensive ad catalog tailored to specific needs. 

Furthermore, most Instagram ads are equitable with various call-to-action cards that help to achieve specific objectives. If the brand aims to increase sales, marketers can add a shop now button in its advertisement to drive purchase intent. Promoted products within the audience’s interests receive higher engagement rates. The upcoming World Cup offers a unique advertising theme, as well as a hugely tuned-in audience of football fans around the globe. You would be hard pressed to discover another occasion that can provide such lucrative marketing opportunities. 

Reach a Global Audience With Facebook

The World Cup is one of the most viewed sporting events. Hype and anticipation boil in the fans months before officials announce the game’s schedule. With all that going on, it would be a flawed business decision to opt out from doubling down on marketing campaigns during the upcoming football celebration. Facebook connects over 400 million sports fans, with football leading the trend. Interestingly, over 36% of people are already expecting to watch brands’ advertising efforts during this period, with as many as 70% of surveyed people confirming they will view World Cup content on social media. 

But, let’s also not forget the importance of knowing your audience in order to reach them effectively, no matter the platform. Thus, understanding your audience’s demographics and interests is essential. For example, make sure not to fall for outdated beliefs that sports are homogenous, as women enjoy watching football almost as much as men. Brands must therefore curate content that acknowledges both genders to benefit from the publicity of the World Cup. To understand what people appreciate about your business, marketers can use the ‘lookalike audience’ feature, which finds similar consumers to your targeted base. This powerful tool will give you a cutting-edge advantage by collecting insights into how audiences consume content and what they like the most. 

The experience of watching sports has changed from live action broadcasts to full-day coverage. Around 90% of surveyed viewers say they use another device while watching TV, with 79% admitting that smartphones are in fact their second-screen choice. That creates unique possibilities to reach viewers during the most important matches and commercial breaks. With this in mind, brands should direct efforts to fit mobile-friendly content since most of the audience will indulge in social media activity. 

To capture football fans, Facebook can offer collections, carousels, images, and video ads adaptable to the brand’s business objectives. Marketers can also add specific CTAs to their advertisement promotion. Thus it increases the encouragement in awareness or driving purchase interests.

The Global Power of Football Fans 

The World Cup brings an audience of billions.. Yes billions! Therefore, the benefits of building campaigns across these leading platforms, and reaching this thriving audience are unprecedented. Meta’s advertising packages not only help build performance and branding campaigns, but used in combination can scale your reach to new levels. The most noteworthy attribute they bring is an ability to be present where the conversation takes place and connect with a global football fan base. 

The Fifa World Cup kicked off on November 20th, and fans from all around the globe are once again giving their undivided attention to the biggest sporting event of the year! Do not miss out on this advertising opportunity with Meta.