Coca-Cola & Pepsi Football adverts- What's the big deal?

Pepsi have today launched a brand new 90 second advert to coincide with the European Championships featuring some of the biggest footballing stars on the planet. The advert titled Kick in the Mix also features it's own theme tune from Scottish dance DJ Calvin Harris.

The advert features several world stars including Sergio Aguero, Fernando Torres & Frank Lampard, as they crowd surf their way to a Pepsi vending machine. The advert features all the footballing flair and charisma that we have come to expect from Pepsi advert's over the years. Even though the brand is not an official supplier for the European Championships they regularly roll out big adverts in tournament years to go toe-to-toe with rivals Coca-Cola.

With Pepsi often favoring well known brand ambassadors over feel good non star lead taken by the official sponsors. The two adverts should highlight the traditional family orientated vibe given off in the coke advert, in comparison to the brash superstar angle ran by Pepsi. Off the back of Pepsi's latest campaign they have created an official campaign teaming up with Calvin Harris & Neo to create the song Kick in the Mix. Pepsi will ideally be hoping the song become's the unofficial anthem of the tournament in a similar vein to Wave Your Flag by  K'naan for Coca-Cola during the World Cup in 2010. 

Either way the advert is a statement of intent from Pepsi, as they look to boost sales in what traditionally is the  brand's biggest time for sales in the Summer. 

                                            

Hyundai Ramps up Euro Sponsorship by naming brand ambassadors.

Korean car manufacturers Hyundai have announced a number of high profile sponsorship deals with players, to coincide with their top tier Sponsorship deal for the European Championships.


The firm who have been major sponsors of the European Championships from 2000 have announced link ups with five key players to raise their profile in the run up to the tournament which is being joint hosted by Poland & Ukraine. French striker Karim Benzima, & Chelsea and England star Daniel Sturridge  is joined by Spanish international Iker Casillas, Germany’s Lukas Podolski, Italy’s Giuseppe Rossi  in “Team Hyundai”.


The Korean manufacturer will be battling directly with Vauxhall & Mercedes Benz. With Vauxhall  recently secured sponsorship rights to all home nation's clubs in the United Kingdom. Whilst Mercedes Benz have had a long term relationship with the German Football Federation (DFB). 


The move has been welcomed by  the Senior Vice President of Hyundai Motor Europe, Allan Rushforth: "The fivesome should serve as a reminder to fans “of the excitement, dynamism and passion that football inspires – corresponding with Hyundai’s road car achievements.”


Alongside the new sponsors Hyundai is offering you the chance to win some tickets to the European Championship Semi-Finals if you test drive their new car. You can see the competition here 

Champion's League trophy to go on tour for Heineken adverts.

Heineken the official beer of the Champion's league is taking the famous trophy across the world and secretly filming fan's reactions as part of a brand new viral marketing campaign. 

The Dutch beer has been linked as premium sponsor with the Champions League since 1994 and  last May signed up with Uefa till 2015. Speaking on the deal last year Alexis Nasard, chief commercial officer at Heineken, said: 

"The UEFA Champions League is one of the world's premier sporting competitions with unrivaled international reach and professional standards. This makes it a perfect match for Heineken, the world's most international premium beer brand.The sponsorship plays an important role in fueling the continued growth of the Heineken brand around the globe."

The beer has also linked up with a number of former players as brand ambassadors. Edwin Van der Sar, former Chelsea midfielder Ruud Gullit and Dutch international Ronald de Boer will be travelling with the trophy at various stages of the tour. 

You can watch an exclusive clip of the advert here . 

Barca tie up with Google at the World Mobile Congress.

FC Barcelona launched a series of mobile apps and highlighted its mobile-compatible website through a tie-up with Google as the city hosted the largest mobile industry trade conference last week.The club aims to highlight its host city’s status as the global capital of both the beautiful game and the mobile industry by joining an initiative to promote the creation of mobile apps that improve the experience of watching or following a football match.

The initiative will operate under the FCB Apps programme and mobile app developers are invited to submit their proposals for mobile applications oriented towards football and sport in general according to the club.The proposals selected will qualify for financial aid and advice for development with the club agreeing to throw its considerable marketing muscle behind any such app.

Club officials said the company was taking part in the programme as almost a third of all weekly visitors to its Nou Camp stadium brought a smartphone with them and that it soon expected this to hit 100%.This programme is being overseen by the club’s director responsible for new technologies.

   

FC Barcelona also used the week-long conference, called  the Mobile World Congress, to promote its collaboration with Google as part of the US internet company’s GoMo project.

http://www.barcelonagomobile.com/en

The club’s website has been optimised to display properly when visited by smartphone users. It also has a suite of  mobile apps – and is part of a project designed to create web pages adapted specifically for mobile devices at 26 points of interest in the city of Barcelona. 

FC Barcelona’s website contains news and image galleries, videos plus supporters can purchase match day tickets directly from the site. Barcelona’s Lee said: “33% of people coming to the Camp Nou now have a smartphone and the number will soon be 100%.It is therefore very important for us to be present. We want everybody that has Barça in their heart to also have Barça in their pockets"

By Ronan Shields