5 Brands That Have a Solid Twitter Strategy for Their World Cup Marketing Efforts

The 2018 FIFA World Cup kicks off in Russia on June 14 and continues through July 15, but as Twitter head of global brand strategy Alex Josephson pointed out, “The brands that are going to win on Twitter during the World Cup are the brands that are planning that out and strategizing now.” We looked at the World Cup-related Twitter efforts of five brands to see how that's playing out. Corona Mexico The beer brand kicked off its efforts with the World Cup draw on Dec. 1, creating a live event experience with input from celebrities and athletes and reaction to the group Mexico was placed in. [kickout id="1"] The brand played off the lack of success by Mexico’s past World Cup squads, calling its campaign “La Suerte No Juega,” or “luck is not part of the game.” [kickout id="2"] Ricardo Dias, vice president of marketing, middle Americas at Corona Mexico parent Anheuser-Busch InBev, pointed out that the last time Mexico made it to the fifth game of the World Cup was when it hosted the tournament in 1986, adding, “For Mexicans, getting to the fifth game is kind of like winning the World Cup. It’s a mental barrier they’ve had for years.” Dias added, “It doesn’t help us, being a beer company, that the games are going to be played in the morning,” saying that it was imperative for Corona Mexico to “win this World Cup before it starts.” The brand used Twitter at the beginning of the process to learn about people’s behavior during World Cup years, and it worked with the social network to look at the topics that were discussed the most. Tecate Another Mexican beer brand, Tecate, embraced the host country of the World Cup, changing the language of its Mexican Twitter handle to Russian and occasionally tweeting in that language. [kickout id="3"] Tecate also introduced a video subscription experience leading up to the tournament, chronicling the difficulties faced by two Mexican soccer fans traveling to Russia and trying to fit in despite being out of their element, and even meeting Sylvester Stallone along the way. [kickout id="4"] Finally, the beer brand created a custom hashtag-triggered emoji enabling for users who tweet with #Yaytsa. [kickout id="5"] McDonald's Brazil While Brazil has a much more decorated World Cup history than Mexico, the sting of its 7-1 loss to Germany during the 2014 World Cup, when it was the host country, doesn’t appear to have faded. “We don’t have good memories from the last World Cup,” Roberto Gnypek, vp of marketing at McDonald's Brazil, said. “Despite the economic environment and political issues in our country, I believe we’ll be very excited in the next few days. It’s very, very important to prepare a couple of months before the World Cup and create an emotional connection with customers.” McDonald's Brazil’s World Cup Twitter efforts are based on the hashtag #Prepara (prepare), as in preparing fans for feel-good moments during the tournament and tying in its food offerings, and Gnypek said, “It’s very, very important to prepare a couple of months before the World Cup and create an emotional connection with customers.” The company held a contest for kids in which 11 winners will be chosen to attend Brazil’s match versus Costa Rica, and it offered sandwiches celebrating World Cup-winning countries since 2002 and various discount coupons and free products. [kickout id="6"] Of course, the incorporation of Brazilian soccer superstar Neymar didn’t hurt the brand’s efforts. [kickout id="7"] Gnypek also said McDonald’s Brazil will have a “war room” during the tournament in which “writers, creative people, digital people and communications managers will generate content within minutes,” adding that it was the “only way to participate at a relevant pace for this conversation. The idea is to be very connected.” Coca-Cola Twitter teamed up with Coca-Cola to bring the World Cup trophy to 64 cities in 48 countries before the matches begin and capture content with fans and athletes interacting with it, amplifying and distributing that content via Moments. [kickout id="8"] Josephson said the biggest spike in World Cup-related Twitter activity to date happened when Coca-Cola named South Korean boy band BTS as its official brand ambassadors for the World Cup. Amazon Studios Exclusive U.S. English-language broadcast rights holder Fox Sports will provide video highlights of every goal and celebration on Twitter moments after they occur and six-second preroll ads for those highlights will be made available to brands. Amazon Studios is one of the brands taking advantage of the preroll ads to promote its Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan series, which debuts on Amazon Prime Aug. 31. Director of marketing Mike Benson said all of Amazon Studios’ World Cup campaign video will run during those preroll spots, adding, “Twitter becomes a really great platform that complements TV viewing. It’s something that people are actively doing at the same time. We like the overall engagement strategy of using television and Twitter in a complementary way.” Benson also pointed to the global nature of Twitter and the World Cup, as Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan is being launched globally.