Kairos Consumers was asked to present at a sports retailing event this December in Greece (Kairos Presents link). The forum will focus partially on usage of social media in sports retailing. As in other industries, sports retailing has seen high reach revolving around product launches and major events, with the goal being to more regularly engage its target audience through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in particular. The 2010 World Cup offered perhaps the largest sports industry stage to test the relevance of brands as seen through social media.

The winners included global sports retail giants Adidas and Nike. Adidas, which paid US$350 million to sponsor the FIFA World Cup in 2010 and 2014, achieved great success through its World Cup Match-ups via the Adidas Football Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/adidasfootball). In contrast, Nike – not a FIFA sponsor – leveraged a great deal of buzz behind a well-received three-minute television ad entitled Write the Feature (showcasing stars including Cristiano Ronaldo) and Nike TVC on YouTube, parlaying this into a social media “share of voice for key brands in the context of the World Cup” metric by Meltwater Buzz and subsequent reports by Nielsen. A blog entry through Zitz Solutions (http://www.zitzsolutions.com/2010/06/19/fifa-soccer-world-cup-2010-social-media-scores-big-863/) suggested that the Nike “ambush marketing” strategy essentially rendered moot the relevance of FIFA connection. In fact, of all FIFA partners, only Adidas could really come close to Nike in terms of social media relevance surrounding the World Cup. Does an ambush have staying power? The challenge going forward to even the “winners” in sports retailing and beyond: Stay relevant and connect with the target on a daily basis.