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Cola majors kick off promos to quench World Cup thirst

Jyotika J Thukral & Partha Ghosh

Soft-drink majors are lining up various promotional campaigns to encash on the approaching FIFA World Cup football.

While Pepsi is bringing in its international advertisement campaigns featuring Sumo wrestlers, English footballers, Britney - rival Coca-Cola has drawn up a whole list of activities around the game.

Coca-Cola plans to roll out its promotions around May 15 and run them till the end of the World Cup, which will be held between May 30 and June 30.

Across the globe, the Atlanta major has launched a new multi-programme campaign theme titled: 'It's Our Turn.'

Coca-Cola India is also toying with the idea of launching this campaign in the country.

Plans are also afoot to bring in the popular 'finger soccer' kit as its Chinese counterpart, Coca-Cola (China) Beverages Ltd has done to keep soccer fans busy when they are not watching the game on television.

The kit consists of a pair of miniature replica soccer boots, which are slipped onto two fingers of one hand. The soccer match is then played using fingers instead of feet, with 2 members in each team.

In China, Coke is a designated sponsor of the game. The country is also one the fastest growing markets for Coca-Cola, unlike India, where industry growth has remained static during the past year.

Other promotional campaigns include creating a series of football branded fountain cups to build association between the brand and the mega sporting event.

According to the company, "The cups will have licensed images along with the co-branded event logo on one side. The other side will invite consumers to log on to a Coke Web site and participate in an online football game."

The Web site is being specially done up to include a football microsite trivia, complete with screensavers, wallpapers, interactive stuff like predict the winner, guess the next sequence of events, etc. It will also have a slick football game, where the user will get points based on his performance.

Every time a user logs on, there will be a meter indicating the highest score till date which has to be beaten in order to become the grand winner.

In addition, to bring in a element of chance in the promotion, there will be unique alpha-numeric codes printed on the cups, which could help him reach the top of the table.

Basically, once consumers log to the site and enter the game, they need to enter this code, which will throw up a random number of points, which will get added to the user's highest score till date.

For prizes, the company is looking at entering into tie-ups with the other FIFA partners, including Adidas, Sony, Hyundai etc. The proposal is still under consideration, a company executive said.

"We are also looking at sourcing FIFA approved premiums, which we will be given away during key account promotions. There will also be key account promotions where matches will be telecast on mega screens. Consumers can get invited to these screening on participating in outlet specific promotions," the company spokesperson added.

Banks join the bandwagon

World Cup fever has gripped the credit card industry. FIFA World Cup Soccer 2002 has caught the imagination of banks, with both Citibank and Standard Chartered Bank launching a limited edition credit card. Both the banks have launched cards in association with MasterCard.

The Citibank MasterCard 2002 FIFA World Cup Card is valid internationally with offers from Citibank's merchant partners across the country, including Adidas. The card will have a visual of Pele executing his trademark 'bicycle kick'.

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