With only 7 Days left to the start of one of the biggest sporting events in the world, we round up what we believe to be the best or most eye catching campaigns by brands, hoping to capture the attention of millions of viewers. Although this feels like the least hyped and least marketed World Cup to date, there have been a few impressive creative campaigns worth watching. Here’s our list of best 2018 World Cup Campaigns:

1. Mastercard – Goals For Meals

Let’s kick off the list with a controversial campaign which received a lot of backlash. Mastercard released their latest campaign ahead of the World Cup looking to do something good and capitalise on the huge captivated audience around the big occasion (although not being an official sponsor, they have to be clever and careful).

Whilst I imagine when the marketing team first came up with this idea, it probably seemed like a generous message, “Let’s give away 10,000 meals for every goal Neymar and Messi score”, but honestly, if they have the funds to do something this generous why did they have to interject such a niche trigger. What if Neymar or Messi get injured? Surely it would have been a better idea to say 1,000 meals for every goal scored at the tournament? Serious own goal.

ITV – Forget

We like this advert. It captures all the sorrow, excitement, expectation, passion and glory (or lack of) that England fans have experienced in the past and will experience in this World Cup with the underlying statement: Forget.

The imagery and production is great. We’re already over excited for the tournament here but this helps us visualise what could be…come on England.

VISA – Zlatan

The aim of these monthly posts is to keep you abreast of all the weird and wonderful news and insights to come out of the world of marketing. Every month, our team will pick our favourite campaigns, brand insights and marketing trends that you can use to enhance your marketing knowledge or even as inspiration to delight your audience.

Visa have partnered with The Ego and one of football’s biggest personalities in Zlatan Ibrahimovic on their campaign as official payment services partners for the tournament.

It’s a great synergy between the two brands which will no doubt get lots of people talking. VISA’s association with a personality who claims that “A Fifa World Cup without me is not worth watching”, is much like how they themselves want to be perceived; an irreplaceable part of the tournaments enjoyment. Watch the video here.

BBC – History Will Be Made

Every World Cup has a host of iconic moments and everyone has their own individual favourite that immediately takes you back to that time and place.

In assuring us that History Will Be Made, the BBC’s 2018 campaign provides a timely reminder of football’s greatest tournament and why we love it.

The video was made using tapestry techniques by creating a dynamic film in which every single frame has been individually embroidered. More than 227,000 metres of thread were used to create over 600 unique frames of tapestry, that if laid end-to-end would measure over 1,200 metres in length.

This advert is a great show of creativity and innovation by BBC’s own in house creatives.

BWIN – Who Stole The Cup?

Here’s an ad we’re not big fans of. The betting company gathered Argentina’s Maradona, Brazil’s Cafu, Spain’s Vicente del Bosque and Germany’s Stefan Effenberg in a glitzy hotel in Moscow to create this heist style advert. The premise of the cinematic video is that at the opening ceremony of the World Cup the trophy has suddenly gone missing, and the viewer is asked to guess which one of the 4 stars of the advert is the culprit.

Although the style and star factor of the advert was enjoyable, the concept doesn’t carry through into the advert leaving us a bit confused on the objective of the advert.

Copa 90 – Snapchat

This is a social media campaign from Copa90, who are a huge Youtube channel who have teamed up with Snapchat to bring daily stories live from the World Cup this summer. The aim of the campaign is to provide a feel of the event for subscribers who couldn’t make it to Russia. Copa90 is scouring its extensive fan base to find Snapchat correspondents to report on their World Cup experience which will run for 45 days. We like this campaign because we believe the brand is using the right platform for their young target audience to provide experiential content that will leave a lasting memory.

Coca Cola – Score Prediction Cans

A list minute entry to the blog! Coca Cola just launched a range of Coke cans which will be number from 0 to 9, allowing viewers of the World Cup to predict the scores of the match they are watching, whilst enjoying an ice cold Coke. We can see this campaign being a big hit, like their “share a coke” campaign a few years back, which featured popular names on the packaging.

Well, that’s the end of our World Cup Campaigns round up! We hope you found it a good read. Which campaign was your favourite?

Our team is busy collecting and answering all the questions that you might have, ask your question and we’ll get back to you soon!

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Best World Cup 2018 Marketing Campaigns

Written By Adam Burrage
Managing Partner at Trident