FIFA WORLD CUP RUSSIA 2018 THE COURAGE TO CHALLENGE A few days after the end of the World broadcasting rights were now on the mar- “The aim was to help Italians “overcoming Cup, it is time to make a balance of the ket at a more accessible price. We realized the grief” of a World Cup without the Ita- event, together with Mediaset, the o- that, with an adequate preparation and lian national team, and to realize that cial broadcaster in Italy, and to try and explanation to advertisers and investors, despite this fact, it still remained the most understand what it took to make a clear the costs could be covered by advertising interesting global event of all - comments media success out of it - in spite of the sales, and the event represented a ratio- Matteo Cardani Marketing General Direc- initial skepticism. In the media and in nal choice for advertisers. We knew that in tor of Publitalia’80 - We wanted to remind communication, such as in sports, the the last 2 editions (2010-2014) the Italian them that most top players of their Serie A results never come by chance, but only national team never went pass the group favourite teams would still have featured through a thorough preparation and the stage and its audiences only represented in the World Cup, which would still have combination of well-planned factors. 5% of the total”. been an unmissable event for football fans. This is how we kept the hard-core of the BACKGROUND SIX MONTHS OF PREPARATION audience in-tune with the event”. The winter night after the unexpected The preparation of the event by Mediaset defeat of the Italian national team at the was the result of a” teamVersione play” verticale positiva involving hands of Sweden in the World Cup qua- editorial decision-making, editorial pro- lier play-o, the rst question coming motion, digital oer development and to mind was “how much is a World Cup promotion of the oer on the investor without their own national team worth to market.” the Italian audience?” For some it was worth little, it cost too Starting from a press conference in De- much and denitely not enough to re- cember announcing the broadcasting pay the investment. “We instead saw it rights acquisition and then throughout as an opportunity - says Stefano Sala, the Spring, the publisher promoted the CEO of Mediaset’s advertising sales hou- event in an “organic” way within its exi- se Publitalia’80 - a World Cup with the sting football coverage of the Italian Se- Italian national team is normally a public rie A and Champions League matches, service TV event. We thought however that as well as within in-depth sports pro- even without Italy, the World Cup certainly gramming, and nally through self-pro- remains the global event of greatest me- motion TV and radio campaigns all the dia interest, but with the advantage that way until the eve of the World Cup. 1 As shown in the graphs [graph 1 and WORLD CUP: AN EXTREMELY ATTRACTIVE GLOBAL EVENT (Chart 1) 2] of the 3 research waves conducted First mentioned Other mentions Total unaided recall First mentioned Other mentions Total unaided recall by Publitalia in January, April and June, FIFA World Cup 72,4% 1,7% 74,1% First mentioned Other mentions Total unaided recall 3 Italians out of 4 considered the Wor- FIFA WorldFormula Cup 1 5,7% 6,5% 72,4% 1,7% 74,1% FIFA World Cup 72,4% 1,7% 74,1% ld Cup as “The Sport Event” of 2018. FormulaMotoGP 1 5,7%3,7% 4,3%6,5% Formula 1 5,7% 6,5% The editorial promotion on our media Tour deMotoGP France 3,7%3,9% 4,3%4,0% MotoGP 3,7% 4,3% generated an uplift from 50% at the be- TourOlympic de France Games 3,9%1,7% 4,0%2,9% Tour de France 3,9% 4,0% OlympicWimbledon Games 1,7%1,9% 2,9%1,9% ginning of the year up to 74% on the eve Olympic Games 1,7% 2,9% WimbledonUEFA CHL 1,9% 1,9% of the event. Wimbledon 1,9% 1,9%1,7% UEFATennis CHL 1,7% UEFA CHL 1,7%1,6% Tennis 1,6% It is important to note that among the VolleyballTennis 1,6%1,2% VolleyballCycling 1,2% football fans target both awareness Volleyball 1,2%1,0% GiroCyclingCycling d'italia 1,0%1,0% and intention to watch the event were 1,0% GiroGiro d'italia Seried'italia A 1,0%1,0%0,9% in the region of 90% right before the SerieAthleticsSerie A A 0,9%0,9%0,9% event start. SwimmingAthleticsAthletics 0,9%0,9%0,5% When weighted against the total popu- SwimmingSwimmingFootball 0,5%0,5%0,5% lation, it meant 1 in 2 Italians were keen FootballFootball 0,5%0,5% Source: CAWI tracking carried out by Human Highway, 3.000 interviews to follow the event on a regular basis. Source:Source: CAWI CAWI tracking tracking carried out by HumanHuman Highway, Highway, 3.000 3.000 interviews interviews “We believe in marketing research and AWARENESS AND INTENTION TO WATCH THE WORLD CUP, ON THE EVE OF THE EVENT (Chart 2) we continually commission researches for ourselves and for the companies that work with us - continues Matteo +38,8% Cardani - and this was an encouraging +38,8% preliminary figure, but many look at 87,8%87,8% 85,6% 87,8% 85,6% statements with skepticism and only 74,1%74,1% 85,6% ratings are what really matters in the 74,1% 56,9%56,9% end. 53,4% 51,5%51,5% 53,4% 56,9% The rst 4 days of the World Cup 51,5% backed us up: in just 4 days and 11 games the above mentioned 50% of the population did actually tu- ned in... rising to 70% in the weekend January AprilApril JuneJune OftenOften WillWill follow follow Will Willfollow follow when the knockout matches started. often+very often the often+very often the January April June watchOftenwatch often+veryWill follow often the often+veryWill follow often the With the likes of Messi, Ronaldo and Inie- often+veryeventevent on TVoftenon TV the often+veryeventevent on often on the footballfootballwatch on on (AVERAGE) TV(FOOTBALL sta on the pitch... the audiences took a TV event(AVERAGE) on TV TV(FOOTBALLevent on footballTV on (AVERAGE) WATCHERS)TV(FOOTBALLWATCHERS) further boost”. Source: CAWI tracking carried out by Human Highway,TV 3.000 interviews WATCHERS) Source: CAWI tracking carried out by Human Highway, 3.000 interviews Source: CAWI tracking carried out by Human Highway, 3.000 interviews LIVE MATCHES - REACH TREND 100% 100% 100% 90% 90% Quarter finals Semifinals Finals Round of 16 Quarter finals Semifinals Finals 90%80% Round of 16 Quarter finals Semifinals Finals79 80% 78 End of Group stage Round of 16 76 78 79 80%70% End of Group stage 75 79 First 32 matches 76 78 70% First 32End matches of Group stage 70 75 76 70%60% First 16 matches 66 70 75 First 32 matches 66 60% FirstFirst 16 4 matches 58 70 days 66 60%50% FirstFirst 16 4 matches 52 58 50% Firstdays 4 58 50%40% days 52 40% 52 40%30% 30% 20% 30% 20% 10% 20% 10% 0% 10% 0% 0% 14/06/18 15/06/18 16/06/18 17/06/18 18/06/18 19/06/18 20/06/18 21/06/18 22/06/18 23/06/18 24/06/18 25/06/18 26/06/18 27/06/18 28/06/18 29/06/18 30/06/18 01/07/18 02/07/18 03/07/18 04/07/18 05/07/18 06/07/18 07/07/18 08/07/18 09/07/18 10/07/18 11/07/18 12/07/18 13/07/18 14/07/18 15/07/18 Source: Auditel - Individuals 14/06/18 15/06/18 16/06/18 17/06/18 18/06/18 19/06/18 20/06/18 21/06/18 22/06/18 23/06/18 24/06/18 25/06/18 26/06/18 27/06/18 28/06/18 29/06/18 30/06/18 01/07/18 02/07/18 03/07/18 04/07/18 05/07/18 06/07/18 07/07/18 08/07/18 09/07/18 10/07/18 11/07/18 12/07/18 13/07/18 14/07/18 15/07/18 Source:14/06/18 Auditel15/06/18 16/06/18 - Individuals17/06/18 18/06/18 19/06/18 20/06/18 21/06/18 22/06/18 23/06/18 24/06/18 25/06/18 26/06/18 27/06/18 28/06/18 29/06/18 30/06/18 01/07/18 02/07/18 03/07/18 04/07/18 05/07/18 06/07/18 07/07/18 08/07/18 09/07/18 10/07/18 11/07/18 12/07/18 13/07/18 14/07/18 15/07/18 2 Source: Auditel - Individuals WINNING THE AUDIENCE CHALLENGE 64 games, 120 when simulcast is also Top-tier group stage matches and “We started to meet with advertising considered, all free-to-air. Over 80 com- knock-out stage matches were aired investors 6 months ahead of the event panies have agreed to our integral ap- on flagship channel Canale5, while the - recalls Matteo Sordo, Customers Ge- proach”. bulk of the group stage matches was neral Director of Publitalia’80 – and we “In this coordinated approach to the on Italia1, Mediaset Extra provided an pledged to them that this would have market it was important to share our always-on coverage and parallel ma- been be the FIFA World Cup with the hi- audience estimation criteria with me- tches were aired on channel 20”.