With an average price tag of more than $63 million (€61.3 million), most brands have been 'priced out' of sponsorship of this year's World Cup, a study by GlobalData claims.
This year's tournament, which kicked off with a 2-0 win for Ecuador over hosts Qatar at the weekend, will see 27 official brand sponsorship partners avail of prime marketing rights, spending around $1.7 billion (€1.66 billion) in the process, GlobalData said in its Business of the FIFA 2022 World Cup report.
However, the high price of sponsorship means that 15 of these 27 core sponsors are making their World Cup debut this year, with many longstanding partners put off by the high price tag.
Seven of the partnerships announced thus far already hold a value worth in excess of $100 million for this tournament cycle, GlobalData said.
'Biggest Sporting Competition'
“The FIFA World Cup is the biggest sporting competition on the planet, bar none," commented Jake Kemp, sport analyst at GlobalData. "While the Super Bowl often claims to be the biggest sporting show every year come February, the reality is that its viewing numbers and commercial value pale in comparison to the FIFA World Cup.
"No other competition offers brands an opportunity to promote their products and services on as large or as wide as a scale as the premium soccer competition."
Longstanding Sponsorships
For one of the tournament's major sponsors, however, Budweiser, the tournament kicked off with some confusion, as Qatar authorities withdrew the sale of beer from stadiums two days before the tournament began. The AB InBev-owned beer has been a sponsor of the World Cup since the mid-80s.
Others are likely to reap the benefits of their association with the tournament, with brands such as Vivo, Wanda, Qatar Airways and Adidas having committed to the tournament for a number of cycles.
“While the tournament holds a diverse commercial appeal, the financial services sector is the most influential, with five partnerships," Kemp added.
"This includes two with brands involved in cryptocurrency, as FIFA capitalised on the crypto boom earlier this year before they began to struggle. A return of the US national team to the World Cup means that sponsorship from the US has been high, with American brands accounting for a third of all tournament sponsors in 2022.”
© 2022 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest A-brands news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Photo ©fifg/123RF.COM. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
