FIFA ads (Fédération Internationale de Football Association ads)

   What a good luck charm I must be; I finally get to watch a US World Cup game and we get eliminated. Seemed like a decent game, though. But on to marketing, global considerations and graphic design.

   With the wrap around LED billboard that was regularly rotating adverts, I was struck by what succeeded most, and that which succeeded least (at least in this humble opinion) and why. Pemmican (not listed here) and Yingli Solar seemed among the least adept at this bumper sticker communication. I was unfamiliar with both entities as an audience so I confess that now. However, the ad buy did not allow either to be as splashy as, say, Emirates Air. Pemmican relied too much on its logo to carry its brand. Yingli is the first Chinese company to sponsor this event and seemed to find it necessary to integrate Chinese characters side by side with its roman characters (BTW, listed on the NYSE). Naturally, from a Chinese business perspective, this is exactly what they do want; they are looking to build for a long-term relationship (not the classic branding iron on the brain – flash, you got it branding).

   I could pick on MTM and Seara for pushing a third color, didas for not shortening the length of its horizontal stripes (somewhat a balance distraction visually against the type), but for a real middle point I’d say Sony attempted too much; overworking the presentation. Their wrap around was: SONY (space) make(period)believe (space) 3D. What brought it home to me that this really was overkill was when a camera closed in and froze on a replay close to the signage. All I saw was the “Y” in Sony … but I knew it was Sony’s “Y”. Sony, like Visa (more on Visa in a second), had a unique opportunity, but added clutter.
   Seemed to me Visa was far and away the most effective. Their logo IS their name (unlike close seconds, McDonalds or Coke; who in turn felt compelled to complicate their flash with a golden arch and hobble-skirt shaped bottle – or Emirates, who felt compelled to speak that one extra word: Air Emirates). Visa, bought enough that, along with the strength of their logo name, was able to blanket the entire wrap around on a regular basis with an easy on the eyes texture.
   I’ve been told a “regular” billboard ought not carry more than seven words because that’s about all you can process as you drive by. These signage opportunities are even worse. “No one” is looking at them, they’re there for the game. Visa’s easy on the eye, whole wrap around texture provided a visual oasis against which game play occurred…and so for those reasons, to me, Visa won that particular aspect of the World Cup.