Indian economy is huge but there is no Indian sponsor for FIFA yet: Coke global VP sports

Coca-Cola, the longest-running sponsor of the world’s biggest commercial sports tournament – the FIFA World Cup – is accelerating sponsorship in non-football playing countries such as India. “There is a direct benefit,” says Ricardo Fort, the beverage maker’s global VP for sports partnerships.

“It is getting increasingly important to be at events such as FIFA; this is when people will pay attention to what you say,” Fort told ET in Moscow. “Live sports is one of the few things that people stop and pay attention to what you are saying. It gets your attention and of course, we want people to have more beverages.”

There are expectations that FIFA 2018 will rake in $6.1 billion in revenues, including sponsorship money and television rights – 25% more than the previous tournament in Brazil in 2014.

Coca-Cola is one of the six global sponsors of the football tournament. Others include Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser), McDonald’s and Vivo.

The event, which kicked off on June 14 and will end on July 15, is expected to reach 3.4 billion viewers on television.

“For us, it’s important that every country gets involved closely with the FIFA World Cup,” Fort said. “The Indian economy is huge but there is no Indian sponsor in the FIFA World Cup,” he said.

The maker of Coca-Cola and Sprite aerated drinks and Minute Maid juice has released its single largest football-centric campaign across over 180 countries. “Today there are 32 countries playing here, but over 200 countries paying attention to what is happening here,” Fort said. “It is a process of how the evolution of sport is growing, how the sport is being consumed.”

With drinking habits of consumers changing swiftly away from sugary drinks across markets to healthier options such as water and juice, Coca-Cola is placing bets on mega tournaments like FIFA World Cup to reach consumers as it broad-based its portfolio to hedge risks. It has been accelerating launches in the no-sugar and functional beverages space, including juices and juice drinks, tea and water to bring back consumers across world markets.

“Events like FIFA and Olympics do several things for us. They allow us to talk about diversity in different ways – such as diversity in the portfolio where we can talk about Coke, juice, water, and tea. Or diversity in terms of countries – to reinforce our global presence,” Fort said.

The world’s biggest beverage maker has been drumming up associations with non-playing countries by sponsoring events such as the FIFA under-17 world cup and the trophy tour.

“We have to do a lot more of that,” Fort said. “In Asia, there are countries like China, India or Australia, which consume the sport in a large way. In India, the importance of football in cities like Kolkata and Goa is huge,” he said. “We can build relationships to sell more, can market our products accordingly, at grassroots, nationally, with individual stars. That drives our investment, and we get returns,” he added.

On allegations of corruption and controversy around FIFA, Fort said: “While we push FIFA to be better, we have processes to evaluate risks. In short, there’s always a risk.”

He, however, said the responsibility of promoting football is not with companies but FIFA. “FIFA has to use the resources it has – from sponsors and television, to invest in developing football. It is an opportunity to get the private sector to invest in the sport – which needs to grow,” Fort said.

Disclaimer: The writer is in Moscow at the invitation of Coca-Cola.

Source:-https://retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/food-entertainment/grocery/indian-economy-is-huge-but-there-is-no-indian-sponsor-for-fifa-yet-coke-global-vp-sports/64675522

Comments

0