How Voice Applications Could Make a World Cup Marketing Campaign Better

Football, or Soccer, as it’s called in the United States, is by far the most popular sport in the world with an estimated 3.5 Billion persons following it. When the most popular sport on Earth holds its most popular event, the largest organizations in the world look for a piece of the action.

With 3.572 Billion people over the age of four watching the game in 2018 for at least one minute, it is easy to see why brands would want to be associated with the event. Many brands had successful World Cup campaigns, but with a voice assistant such as Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, there is no doubt they could have realized even greater success.

With devices powered by Amazon Alexa having an estimated 65 million units sold in 2021 and 53.6 million sold in 2020, it’s no doubt this level of penetration makes Amazon Alexa a formidable marketing tool. Google Assistant is just as powerful, with 500 million people using it. It’s no doubt that voice assistants are on the rise and are the future.

We will now take a look at 3 brands and their campaigns and see how voice assistants or voice applications could make it a better experience for fans and consumers.

Lidl – Dream Big With Lidl

Lidl is a supermarket chain that partnered with England’s World Cup team to create awareness and gain support for grassroots football. These awareness efforts provide opportunities to young players who dream of joining the English National Team and one day go to the World Cup. They also allowed fans to learn interesting stories about the English players, learn about the impact of the grassroots sessions, and also provided fans the opportunity to win signed shirts. Fans could also go to Lidl’s newsletter and receive offers and updates. It was a big success...but could it have be better?

With the use of voice assistants, Lidl could have made learning about the English stars and the impact of the grassroots sessions as easy as asking Alexa instead of fans having to go to their website to navigate to these things. It could have increased user engagement with the brand. Lidl’s newsletter could have also been added to Alexa so that fans could have received this information without going online. Lidl could even have had special messages or even interactive conversations from the football players about the match, their strategy or interesting aspects of their professional lives.

Hyundai – Three little birds

Hyundai is a South Korean motor company that chose to run a campaign where the band Maroon 5 recreated Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds throughout the world cup. Hyundai also provided logistical support in the form of vehicles to help in transporting teams, match officials, and other groups. Their brand was everywhere during the world cup, and another example of marketing success... but again with the aid of a voice experience, what else could they have done?

Imagine if Hyundai allowed customers to customize their vehicles with their voice or the voice of a professional athlete from the world cup. Or what if they potentially including the ability to build and customize a car simply using their voice, and then providing that customized output right to their email. Marketing a new feature like this at the World Cup would without a doubt grab people’s attention.

Heineken – The Best Soccer Bars

Beer and football go hand in hand. Heineken was ever-present in the world cup, by allowing fans to do various things like voting on matches and to get information on Heineken bars near them along with a schedule of the matches.

Voice assistants could help Heineken in improving their customers' experience of the sport and enjoyment all at once. Imagine an example where fans could ask Google Assistant for directions to a bar and getting information on not just the bar but also the football schedules. Another great feature would be the use of voting on a match by voice, this would make voting easier for the fans and customers. Also, Heineken could remind fans of the time of upcoming matches and when they are going to start and incentivize them to watch the match at a Heineken-sponsored bar. The ease of voice providing this information and as another engagement point for Heineken would have been a win for both the brand and the fans.

It’s clear to see that these brands were successful with their involvement with the world cup, and how they positioned themselves with the fans. However, by leveraging the power of voice to add another level of engagement and potential to engage with the athletes or be more involved in the action, it could have resulted in even more successful campaigns and brand recognition.