With the unveiling of the Socceroos '2014 World Cup playing kit, the buzz is likely to gather more momentum around Socceroos' promotional products in the line up to the much awaited 2014 FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) World Cup Brazil game fixtures. The official 2014 Socceroos kit design pays homage to the 1974 team uniform worn by the first Australian soccer team to have qualified for the much cherished World Cup football title. Come June 2014 and even before, companies are muscling up to blend the spiriof the game with promotional and ‘branding’ tools that could align itself to one of the greatest sporting event worldwide. once in four years, the FIFA World Cup is heralded as an iconic game for all fans globally and provides the absolute platform for strategizing promotional activities for corporate branding both on a global as well as local scale. Celebrating one of the biggest football sporting event, the ‘brand’ recall game for most companies relies on distributing sporting and non-sporting goodies that is aligned to the ‘aura’ of this football festival that dates back to 1872. In its modern ‘avatar’, this robust game offers a sense of pride to all the participating nations. This brings forth ample scope to design promotional products that ‘tug’ at the hearts of customers who also double up as ‘footie’ fans in their respective countries. This sporting festival is a promising platform for large multinationals and also for local companies to reinforce their brand visibility through promotional products across fans – both hosts and visitors to the ‘home’ or ‘away’ countries. To the brand strategist, it makes obvious sense to have sports goods as promotional gifts by cashing on the flavour of team Socceroos’ this season. Without doubt, custom-made promotional A-League balls and beach balls tinted with the colours of brand Socceroos 2014 serves as steady brand reinforcements. Soccer player key rings, plastic or metallic sports drink bottles, anti-stress balls; travel car mugs with custom inserts of team Socceroos 2014 could also add flavour. Australian flag capes, thunder sticks, sunglasses, noise makers, flashlight key tags along with the ubiquitous porcelain cups, mugs, coasters, soccer ball pens and sports jerseys flaunting colours of the team are a must to attain maximum mileage for corporate visibility this season. Designing and gifting bespoke items could just be the right ‘sporting spirit’ to award loyal customers. However, a word of legal caution for all advertisers is to sync their promotional product design strategy with FIFA’s brand management team. The game dictates big money spent by licensed and authorised official corporate houses which is based on the official FIFA wordmark and FIFA corporate design. FIFA expects to earn close to $4bn from FIFA Brazil 2014 via television rights, sponsorships and marketing and those planning to harness faith in its team - Socceroos '2014, could start devising their own promotional plans to harness the nations&; soccer fetish with its own brand games.
