World Cup Fever

Also in the June 2010 issue of Vanity Fair, an article and some cool photos (Annie Leibovitz of course) about some high profile World Cup players - relevant at the time, but I just got to it. (I know.)

Check it out HERE.

Do Americans Hate Football?

That's the question the New Yorker attempted to answer in a brief "comment" recently. Just to be clear, we're talking here about Euro-style footie, not the NFL. As the World Cup draws to a close (congrats Spain!) I thought I'd wind down my coverage as well. This great piece discusses the linguistic origin of the word "soccer" (it's British btw) and general American attitude toward the sport.

Bottom Line: "Soccer may never be 'America’s game' (though it’s already one of them), but America is game for soccer." Sounds like progress to me.

Check out the full article HERE.

Onwards and Upwards

Although we lost to Ghana on Saturday, it's been a hell of a run (quick jog?). I still think we could have beaten those guys but even though we're not continuing, I think the US men's team did a fantastic job of coming together and generating some serious interest in the sport in general and the tournament in particular.

This video has been making the rounds and I thought it would be a nice way to get closure on the US efforts:

I Knew They Could Do It - Go USA!!!

Branded Entertainment Done Right - Bud House

Unless you've been living under a rock, chances are you know that we're currently in the midst of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. 32 countries come together for the biggest soccer tournament in the world. Budweiser, official beer sponsor of the World Cup has crafted this really unbelievable "branded entertainment" concept that I actually want to watch! It's called "Bud House" and in a nutshell brings 32 people together (one from each country) and has them living together in a house in South Africa.

AdFreak posted a short synopsis of what the programs is about:

"As if there weren't enough drama building up in pubs around the world as the World Cup begins, Budweiser, the tournament's official beer sponsor, is moving 32 soccer fans into a "Bud House" in South Africa, where they will live for the duration of the games. One "fanatic" was chosen from each country that qualified, and visitors to the brand's YouTube page can follow the action as they watch each of the matches together. As each country is eliminated, so is the corresponding resident. The winning country's fan will present Bud's "Man of the Match" to the most valuable player, as determined by fan votes, at the July 11 final. Created by DDB Chicago and Tribal DDB Amsterdam, the effort is positioned as an online reality show. The first "episode" features the group's arrival. So far, on day one, they are still fresh-faced and friendly. They've still got 29 days inside the Bud House to get drunk and let the fists fly with national pride."

Check out the trailer below:



You can watch the full web series HERE.
Check out their Facebook page HERE.

Legends by Louis Vuitton

The brand has done some pretty interesting branding campaigns over the last few years, all of which I've noticed...which I guess was their goal. This year, in honor of the World Cup they've gathered three of the greatest soccer "legends" of all time: Maradona, Pele and Zidane. All photos have been shot by Annie Liebovitz, so they're pretty amazing.

I checked out LV's accompanying website and it's pretty slick - HERE.

They've also done shots with Catherine Deneuve, Mikhail Gorbachev and Keith Richards. Pretty cool that they're thinking somewhat outside the box instead of featuring straight-up supermodels.

Evolution of the World Cup Soccer Ball

The NYTimes posted this interactive feature showcasing the evolution of the World Cup soccer ball from 1930 the present. If you click on each ball you get a close-up and some stats on the final game.

Check it out HERE.

The Business Side of Things

Came across a few articles about the business side of things relating to the World Cup, FIFA and sponsorships. Check out this article about Nike vs. Adidas vs. Puma from the New York Times and this other article from Time magazine about bringing in the big bucks and FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

NYTimes article HERE.
Time article HERE.

Wold Cup - FIFA Official Posters (1934-2010)

Sick Dutch World Cup T-shirt

Courtesy of the Cool Hunter.

How to Follow the World Cup on Twitter

Courtesy of Mashable, a guide to following the World Cup on Twitter. Now I'm not a huge fan of Twitter, but this seems worth looking into. They actually have a nice list of some top media outlets and their Twitter accounts to follow.

Check it out HERE.

32 Teams: One Dream - World Cup Murals

As promised, here's the first post of the World Cup murals. Check out ESPN's country recap HERE.

Group A: France, Mexico, South Africa and Uruguay

France

Mexico

South Africa

Uruguay

ESPN: "Leave No Soccer Ball Unturned..."

The headline of this post is a quote by John Skipper, ESPN's EVP of Content and basically sums up their approach to broadcasting the games in the US, covering the run-up to the event and promoting both their brand and (by extension) soccer in general.

Media coverage of ESPN's efforts reflect the scale of what they're doing and just how well they're doing it. A few of the headlines I've read so far and links to the articles:

"ESPN Sets Spending Record for 2010 World Cup" (World Cup Buzz)

"Cup Runneth Over: ESPN Expects World Cup Ratings to jump 25-50%" (Sports Business Daily)

"ESPN Hires Martin Tyler as World Cup 2010 Commentator" (EPL Talk)

"ESPN Plans 230 Hours of World Cup Action" (Business Insider)

MediaWeek has the best summary so far of what they're doing:
a) Broadcasting all 64 games on ESPN, ESPN2 or ABC
b) 100 Hours of custom-developed content including: "Goal", "Voices of Africa", profiles of all 32 teams, "Umlando", and "The Two Escobars"
c) 4 promotional spots featuring music by U2 (one already posted on this blog)
d) Commissioned murals for each one of the 32 teams (plus 1 main Africa poster) bringing to life the story of each country

One word: Awesome.

More to come on the amazing murals shortly...

One Game Changes Everything - ESPN Promo and Nike Ad Update

Where to begin? The 2010 FIFA World Cup is a few days away and you can feel the country (if not the world) get excited as each day passes. ESPN, which is broadcasting the games in the US has done an amazing job of promoting their coverage and getting people pumped.

Check out this promo featuring U2's Bono:



I've already posted the amazing video clip that Nike did and they're not even an official sponsor! A quick update on that though...Slate's Seth Stevenson posted a great article reviewing the 3 minute ad and giving it an A+ calling the "greatest ad I've ever seen." He talks about the ad agency (Wieden + Kennedy), the director (Alejandro González Iñárritu of "Babel" and "21 Grams" fame) and points out some things in the video that I missed the first few times I saw it. Check it out HERE.

More on ESPN's efforts shortly...

Nike - "Write the Future" Clip (So Good!)

Nike recently released a 3 minute mini-movie/ad for the World Cup titled "Write the Future." Ad Age is reporting that Nike thinks it may be their best work ever and it's already beaten their most successful viral video to date. It's pretty sick - watch full screen for the best experience!

Click HERE for their YouTube channel.