World Cup 2010 Final Report

July 16, 2010

We’ve centered our World Cup analysis around assessing the marketability of players as brand endorsers. So in this final report, we’ll crown the MBP — Most Buzzing Player of the Cup. And since the consumer always sets the agenda, we’ve also explored other topics as they’ve arisen from the conversation around the World Cup: security concerns, vuvuzelas, temper tantrums, scandals… and now…

Paul the Octopus
This clairvoyant cephalopod not only predicted the World Cup winner, he correctly called all seven of Germany’s games preceding the final. (His prognostications were interpreted by his choice of a tasty morsel associated with one of two flags from opposing teams.) His engagement saw a sharp spike after he achieved a 5-for-5 record when he correctly predicted Germany over Argentina on July 3. We’ll recommend Paul and his online buzz as a celebrity endorser for a brand in the business of forecasting: Merrill Lynch or the Weather Channel?

Cute & Clairvoyant

And now on to the highly engaged humans…

Lionel Messi of Argentina tops the chart for engagement over the course of the tournament. His raw talent —and fans’ recognition thereof — cannot be dismissed, despite his team’s elimination from the tournament. Has he overtaken Ronaldo for the poster boy of international soccer? They’re very close in age, skill, and appeal…

Sample post… “But the World Cup is about the superstars. And the two biggest superstars this tournament are Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. These two are the best soccer players.” Read the post…

If a brand were to choose Messi as a spokesperson, what audience would he appeal to? That’s a question we can answer by aggregating the demographics on the sites where he’s most vigorously discussed.

To sum up, Messi’s following is largely male, fairly well educated, and (with 32% making 75k+) has some money to spend.

Landon Donovan “breaks the internet”
Could his stunning 91st-minute goal be the event that captured America’s imagination for good? We know he made an impact in social media (He crashed Twitter—Fail Whale! and he created a huge spike in engagement/positive sentiment.)

Big spike in positive sentiment around Landon Donovan

The against-all-odds, down-to-the-wire goal may have provided a welcome, if temporary, distraction from the BP oil-spill tragedy. The oil spill was and is discussed all over social media — including in our workspace around the World Cup. But the discussion around Donovan’s goal seems to replace conversation around the spill.

Drop off in "BP Oil Spill" discussion

Moving on from the players to other topics…
The most engaged insight overall is “England.” People were extremely let down by their poor performance.

Sample post…“Too many England players looked tired, fed up and as if they didn’t care. Blaming the pressure and exertion of the Premiership for their woes is fine … except that several other countries have players who operate in the EPL (including Australia) and their experiences did not seem to dim their effectiveness at the World Cup.” Read the post…

Vuvuzelas
We talked about the vuvuzela meme and it’s popularity on gamer sites. When we look at the latest meme craze (Paul the Octopus), we see the same game-centric sites popping up. This points to the gamer community as a great place to kick a viral campaign into overdrive.

Vuvuzelas were a hot topic in the early stages of the tournament. Our discussion ranged from its impact on brand image (see: Coke) to the broader public’s opinion, fans and otherwise , on the South African cultural icon and its incessant buzz. If you’re wondering when people learned to tune out the noise, we saw a precipitous drop-off in “Vuvuzela” engagement after June 21. Well, if you can’t beat ‘em, join em…

What’s the NBA doing in the World Cup?
Engagement around the topic of “NBA” was substantial in World Cup discussion. For perspective, the level of buzz about the NBA would place it in roughly the middle of our top-ten buzzing World Cup players. But what are they saying? There’s talk of the NBA draft, LeBron’s drama around choosing a team… and talk about how the NBA can’t match the World Cup in some ways.

The following post was found in the discussion “Is the World Cup upstaging the NBA Finals?”

Sample posts…
“The World Cup is the one sporting event that can upstage the Olympics worldwide. Despite being the second biggest sport in the world, basketball can’t touch the WC even with the NBA’s two flagship teams going at it.” Read the post…

Some noted even Kobe is jumping on the “WC over NBA Finals” bandwagon:
“I’m glad to see that the best player in the NBA recognizes and is in South Africa watching the World Cup. In an interview on ESPN Kobe said that the NBA championship is not a true world championship like the World Cup. Kobe also said that the NBA finals does not compare to the World Cup and that he loves the game of soccer. Great words from a great champion!”

“Kobe’s right. No way does the NBA finals compare to the World Cup.” Read the post…

Lebron Verbatim: “Radio host said to Kobe that Lebron said July 1 2010
will be the biggest day in NBA history. Kobe laughed and
said I am off to South Africa for the World cup.”

We’ll resume this line of reporting in four years at the next World Cup. Social media will change dramatically in that time, while soccer and its culture while continue to evolve. But the world’s post popular game will still engender fierce passion, fans will talk, and whatever the technology that enables digital interaction, we’ll be there to mine the data and deliver insights.

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