Marketers bring Web3 to the FIFA World Cup with augmented reality, NFTs and virtual worlds
With more than a million soccer fans expected to visit Qatar during the FIFA World Cup, a number of brands and tech companies are hoping to score points far beyond the Middle East in various parts of the metaverse.
The month-long tournament, which begins this weekend, will be the first World Cup since it took place in Russia in 2018 long before “Web3” entered the global lexicon. Now, official and unofficial sponsors hope to capitalize on the hype with a variety of NFTs, virtual worlds, augmented reality tools and other trendy technologies such as linear TV and traditional social media are on the decline.
The collaborations are almost as different as the teams in the tournament. For example, in a new Adidas World Cup ad, a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT character is featured with soccer stars Lionel Messi and Karim Benzema. Meanwhile, other brands such as Visa, crypto exchange Crypto.com and Swiss watchmaker Hublot are helping fans create digital art or explore virtual stadiums as they experiment with new platforms as part of their Qatar 2022 marketing efforts.
When it comes to testing new technology, the World Cup may be a better bet than some other sports. According to Kantar’s survey of 29,500 football fans in 31 major global markets, football fans were more likely than the global average to seek out new experiences, make friends via the internet and buy the latest technology. They also tended to have higher incomes, make up a slightly younger audience, identify as early adopters and use streaming TV or video.
The integrations are signs that many brands are still open to exploring new technologies to stand out from the fray at the month-long global event. Chris Ross, a market analyst at Gartner, said the confluence of factors and the upheaval of social platforms like Twitter — often used during large events for advertising and organic content — are inspiring marketers to explore beyond the usual channels.
“There may be an appetite for marketers to experiment with some other channels as a result of what’s happening with Twitter,” Ross said. “Possibly just to experiment and take full advantage, but they can also hedge their bets.”
Instead of just reaching people with temporary videos and ads, other tech platforms are hoping to create new ways for fans to interact virtually and in real life. Upland, a virtual world platform designed to look like Earth, has partnered with FIFA to create NFT collections, organize digital and in-person watch parties around the world and show exclusive video highlights. Upland and FIFA have also created a replica of Qatar’s Lusail Stadium which will feature branded villages, showrooms and shops.
According to Upland Co-Founder and Co-CEO Dirk Lueth, the goal is for Upland to give soccer fans “context to talk about” beyond scrolling through videos and text in traditional social media feeds. That includes talking about the game, digital items they buy and exploring parts of different virtual worlds. “I think that’s the future of social networking: Providing this context where people are looking for it,” Lueth said.
Instead of creating NFTs and metaverses, Gen Z-focused sports community platform Stadium Live wants to be a second-screen destination for fans to chat live during matches. Until recently, the app – which has 150,000 monthly active users – focused on other sports. However, it recently received funding from soccer star Blaise Matuidi and is working with players Matuidi, Yohan Cabeye and Miralem Pjanić to create videos, create avatars and give away pixelated trademark items based on French and Bosnian players.
“Brands are starting to realize that their fan base is not as receptive to more traditional marketing as they used to be,” said Mathieu Bilodeau, head of marketing for Stadium Live. “This is one of the first World Cups since Fortnight has become big. A lot of these brands recognize that sports fans can be fans of music, fans of sports can be fans of art, fans of fashion, fans of gaming especially – these two verticals are extremely aligned.”
Gaming companies are developing ways to be part of the World Cup as well. FIFA recently entered into a multi-year partnership with Roblox. Nike is partnering with the car soccer game “Rocket League” and Activision is teaming up with Brazil’s Neymar Jr, France’s Paul Pogba and Argentina’s Lionel Messi to let “Call of Duty” players look like the soccer stars in the popular first-person shooter. shooter.
Augmented reality will also play a role this year. On Wednesday, Snap Inc. announced a series of AR features for Snapchatters during the World Cup. Along with new global AR lenses for a number of national teams, Snap is also using the tournament to debut its new “live garment transfer” technology with Adidas to let people virtually try on jerseys to see how they look on users based on their body type. World Cup partners also include Peacock – which allows users to keep track of stats and use other visual and audio AR lenses – along with Chevrolet and Samsung. (Snapchat also developed a new interactive AR soccer game specifically for users in the Middle East.)
The WC is also a way for Snap to market itself in one of the first major events since it announced a major restructuring in September that put AR as one of three key areas.
“The World Cup and the Olympics are the two biggest global events,” said Clayton Peters, Snap’s head of US verticals. “So it allows us to bring a total global community into some of these new products, get feedback and immediately understand how things work. Not just in one or two key markets, but for a truly global world with 32 teams competing and billions of eyes who are interested in the sport.”
