The average law firm lacks the finances to bankroll any kind of official sponsorship for the FIFA World Cup. Does this mean you should give up all hope of capitalising on the immense interest generated by the planets hottest event? Far from it, it’s time to prepare an ambush.
Ambush marketing is a marketing strategy wherein advertisers associate themselves with, and therefore capitalise on, a particular event without paying any sponsorship fee. If this sounds familiar then that’s because it is nothing new. Some notable recent examples include Paddy Power hijacking the 2010 Ryder cup with their infamous 270ft promotional sign overlooking Celtic manor and Bavaria Beers ballsy 36-orange clad woman stunt at the 2010 World cup in South Africa.
Now we’re not advocating that you hire a squadron of beautiful woman to attend one of the games in Rio in your corporate colours - we certainly wouldn’t want anyone to fall foul of FIFA’s commercial sponsorship regulations, so If you would like to stay on the right side of the law when it comes to ambush marketing then read this excellent article by Lewis Silkin. The article details the various FIFA trademarks and protected areas to stay clear of – HINT, don’t use the official logo on your literature or hire an armadillo holding a football for the next company YouTube video.
So how can your law firm take advantage of this year’s World Cup without stepping over the mark? My guess would be through clever implementation of content marketing which utilises both planned content and some reactive stuff; linked in some clever way to the footballing events in Rio. Your main marketing channel here is going to be social media.
I can see huge potential in a content marketing strategy drawing upon interest and hype from the FIFA world cup. An example for a law firm practicing and specialising in Family Law could be to produce a blog post entitled “5 Tips to Help your Relationship Survive the World Cup.” I will eat my hat if their isn’t significant trending on the major social networks associated with fed up partners bemoaning the marathon month of 64 televised games which their relationship must endure.
There are now a plethora of tools available which allow you to monitor the online conversations and topics which are trending across social media; a full review of these is beyond the scope of this blog post. If you monitor some of these conversations, and there will be a few (The World cup has already been mentioned 10 million times on Twitter in the last year) then you have a chance to show off your firm’s human side and join in the conversation. Not only will this help you grow your following it can build real loyalty and awareness within your local community.
Many local events take place in conjunction with the football six thousand miles away in Rio – this is a great opportunity for you to establish your firm’s local connections, perhaps by sponsoring an event or simply promoting it via social media.
Given that over 4 billion of us are expected to tune-in globally to the football in Brazil I believe that the world cup will resonate with at least some of your potential clients. Missing the opportunity to connect with your target audiences will be a real own-goal (sorry – I had to fit that pun in somewhere.)
The World cup is a banquet of media interest and the table is more than large enough for some clever Legal marketers to take their seat. If you would like some support with your firm’s social media then we offer a comprehensive social media marketing service for law firms, in the spirit of the world cup we are offering free set-up if booked during the Group Stages; that’s before Thursday 26 June for those of you without the official Telegraph fixtures poster on your desk. Email us or call us quoting WORLDCUPFSU to take advantage of this terrific offer.
We were pondering offering £25 off the first month of the service for each goal scored by England during the group stages, but that probably wouldn’t amount to a great deal for you given England’s “group of death”.