By Claire Ayles
There's nothing like a World Cup to send the marketing industry into overdrive. Apart from the likes of Coca Cola, Yahoo! and Gillette spending zillions on becoming official sponsors of the tournament, we're seeing a raft of other firms 'adopting' the World Cup or England team in order to flog more stuff. On some occasions, the links to football are so tenuous they are almost genius.
For me, top prize goes to UK kids store Mothercare, which is offering a Cross of St George pushchair, complete with matching parasol. If I was a toddler, these would be the only wheels to be seen in this summer. (That is until the England team crash and burn in a penalty shoot out, when I would order my mum to replace it with a Brazilian branded one. Note to Mothercare: you may want to extend your range.)
A 'highly commended' also goes to DIY giant B&Q, which is selling England branded bags of BBQ coal. Presumably, they make the food taste more like... errr...roast beef? I guess there's only one way to find out.
Whatever next? Maybe MB Games should bring out a Wayne Rooney version of 'Operation', where you have to fix the Big Man's metatarsals or face the wrath of a nation...
PRs aren't immune to World Cup fever either. Take SmartTrust, which has secured column inches by predicting fans will take 4.5 million snaps at this year's tournament. Don't worry SmartTrust, I won't ask to see your workings.
Other creative examples include Keynote, which has used its nous to assess the performance of popular fantasy football league websites and Packeteer, which warns businesses of the perils of allowing employees to watch games online.
(Errr, these last two are JK clients - wonder where they got their ideas from...?)
Anyway... Come On England!!!
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