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Not even a month ago, Nike broke its own viral record with 7.8 million You Tube views of its World Cup 3-minute video “Write the Future”. Just three weeks later, those views have more than doubled to over 16.5 million. Perhaps soccer has the viral video to thank for giving it its sports-glam due -- at least here in the States.
Wherever you place the credit, ESPN/ABC reports viewership is up a staggering 108% from what it was during the first five games of the 2006 World Cup when the year-old You Tube hadn’t yet been acquired by Google. In July of 2006, the site was receiving a reported 100 million views a day, but compared to the 2 billion views a day the site receives now, that’s chump change.
A Nielsen study showed that, without writing that budget-breaking sponsorship check, Nike’s 2010 World Cup spot was getting more than twice the online buzz as was official sponsor Adidas. Ouch.
So Adidas fired back, “virally” speaking, with its Star Wars Cantina parody racking up 3.5 million views in almost 3 weeks.
Is this the future trend for big brands, playing viral war games instead of shelling out the big sponsorship bucks? No doubt the idea of such a thing is a nice 5th birthday present for You Tube.
Certainly something to keep in mind as major events in your own industry arise – are sponsorships really worth it? Or is there a more creative way to take your brand awareness to a higher level?
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