Sluggish spending on all fronts has led to a global economic slowdown, or crisis, depending on one’s location and situation. Now, the world’s favorite sport is helping to turn the tide.
According to BusinessWeek, the World Cup will add as much as $1.5 billion to advertising spending this year as Coca-Cola Co. and Nike Inc. pay top prices for air time.
Whether it’s rapper Snoop Dogg recast in the Star Wars cantina with David Beckham for Adidas or Cristiano Ronaldo and Homer Simpson in an ad for Nike, commercial air time during the month-long competition is commanding rates as much as 50 percent higher than typical prime time.
While the ad spend numbers mentioned here are global, the market for soccer is also on the rise domestically. According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. audience for the opening days of the World Cup nearly doubled from four years ago. Nearly 13 million people watched the U.S. and England battle to a 1-1 tie Saturday on ABC, and 3.8 million watched on Univision Communications Inc.’s Spanish-language broadcast network. Add to that several more million Americans who watched the game at work, in bars or on their mobile device.