The feelgood factor associated with the World Cup spells good news for the Irish advertising and sponsorship industries, writes Laura Slattery. RTÉ is charging €20,000 for a 30-second advertising slot during Irish match coverage and the sponsorship industry's annual spend is set to be boosted by €60m.
Adidas, one of 15 official partners to the FIFA World Cup 2002, calls it "footballitis", a condition otherwise known as football fever. Today, the opening ceremony of football's biggest event takes place in Seoul, South Korea, on the other side of the world. From 7.30 a.m. tomorrow, when the first of Ireland's three group games kicks off, the Republic will be eating football, sleeping football and drinking whatever is on offer.
Co-hosts Japan and South Korea expect to attract at least two million visitors over the course of 64 matches. It's a welcome influx of sports tourism, especially for Japan. The world's second-largest economy shrank in the last three quarters of 2001.
There have been some signs of recovery since then but, in April, a poll of 2,000 Japanese businesses in the services sector showed that pessimists still outnumber optimists, with the blame falling on low consumer spending. Economists estimate the World Cup could provide the country with a much-needed boost of 3.3 trillion yen (€26.9 billion).
But very little of this will come from the pockets of Irish supporters. Between 4,000 and 5,000 Irish fans are expected to attend the group games - less than half the number that travelled to previous World Cups. The hype and column inches in the run-up to Ireland's matches against Cameroon, Germany and Saudi Arabia may live up to the Italia '90 and USA '94 campaigns - especially with the Roy Keane row - but World Cup 2002 has been an underwhelming event for the travel industry.
Around 300 people are travelling with Stephen's Green Classic Sports Travel. "Our expectations wouldn't have been as high as previous World Cups, when we had from 1,500 people upwards, but we would still have expected 800 or 900 people," says a spokesman. "We have a charter flight going out so numbers are what count for us," he adds.
"Some people might not be able to afford it. It might be out of their price league," says a spokeswoman for official FAI travel agency Ray Treacy Travel. The agency has 400 people travelling on a package costing €5,904 for three matches, including tickets.
At Club Travel, 150 people have booked a three-night package to attend the Germany match, with around 80 per cent of the bookings coming from the corporate sector, according to Ms Denise Egan. "The high cost and the distance has put people off.
"Corporate managers have budgets, so whereas before the amount of people they could take was in the 40s or 50s, now it's half of that because the trip is roughly double the price," Ms Egan says.
While Euro 2004 and the 2006 World Cup, to be held in Germany, will be more attractive prospects for the travel sector, Irish fans staying at home are good news for pubs and venues hoping to cash in by staging their own World Cup events.
At the Temple Theatre in Dublin, the nightclub that usually runs from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. will open from 2 p.m to 7 p.m, starting as soon as the referee blows the final whistle on the match against Germany.
"People watch the match on the big screen and eat from the finger food buffet, then the whole idea is that they pretend the nightclub is running on Japanese time," explains Mr Conor Malone, marketing manager at the Temple Theatre.
The corporate hospitality industry is also capitalising on the cost and distance involved in actually being there this time around, hiring as many kimonos as they can find.
"For us, there has been a very successful campaign," says Mr Mark Egan of Ovation, organisers of the 'Big in Japan' corporate event at the RDS on June 5th and June 11th. Forget Posh and Becks sushi and Gucci party, this is the Republic's "most spectacular corporate hospitality event ever", with a champagne reception and full Irish breakfast in a room decorated with a Japanese theme.
The event costs €349 per person, with a minimum booking of one table for 10 people, and the match against Germany is already sold out.
"If the managing director of a company didn't want to take three weeks' holidays to go to the World Cup, they can come along to the RDS from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.," explains Mr Egan. "If they were to bring 10 clients to Japan that could cost between €6,000 and €10,000 each - it could cost as much as €100,000. Bringing them here costs €3,500 for a full day's corporate hospitality," he says.
The companies booking tables at the FAI-sanctioned RDS event are from a wide cross-section of industries and bring a mixture of clients and staff, according to Mr Egan. "One company has booked 20 seats - 50 per cent account managers and 50 per cent clients. It's a full day's networking," he says. "You've got them there for 10 hours, so you better get some business out of them."
Managers will be hoping that recreating the match atmosphere will mean their bond-building with clients is at least as smooth as some of the passing on the pitch.
The feelgood factor associated with the World Cup is the reason why the event is such good news for the Irish advertising and sponsorship industries. RTÉ is charging €20,000 for a 30-second advertising slot during coverage of the Irish team's three group games in Japan, the most expensive rate ever charged in the Republic, as everyone clamours to be part of the patriotic, uplifting communal experience of 11 men in green shirts kicking, heading, tackling and - fingers crossed - scoring.
It's with the help of the World Cup that the sponsorship industry spend in the Republic is expected to reach €60 million in 2002, according to a report by Amárach Consulting. The report notes a trend toward "top-heavy" sponsorship of high-profile events.
"In the past couple of years, a lot of companies have cleaned up their sponsorship portfolios. Instead of investing low sums of money into 30 or 40 sponsorships, they're focusing on the bigger events and building on partnerships," says Ms Jean Gorman from Amárach's sponsorship strategies unit.
"The World Cup is unique because it gives Irish brands an international platform. And who in the State isn't going to be aware of the Irish team? It's not just the team sponsors, Eircom, but also drinks sponsors, official car sponsors, official financial institutions," she adds.
The official beer for the Irish team is Carlsberg, the official sports drink is Lucozade. Clothing manufacturer Umbro sponsors the team's strips.
Then there's each player's own footwear sponsorships and other endorsements, like Carlsberg's link-up with Jason McAteer or 7Up's €750,000 advertising campaign featuring Roy Keane, rolled out before the controversy surrounding Keane's dismissal erupted.
The co-hosting arrangement between Japan and South Korea has meant added costs for FIFA and the distance may have deterred European fans from travelling, but the two countries' proximity to untapped Asian markets like China benefits the tournament's sponsors.
Official FIFA partners are Adidas, Budweiser, Coca-Cola, Gillette, Fuji Film, Avaya, Korean Telecom/NTT, Yahoo, Fuji Xerox, McDonald's, Hyundai, Philips, Toshiba, JVC and Mastercard.
Each has paid at least €15.8 million to be an official sponsor. But some of these companies' direct rivals have spoiled the sponsorship party for FIFA, engaging in what it calls ambush marketing by using individual stars for its football-themed campaigns without having to pay millions in sponsorship money. Pepsi has David Beckham on its books, while Thierry Henry and Eric Cantona are among the signings for Nike's "a little less conversation" advertisement.
FIFA, trying to protect the sponsorship revenue it relies on, has described companies using these practices as parasites.
Fears that the beautiful game is too commercialised are likely to be brushed aside as long as FIFA remains in serious financial trouble. Football's world governing body has lost around €88 million over the past four years due to the cost of staging the 2002 World Cup and the collapse of its marketing partner, ISL/ISMM.
ISL/ISMM held the marketing rights to the 2002 and 2006 World Cups as well as non-European rights to screen the tournaments, but went into liquidation in 2001. Earlier this year, the holder of the European TV rights, German broadcaster Kirch, also collapsed.
From the moment the final whistle blows on the tournament in Yokohama on June 30th, FIFA will be assessing its financial performance and looking ahead to 2006. Participating countries will also suffer from post-World Cup hangovers, with the co-hosts wondering how they will continue to fill each of the 10 stadiums they built or redeveloped in order to secure the bid.
At home, employers will begin to assess the impact of absenteeism and the temporary dip in productivity during key matches.
In Britain, the Centre for Economics and Business Research predicts a loss of output in the British economy equivalent to almost 1 per cent of gross domestic product, even when gains made by pubs, betting and television advertising are taken into account.
According to the director of the Small Firms Association, Mr Pat Delaney, Irish employers should be flexible about agreeing to allow time off in advance for employees, while making it clear that unexplained absences or alcohol abuse leave employees open to disciplinary action.
He believes the Republic's qualification for the finals will give a major social and economic impetus to the State, as more Irish people holiday at home to join in the celebrations and the spirit of Italia '90 and USA '94 is recaptured once again.
On both occasions, the Irish team managed to progress from the group stage to at least the second round.
