The last World Cup was “a spectacular screw-up all round”
Raymond Snoddy explains why the last World Cup saw the advertising industry (and the England football team) “not so much missing penalties more like missing open goals” – although he predicts that “the beer makers and the car boys are definitely in this time and with the help of the final of Britain’s Got Talent as well as the World Cup, ITV could take nearly £100 million in June”…
The last World Cup in Germany was a disaster – and not just for England. It was even worse for the marketing community in general and ITV in particular. Not only did the great communicators fail to reach the marketing equivalent of the quarter-finals, they barely reached the kick-off.
There should have been a lot more departures than England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson. It was basically a spectacular screw-up all round.
For those who have blanked out the painful memories of it all the facts can be quickly retold. Rooney gets himself sent for stamping on a Portuguese player. England struggle on, more or less, for a zero-zero draw after extra time before, with the inevitability of a Greek tragedy, they lose on penalties – again.
At least we know the names of the culprits and there was the hollow satisfaction of booing Ronaldo “The Winker” for helping to get Rooney sent off – though Rooney did not exactly need much help.
It would be lovely to boo those in ITV and in the advertising buying community just as roundly. They would certainly deserve it. In fact it might not be too late to try and identify those responsible and pillory them. Apart from anything else they must have been entirely ignorant of one of the iron laws of WPP chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell.
Advertisers are supposed to open their wallets and spend big on the enormous quadrennial events – and the World Cup is nothing if it’s not a huge, international, quadrennial event. Such events are the drivers of the world marketing ecology, or at least ought to be.
In an outbreak of collective marketing hysteria the lads decided that ITV would obviously rip them off at World Cup time. So the cunning plan took shape. How about bringing forward all that spending on beer ads into April and May. We’ll get a bargain and stick one to ITVat the same time. Marvellous.
Presumably ITV executives rubbed their hands together at all the anticipatory spending and were already banking their bonuses at the thought of how good it was going to be been once things got under way for real. Nothing. At the end you could hardly give the airtime away despite enormous discounts and the marketing community stood on the touch-lines as one of the guaranteed opportunities to reach the young male passed them by.
How could this be? The answer is that after totally misjudging the initial situation – easily the equivalent of stamping on your opponent in front of the referee and getting sent off – the advertising market proved itself too inflexible to recover.
The campaigns had already been planned, if that is the right term, and the money allocated so that was that. Not so much missing penalties more like missing open goals.
At least everybody involved then shows signs of having learnt their lessons and upped their game this time. England went one better and beat Uruguay two nil in the quarter finals, at least according to Tony Cascarino in today’s Times.
It would be nice to know as a control check whether that well known former Irish international forecast correctly that Ireland would fail to get to South Africa courtesy of a blatant hand ball by France’s Thierry Henry.
But Cascarino is adamant that England will lose one nil to Brazil in the semi-finals because: “England are often too negative and timid against leading nations – can Capello change that mindset?” No is mystic Tony’s answer. “The trouble is, Brazil are more talented and are also well organised, and nothing Capello could do will change that,” he predicts.
You needn’t bother watching the final either, if Cascarino is to be believed. Brazil beat Spain one nil, although England manage at least finish third after beating Argentina, by the Irishman’s favourite score, one nil.
The big winners who will go all the way are the advertisers and ITV. Real efforts were made to avoid the mistakes of the past by commercial director Rupert Howell and his team who spent months explaining patiently how everybody got it wrong last time.
The beer makers and the car boys are definitely in this time and with the help of the final of Britain’s Got Talent as well as the World Cup, ITV could take nearly £100 million in June. A stellar performance though actually less than four years ago – an apparent anomaly caused by the impact of the recession and the fall in the value of airtime since then.
A 30 per cent rise is not to be sneezed at with a 15 per cent uplift expected next month. It is a further example of the new regime at ITV – Archie Norman and Adam Crozier – being lucky generals, or at least adept in their timing. Just about everything was already heading up as they walked through the door.
Tell that to Rupert Howell who leaves ITV soon after the World Cup ends. But no big mystery there. Howell wanted the top job, didn’t get it and is reasonably sanguine about pushing off suitably rewarded. His replacement Fru Hazlitt is a good signing.
As for Cascarino he could turn out to be right. He will only be proved too pessimistic if some players rise above themselves and come up with something truly exceptional. Such a phenomenon is long overdue. About 40 years overdue.