Packaging and the World Cup

Top brands make use of popular events as a way of connecting people. But there are few so lucrative as the World Cup. Passion, drive, union and, above all, the hope of victory are positive qualities were the most important brands want to identify with.

To be in this kind of events is a big opportunity. For leader companies is important not only to create an specific thematic product but to provide it with underlying messages which strengthen the traditional search for emotional empathy.

Packaging, a vehicle of feelings

Packaging has been defined many times as the skin of a product, this definition fit perfectly during this big sporty events. InWorld Cup, skin, mind, and even the consumer’s soul tinges with extreme nationalism. So companies will use design as a way of stimulate senses and establish an affective bond to be able to break preferences and consume habits. «I’ve always bought this brand but if the competence interprets better my feelings it will be the one that I prefer».

Fidelity teeters in this convulsed times during the World Cup, and the non written agreements between manufacturer and consumer could be altered if the product is not able to understand my passion and love for the game.

In this context, competition between brands becomes more intense and packaging needs to show different strategies to reaffirm the brand leadership: they have to wear the colors of the country where they are launched and create trough this the promotional actions where football is the main character. They have to establish a bond with the target, which goes further than functional aspect, innovating formats and ground-breaking layouts that invite to be kept as a memory of the event.

A global strategic for a global event

Globalization has followers who see a possibility of coherence and strategic union, and also has detractors who feel this implementation as a way to provoke a progressive reduction of local codes. But the World Cup, in spite of its intentionality, does not open those debates. It actually seems that it has been created for the globalization.

The nationalism, the thirst of glory and the valuation of physical skill do not recognize frontiers. In this global philosophy, everybody loves packaging and they are an ideal synthesis of all the positive qualities of this event.

Packaging surprises everyone during the World Cup

Local, regional or global, all the packaging have an innovating style. Special editions use all the resources that help to construct the football imaginary on the consumers: dynamic logos that shows joy and action, intense colors that emulate the chromatic variety of the teamʼs T-shirts, technologic textures linked to sports clothes and to the backboards, images representing literal game situations that make us live in advance the hope of victory. These visual stimulation have been gaining quality; they are a clear reflection of how design is becoming one of the most important parts in the strategic mechanism during these mega events.

Conclusion: The World Cup, great unifier

The wonderful thing about this event is not only the possibility for a country to be superior than others in football. A really positive thing is the emotional union between participants.

Chances of consumption increase and companies take this new context very seriously. I prefer to see marketing actions as a logic manifestation of a positive reality where every one of us, companies and public, even for a short period of time, gives free rein to joy and happiness. The World Cup gives designers an excellent opportunity to «dress» packaging for the party and it also gives the chance of benefit consumers with a great number of creative offers. So… why don’t we enjoy this together?

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