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Writer's pictureCherlyn

2022 World Cup Marketing Report

With 289 million football fans, China has the largest fan base in the world and is one of the most important markets for global football marketing. Nearly 90% of fans are male and the post-70s and post-80s are the main groups of Chinese fans. In September, we published the newsletter on the “2022 China Football Fan Marketing Value Report”, and this month, we have compiled the following highlights based on QuestMobile’s “2022 World Cup Marketing Insights Report”.


Since the start of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, there has been a clear upward trend in the volume of World Cup-related content. The top four content platforms: Douyin, Kuaishou, Bilibili and Xiaohongshu have reached an interaction volume (likes + comments + reshare) of nearly 15 million since November 16 last year. The contents revolve around FIFA World Cup Qatar championship predictions, knowledge sharing about the World Cup, popular national teams, etc.


Male fans aged 25 to 35 pay more attention to the FIFA World Cup Qatar, but content users are not concentrated in first-tier cities. Among the sponsors of the World Cup, Chinese companies occupy 4 places, with Wanda Group as the largest Chinese sponsor.

Media data – CCTV, Douyin, Migu Video


To break through traffic and increase core competitiveness, Douyin and Migu Video have obtained the broadcasting rights for the FIFA World Cup Qatar from CCTV. Douyin which became the exclusive broadcaster for the first time is also the first short video platform in China to obtain broadcasting rights for the World Cup. Overall, CCTV, Douyin and Migu Video, as well as Douyin Express versions, these four platforms have covered nearly 70% of the users of the entire Chinese network, reaching 829 million.


The addition of Douyin has effectively expanded the audience and increased the distribution of UGC content. During the opening ceremony of the opening match, the cumulative number of online users in the Douyin Sports live broadcast room exceeded 40 million, and at 2:13 am on January 21, the cumulative number of barrages reached 108,000 with the peak number of online users during the first goal.


According to QuestMobile, post-80s and post-90s male users on the CCTV, Migu Video and Douyin video platforms showed significant growth after the launch of FIFA World Cup Qatar, showing that fans born in the 80s and 90s are the main force in football watching.

Here’s how each platform performed during FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022:

  • CCTV: created a wide range of experience and column topics with the watch, play, sing, and chat, such as a live broadcast program with “anchor to watch with you”, variety shows such as “Hello World Cup” and so on. CCTV also launched an AI-intelligent editing highlight and morning/evening newspaper section to help fans quickly view content; also through the 3D virtual intelligent voice assistant Yang Xiaoyun to interact with users via voice.


  • Migu Video: Enhanced interaction with fans through activities such as picking teams, and football stars, guessing the winning team and creating the “metaverse” World Cup virtual interactive space and launching a variety of sports courses, inviting everyone to practice and creating a comprehensive audio-visual experience


  • Douyin: Through various variety shows, jointly collaborated with celebrities in the football industry and well-known e-sports commentators to share football passion with users, such as “DOU to the World Cup”, “Still Fan Zhiyi”, “Understand the Ball Conference”, etc., and launched the World Cup gesture dance topic to increase traffic. Douyin has utilized the mature commercial closed-loop capabilities of the platform to play the “World Cup economy”.


Brand Marketing


According to the distribution of World Cup brand marketing types, TVC is still an important way for brands to convey their ideas through the World Cup, the release of customized products and sponsorship of popular teams can strengthen the connection with the World Cup theme, and the introduction of brand themes can encourage consumers to participate actively. For example, Coca-Cola launched a limited-edition World Cup-themed mini can; Xiaohongshu signed a contract with the Spanish and Belgian national teams; Mengniu Dairy released a branded short film titled “confess” for fans, and Hisense launched the “30 wishes for the World Cup” collection campaign on Weibo platform. By leveraging channels for close collaboration, “World Cup customized/co-branded” can directly help drive sales and provide the best marketing opportunity for brands. According to the data, sales of Budweiser and Coca-Cola customized products reached a new high on the opening day of the FIFA World Cup Qatar on Douyin channel.


As for TVC advertising, brands can effectively convey the brand spirit while arousing user response through various emotional touch points. Mengniu Daily’s World Cup short film connects the memories of youth from different eras. It successfully arouses the resonance of users, and the marketing theme that allows users to help shape the product can improve the efficiency of marketing communication.

With the help of the IP value of the World Cup, a series of marketing activities have successfully increased brand sales. In addition to sponsor brands, other brands have successfully used the “marketing gimmick" of scenes + World Cup elements to trigger a sales explosion. Coca-Cola, Budweiser, and Mengniu Daily recorded sales of 467,000, 338,000 and 7.751 million respectively when the World Cup opening ceremony was broadcasted on Douyin channel. The distribution of TOP3 sales volumes on Douyin channel is food and beverage (62%), sports and outdoor (19.9%), and cultural and creative products (8.2%). In addition, the sale of snacks, beverages and other products has excellent sales performance during the broadcast.

The Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup has brought good sales to various brands, and the three major souvenir stores with World Cup IP authorization: All-Star Partner, Qatar World Cup Cultural and Creative Hall, and KAYFORD Flagship Store have achieved a total sales volume of more than 10 million before the opening ceremony, which shows that the value of the World Cup IP has initiated a great explosion. To sum up, high-quality marketing content, intense user interaction, and enabling a comprehensive experience are the core marketing strategies for brands at the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup.


To learn more about Qatar World Cup marketing insights, please contact us.

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