There are not many brands in the UK who wouldn’t want association with an England World Cup victory. With the England football team back at home, with their collective tails firmly between their legs, such an association seems further away then ever. But I have a “cunning plan” for brands to gain association with a trumphant England in the World Cup. The best bit of all is that you don’t have to rely on the current team or its successors.

It all began when I was sitting through yet another turgid England performance and my mind started straying from the game and onto the advertising hoardings. When did they begin? A couple of Google searches later I found out all I could ever want to know about the history of hoardings.

Hoardings, or advertising boards or a-boards, first appeared in football grounds in the 70’s. The first World Cup to feature a-boards was 1970 in Mexico. A second look at some of the iconic photos and YouTube videos reveal some great brand exposure. All the Brazilian goals, including the Carlos Alberto classic, in the final is against a backdrop of the Martini Rossi a-board. Philips is all over the final as well. While the Daily Mirror, I’m assuming it is the UK Paper, also appear prominently. There’s a case for these brands revisiting this footage to re-vitalise current day promotions.

There’s potential too for brands who didn’t happen to advertise during these classic games. Technology now allows for the superimposing of images including advertising and product placement into existing footage. Companies such as miiriad show how advertising posters can appear in feature films such as Forrest Gump or products such as cereal packets can be inserted onto the Cosby breakfast table.

Now look at the 1966 World Cup final. This clip on YouTube has had nearly half a million views. And there are no a-boards in sight. These didn’t exist then but there are the blank fences just crying out for adverts to be superimposed on.

You’d need the rights obviously but there’s no previous advertiser contracts to deal with. If England of today can’t produce the success that advertisers crave then maybe brands should start looking through the archives.

Tags: a board, advertising board, advertising hoardings, football, martini rossi, online video, sponsor, world cup, youtube

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 4th, 2010 at 12:14 pm and is filed under Online Video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.