Coca-Cola

Sponsorship of itv.com/football

In the UK, Coca-Cola has more than 30 years of involvement supporting football, including extensive grass-roots football schemes such as the Coca-Cola 7s in Scotland and the Northern Schools Coca-Cola Cup. As well as sponsoring the England team in the 2002 FIFA World Cup, Coca-Cola undertook sponsorship of ITV’s The Premiership Show in 2001, in conjunction with sponsorship of the ITV football website.

• Build synergy with the on-air programme sponsorship
• Drive brand awareness to a young, upmarket, male audience
• Create a value-adding presence on the web

Coca-Cola's sponsorship package on the itv.com/football site included:

• Integrated site branding
• Coca-Cola community content strand
• Exclusive competitions and games
• Integrated online and on-air competitions
• Branded voiceover on-air URL promotion
• Targeted Coca-Cola data capture
• Advertiser content banners and buttons
• Interactive live chats

"At the end of our first season of sponsorship of the ITV football website we have been encouraged by the growth in traffic, visitor feedback and the creative development of the site. Our 2002 World Cup ticket competition, integrated on air through The Premiership Show and through the website, was extremely successful and polled more entries than we could have expected. We are looking forward to working together with the team at ITV and Granada to add more innovation and entertainment to the site through our unique access to football assets and experiences."

Zoe Rutherford, Senior Brand Manager, Coca-Cola Great Britain

• Brand association with football: pre-campaign, Coca-Cola was not top-of-mind for association with football. Post-campaign, this increased more than fivefold, rising to 11%. Coca-Cola moved into the top tier of awareness, along with the kit manufacturers and league sponsors.
• Brand association with football on the internet: Coca-Cola achieved the highest level of spontaneous brand association with football on the internet - recalled by almost one-third of respondents. Twenty-one per cent of respondents associated Coca-Cola with football before the campaign, and this more than trebled to over two-thirds post-campaign.
• Coca-Cola sponsorship of itv.com/football: post-campaign, awareness of site sponsorship rose tenfold, from 7% to 70%.
• Coca-Cola brand image association: post-campaign, all Coca-Cola image aspects tested improved. The sponsorship reinforced the brand attributes as well as association with football.