When taking their seats at formal media conferences this week, Ronaldo, Paul Pogba, and Manuel Locatelli all moved sponsor bottles away from the view of cameras. Martin Kallen, the director of the Euro 2020 competition, stated that UEFA has In a press conference, Kallen stated, "It is crucial because the sponsors' earnings are important for the tournament and for European football."
I'm sure Coca-Cola executives are as shocked as I am by Ronaldo's duplicity — he's a man who has featured in Coca-Cola advertisements in the past, as well as more recently in campaigns for "unhealthy companies" like KFC, Soccerade, and brewer AB InBev. Ronaldo, on the other hand, understands how to promote his own brand, and I wouldn't rule out the possibility that he saw a chance to bolster his family-friendly wellness credentials with a viral moment on the biggest platform.
Following Pogba's removal of the Heineken bottle, businesses should be more aware of who they are attempting to establish brand association with. Perhaps it's also a lesson that marketers should go beyond slapping a bottle on a table in front of each footballer walking through the press room.
It is far from ideal from a brand standpoint to remove your product pointing out in front of the international media from the press-conference table two of the world's largest football players. But were brand items supposed to have been there first? It seems unlikely for the soccer players to break apart and swipe off the product (for obvious reasons, the fact that they didn't consider 'optimum serving temperature') and so it looks pretty dull to try to squeeze the substance into 'eyeballs.'
This corresponded, following the press conference, with a $4 billion reduction in market value of Coca-Cola from $242 billion to $238 billion. Share prices sank in tandem between $56.10 and $55.22.
Comments