It is not an exaggeration to say that people around the world have all of a sudden become hardcore football fans, at least took a small hiatus from their favorite games, over the past few weeks. Apart from the game in and of itself, other interesting incidents have made it more entertaining and speculating. One such thing is Uruguay player Luis Suarez’s apparent bite on an opposition footballer of Italy at the World Cup. While the sports community see it as an embarrassing and objectionable act, top brands refuse to see it that way but as a platform to promote their brands and products.
Immediately after the incident, many brands around the world have jumped into the incident and starting capitalizing on it by making parodical taglines and punchlines all over the social media, particularly Twitter which saw several thousands of tweets on this incident. Among the other brands, McDonald’s, Trident Mars, Listerine, Nando’s, Snickers, Oreo, Bud Light are the top brands that are the first to react to this. Let us take a look at the tweets
1) McDonald’s
McDonald’s tweeted from its official twitter account “if you stay hungry, come take a bite out of Big Mac!”.
Hola @luis16suarez, si te quedaste con hambre vení a darle un mordisco a una BigMac 😉
— McDonald’s Uruguay (@McDonalds_Uy) June 24, 2014
Translation: Hey Suárez, if you stay hungry, come take a bite out of a Big Mac!
2) Trident. A chewing gum brand reportedly tweeted from its twitter account.
“Chew Trident. Not soccer players. #ITAvsURU”
3) Jimmy’s Restaurant.
#Suarez, if you can’t resist biting into an italian, come and trying Jimmy’s! We have Indians and Chinese too!
4) Snickers.
“Hey @luis16suarez. Next time you’re hungry just grab a Snickers.”
5) Listerine
“We recommend a good swish after grabbing a bite of Italian. #WorldCup #PowerToYourMouth”
It is quite obvious that we have a lot to learn from the top brands on their branding strategies and how best they take every opportunity to promote their brands.