The world's most popular game is futbol, or soccer as we know it in the US, and the most watched sporting event in the world is the World Cup of soccer. This tournament occurs once every four years in a different host country, usually rotating continents, and will be played this year from June 9th through July 9th in various cities throughout the host country of Germany. The tournament consists of 32 teams from around the globe that qualify through geographical tournaments in the years leading up to the World Cup.

The sheer size of the World Cup creates an unparalleled marketing opportunity for companies to reach a large number of people around the globe and increase brand recognition. The 2002 World Cup in Korea/Japan had a cumulative audience of 28.8 television billion viewers over the 25 days on which games were played according to the Federation Internationale de Football Association ("FIFA"), the international governing body of soccer. These impressive viewer numbers were achieved despite the fact that the tournament was held in the Far East and made viewing live games at normal hours next to impossible for the rest of the world. An increase in the viewing audience for this year's tournament in Germany can be expected as match times will be more accommodating to viewers.

The size of the audience that the World Cup reaches may be easier to comprehend when compared against other major sporting events. The 2002 World Cup in Korea/Japan had a total of 49.2 billion viewer hours, which is calculated as the total number of hours watched by all viewers of the tournament. In comparison, the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City had a total of 13.1 billion viewer hours and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens had a total of 34.4 billion viewer hours according to the International Olympic Committee. These numbers are for a sporting event that occurs over multiple days and involves countries from around the world. In relation, the Super Bowl, a one-day yearly event, reaches approximately 90 million viewers at any given point in the broadcast. These statistics demonstrate that the World Cup outdraws the other largest sporting events in total viewership and can be advantageous to sponsors who desire to reach as large an audience as possible.

FIFA sanctions fifteen official sponsors for the World Cup who retain exclusive rights to advertise during official World Cup matches and events. The 2006 World Cup sponsors are Adidas, Anheuser-Busch, Avaya, Coca-Cola, Continental (tires), Deutsche Telekom, Emirates, Fuji Film, Gillette, Hyundai, MasterCard, McDonald's, Philips, Toshiba, and Yahoo. Each sponsor receives different rights depending on the deal it reached with FIFA, varying from on-field signage to placement in programs to placement in post match press conferences. Sponsorship rights depend on the agreement reached between FIFA and the sponsor and how much the sponsor was willing to pay. These sponsorship deals with FIFA bring a great deal of exclusivity to the official sponsors in any official World Cup event and throughout the venues that will play host to matches, increasing the value of being an official sponsor.

Our series of forthcoming articles on the 2006 World Cup, in relation to the brands involved, will delve into the major sponsors and what they are seeking out of sponsorship of the World Cup. The next article in the series will break down the amount a sponsor has spent for the exclusive sponsorship rights, where available, and what its goal is. Sponsorship goals may vary from extending brand recognition even farther around the globe to branching into a new market, it varies by the sponsor. Another article will examine all of the brands that sponsor the national soccer teams of the countries involved to see what brands succeed throughout the tournament while examining whether the sponsorship aids the brand in any measurable fashion. The final article in the series, which will follow the completion of the tournament, will examine and summarize the official sponsors' stock performance during the World Cup in comparison to its previous performance this year.

We hope that our World Cup series is as exciting as the action on the field as the world's greatest sporting tournament begins and we bring a weekly review of those companies and brands that make the tournament happen. For more information about the value of your brand, please send us an email.