While teams were competing for the 2006 World Cup, Nike, Adidas, Puma, Marathon, Umbro, Lotto, and Joma were competing among each other for the greatest brand exposure by sponsoring national teams. Brands require exposure to increase brand recognition among consumers. To measure the exposure of each brand based on the performance of the teams each brand sponsors we created a brand scorecard. The amount of games played and goals scored are significant in that the more matches a team plays and the more goals a team scores equals increased exposure for the sponsoring brand. Wins are important because a winning team advances in the tournament and will play more games. So the more games played, wins, and goals scored for a team, the better that team's sponsoring brand scored.

The 2006 FIFA World Cup, with an audience of 30 billion across the world, is a truly global event. Football fans follow the performance of their national teams with intense interest. For those without a team in the tournament, it is still difficult not to be captivated by the spectacle.

Brands that reach agreements with national team programs to have logos on the players' uniforms are exposed to media coverage throughout the tournament. Therefore the technical sponsors, who provide the complete uniform for each national team, also have a significant interest in team success. Sponsors consider that a photograph of a player wearing its logo scoring a goal is a more authentic form of advertising than placing a billboard beside the field, for example. Hence sponsors' objectives are aligned with team performance.

We created a brand scorecard by measuring the results of each sponsor's investment by looking at exposure of the brand in three key performance areas, which are: its share of on-field exposure (number of games played), its share of goals scored and its share of wins.

The results are illustrated in the following table:

FIFA WORLD CUP 2006 TECHNICAL SPONSOR BRAND SCORECARD

The winners of each key performance area are as follows:

1. On-Field Exposure: Puma
With 12 teams sponsored, Puma won the share of on-field exposure playing in one-third, or 42, of the tournament's 128 matches. Nike came in second with a 26% share. Adidas finished third with teams participating in 23% of the games played.

Adidas came out top in terms of games played per team. An average of 4.8 games were played by Adidas teams compared to 4.5 by Umbro and 4.1 by Nike. This is a reflection of the quality of teams that these companies have sponsored. Puma managed only 3.5 games played per team, a result of their strategy to sponsor a large number of lesser quality teams.

The tournaments two final games, the championship game and consolation game, are two of the most watched games throughout the tournament and determine the top four teams in the World Cup. Adidas (France) and Puma (Italy) each had a team in the tournament final and Adidas (Germany) and Nike (Portugal) each had a team in the consolation. These two matches were the culmination of the month long tournament and had a worldwide audience in which the brands could be seen.

2. Goals Scored: Adidas
Adidas teams scored almost one third of the tournament's total goals scored, which was 147, putting them just ahead of Puma with 28% and Nike with 25% of all goals scored in the tournament.

Adidas also finished in the lead in terms of goals scored per team.  An average of 7.5 goals were scored per Adidas team followed by 5 for Marathon and 4.6 by Nike. Puma managed 3.4 goals per team, which is again lower because of the greater amount of teams sponsored by Puma in the tournament.

3. Games Won: Adidas
Adidas teams won the most games (16), almost a third of the tournament, with Nike and Puma coming in second equal at 26% each with 14 wins apiece.

Adidas also won the most games per team with an average of 2.7 wins. Marathon and Umbro finished second, equal with an average of 2 wins per team. Nike and Puma managed an average of 1.8 and 1.2 wins respectively.

4. Overall Brand Scorecard Winner: Puma
The dominant technical sponsors have clearly been Adidas, Puma and Nike. Under our brand scorecard system, the ultimate winner, however, is Puma, scoring the highest overall number of points in the three key performance areas. Also, most importantly, they sponsored Italy, the eventual winner of the tournament.