With the World Cup 2014 closing with the final game last weekend, Germany was not the only winner from the international sports spectacle. Big brands such as Nike and Adidas scored big with their own campaigns such as the “Risk Everything” for Nike and #allin for Adidas. “Adidas claims it is the most-talked about brand related to the FIFA World Cup, with a total of 1.59 million mentions within online conversations related to the tournament. Its 38 million video views made Adidas the most-viewed sports brand in YouTube, based on videos published during the tournament period.”

Twitter and Facebook enabled companies to maximize their global exposure with every goal, player substitution and yellow card. Even though these big brands have large marketing budgets, they provide branding lessons that businesses of any size can benefit from.

• Pick a sports team you are genuinely passionate about – Adidas and Nike have contractual agreements in partnering up with certain teams, but this shouldn’t limit you from rooting for your favorite team. The key benefits include being able to interact with your audience on a wider array of topics, community engagement (if it is a local sports team), and building morale amongst your employees.
• Create certain hashtags and call to actions – Hashtags on Twitter enable other users to congregate around certain phrases and navigate through Twitter with increased ease. The #allin hashtag for Adidas for example was tweeted 1,054,899 times. Doing so will separate your social media campaign from your competition.

• Be a good sport – In the world of sports, there will always be winners and there will always be losers. Your passion for your favorite team should be cool and level headed. One improper tweet or post can leave a sour taste with your customers who follow you online. KLM’s sombrero tweet mocking Mexico’s defeat caused uproar online that offended millions.

Being a sports fan makes life more exciting and fun, and following the lessons from this year’s World Cup will make your job as a brand marketer more exciting and fun too.

Be sure to stay up to date with current branding dos and don’ts with our free 10 Step Guide to Boost Your Branding.