Welcome to the world of sports manufacturer/equipment sales and marketing.

It sometimes resembles drunk businessmen flinging money at apparently sexually desirable strippers for a lapdance.

I mean it.

Proof? Here goes!

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World War!

2008 – Nike paid a reported $64 million a year to grab sponsorship of the French national team from Adidas, for 2011 to 2018. That’s four times what Adidas was paying.

Four times!! France has historically been Adidas country – so even when they get it…the team @Wieden & Kenney had better be using the next 2 years to pull off a marketing campaign to make that a profitable acquisition!

2007 – Adidas went to arbitration to retain sponsorship of the German national team, for which Nike had offered $67 million a year over eight years – five times what Adidas was paying.

Five times? Apply my reponse from above and start shaking your head and thinking…maybe the stripper analagy isn’t so crazy after all!

And there’s more!

That same year, Adidas unsuccessfully tried to snatch Brazil’s team, reportedly offering $40 million, more than triple what Nike was paying.

So…like I said, you can picture the scene in the respective boardrooms. Interesting that only one federation has taken the bait!

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Anyway…back to the here and now..

Cutting a very boring and obvious story short!

• Adidas have spent a probable insane amount of money to have the rights to be Official World Cup Sponsors (and extend a 40 something year reationship – yawn)
• They now have to spend a few more pennies to make the sponsorship actually do more than pay for Sepp Blatter’s new mansion somewhere in South Africa
• Cue the avalanche of boring PR stories and virals that overwhelm the 1-2 cool stories that come out of this..

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The Ball!

There’s the usual story that the ball is the most accurate ever. Blah blah blah!
Havent we heard this before?

About 4 years ago?

Do we, the consumer really care? Could we tell the accuracy difference between this one and the last one? Its not quite analog to HD is it?

But there is something cool to come from it – an interesting design story.

To be continued…

R

Thanks to Cousin Isi for the hook up!