Nielsen: Nike’s Ambush Marketing for World Cup More Effective than Official Sponsorships

Nike’s “Write the Future” YouTube campaign during the 2010 World Cup continues to create buzz both for what it is . . . and for what it isn’t.

“Write the Future” is a creative, full-length video ad that has been viewed nearly 17 million times since mid-May.

But, it isn’t the work of an official 2010 World Cup sponsor.

You see, Nike’s biggest competitor, adidas, is the official 2010 World Cup Partner.  New research from the Nielsen Company, however, shows that Nike is now more frequently linked to this year’s World Cup than adidas. In fact, the latest data indicates that Nike has generated more buzz than any of the tournament’s official partners and sponsors –all of whom paid expensive sponsorship fees.

What does that say about the power of a cleverly positioned YouTube video?

And, will results like this spawn more “ambush” marketing in the future?

To be fair, the Nielsen figures show that other World Cup sponsors are benefiting from their “official” relationship with the competition, and I suppose we’ll have to wait until after the games end and the final numbers are crunched to accurately answer those questions

But for the moment, it certainly seems to me, that when it comes to the 2010 World Cup, Nike has undoubtedly scored.

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