Euro 08: Migros Has Already Won

 
Ambush Marketing: Migros’ lead-up to the European Soccer Championship has already drawn 800,000 fans to their screens. 
Migros and Publicis wanted to put the fans—rather than the players—in the spotlight during the M’08 Fan Championship, held shortly before Euro 08. This rather bold idea, which fell under the umbrella of ambush marketing, was a success, as Jean Etienne Aebi, the Creative Director at Publicis who was in charge of the entire project, can attest. The «Fan Championships,» staged as long-form spots on Swiss television, drew an average of 800,000 viewers per episode. In terms of market share, this is certainly comparable to real entertainment shows, as a look at the figures from SF shows. Nevertheless, Jean Etienne Aebi is surprised that almost no advertisers have watched the M’08 games. ’We’re just more in the style of a parody of Endemol and perhaps less to the ADC’s taste,« says the distinguished top creative. Aebi is convinced, however, that the industry must continue to seek out such »gimmicks,« as the ongoing success of »Beck & Bondi« already proves.
In fact, the figures for M’08 are statistically compelling. The commercials have a market share of 33 percent. «These figures are clearly higher than those for regular commercial breaks,» says Publicis. By the quarterfinals, a cumulative total of 13 million viewers had watched the antics of fan contests such as «opening bottles,» «throwing TVs out the window,» «shouting »goal!«» or «organizing honking concerts.» The website www.M08.ch had recorded half a million visitors by the end of 2007. Thanks to media coverage in the press, an estimated 1.5 million francs in media value has flowed into Migros’s account for free so far. The song «Unhaltbar,» performed by Adrian Stern for the show, actually made it into the charts. More than 80 fan merchandise items are now flying off the shelves in Migros stores. “And the big wave is yet to come,” the marketing team is convinced.
For some advertisers, however, the question remains: With all these emotions packed into the ad—even without a ball—what message actually resonated with the audience?
Migros is perceived by 51 percent of Swiss people as the official sponsor of Euro 08, even though the «orange giant» is “merely” a free rider on Euro 08—or, to use the technical term, is engaging in ambush marketing. This is a situation that UEFA continues to view with little enthusiasm.
Migros, on the other hand, is proud of this «David versus Goliath»-style move. In a situation where the small bar in Zurich’s Seefeld district is forced to suddenly serve Coca-Cola and Heineken to its usual regulars—simply because the bar is located in the infamous fan zone— «it’s perfectly fine to question the money-making machine behind UEFA’s Euro 08,» say the creators of M’08.
The organizers of the Ambush Games therefore don’t want to leave their newly acquired fans «offside» in the future either. Success brings responsibility. And so, they’re currently exploring how Migros might set up its own zones—featuring “family-friendly options”—around the official UEFA fan zones for fans to watch the actual soccer matches.
The «unofficial» championship continues on Wednesday, January 30, at 7:50 p.m. following «Meteo» on SF1 with the second semifinal between Scotland and Turkey, after Portugal defeated the Netherlands earlier this Wednesday. The final will take place on February 20. It will go down in history as the longest «commercial» ever aired on Swiss—and likely international—television. The «broadcast» of the M«08 final will last six minutes before and five minutes after the »Tagesschau.’ In other words, this is advertising that, for once, is interrupted by an actual program—rather than the other way around. And that feeling alone should be worth a few of the millions to the creatives—money that has now been poured into this M’08 project rather than into UEFA’s coffers.
Andreas Panzeri