Sport Sells! Clear the track for sporty product ideas

THE UEFA European Football Championship and the Summer Olympics: the 2008 super-sport year has the world of marketing strategists buzzing with excitement. With major international sporting events following hard on one another's heels, a large part of the world's population is gripped by sporting fever. As people become more aware of the importance of sports for health and physical appearance, many are being inspired to become more active themselves. And hand in hand with this goes a desire to eat healthily and with more thought for one's figure. The food industry is also joining the party, making the most of this marketing opportunity. With appropriate product positioning and sports-themed designs, it is grabbing consumers' attention and reaping the benefits of their sporting euphoria.

As well as fostering international understanding, global sporting events are increasingly turning into commercial highlights. Sport sells -- and with growing spectator numbers and jubilant celebrations, sponsors, events agencies and entire branches of industry are jumping on board. "Sport is emotion and it makes people thirsty for more, whether they are active sportspeople or just armchair enthusiasts," says João Bosco Ferreira, CEO at Cemil, one of Brazil's leading dairy products manufacturers. Since the beginning of this year, the company has been selling UHT-milk in the club colors of successful Brazilian top football clubs Atlético Mineiro and Cruzeiro in the combiblocMidi 1,000 ml.

"In Brazil football means passion and this fervor infects the whole country -- not just for a couple of days, as with the Carnival, but all year round," says Ferreira. "So with the development of this packaging concept, we are picking up on a theme that really moves people. We are incorporating the vitality of the sport into our brand strategy. The two milk varieties in the sporty livery are officially licensed products of both clubs and every fan has the awareness that by buying the carton packs he is supporting his club. In this way, we are creating a win-win situation for the clubs and for Cemil's brand awareness. The marketing campaign is accompanied by poster promotions in the clubs' stadiums."

On-pack promotions not only increase sales or boost marketing in the short term, but also to win over the consumer in the long term, says Ingo Buettgen, head of Global Communications at SIG Combibloc. "More and more, packaging solutions that generate sales on a continuing basis and establish brand image need to be consumer-friendly forms of packaging that protect the product and at the same time appeal to the senses and stir the emotions," he says.

Well thought-out design

As a rule, companies pursue long-term marketing objectives by linking in additional advertising activities. Combined with the original campaign, these serve primarily to increase brand awareness in general or raise the profile of a specific product. The main focus in this is on effectively differentiating a product from competing goods with consumer perception taking center stage.

When a consumer purchases a product, it is generally the visual appearance of the product that makes the initial impact. Packaging plays a key role here. In addition to striking or emotional imagery, the packaging may also -- depending on the desired product positioning -- be deliberately used to communicate product information that convinces the consumer to try a product. With its four printable display surfaces the carton pack is perfect for bringing communication elements together to create a harmonious whole and to communicate with the consumer on different cognitive levels.

"The beverages industry in particular is a highly competitive market in which products need to be given the best possible positioning. According to the most recent studies, 70% of product purchase decisions are made spontaneously in front of the supermarket shelf and for 80% of these products there is no advertising in the classic sense at all. Manufacturers and filling companies need to bear in mind that the consumer makes his purchase decision at the PoS in a maximum of two to four seconds. In this extremely short space of time the product has to grab the consumer's attention and engage his interest in buying it," says communications expert Buettgen.

"This means that the function of a good package design must be to trigger the consumer's desire to purchase and simultaneously to bind the consumer to a brand, preferably long-term, with a high level of originality and recognition. It is here that carton packs score highly, particularly in terms of the possibilities they offer for product differentiation."

Taiwan's Sunkey Group is in no doubt that direct interaction with consumers will boost sales. For the Olympics, the company banked on interactive communication with consumers, getting them involved in a competition covering a number of disciplines. Every product in the company's Nulife range was a potential prizewinner. On the company's homepage (www.sunkey.com.tw), consumers could enter either the number from their sales receipt or the serial number printed on the carton pack. Once a day a winner was selected from the participants and a weekly winner chosen in a special extra draw. In addition to mobile phone straps featuring Olympic mascots there were Wii consoles and Nulife products to be won. Everyone who sent in the prize vouchers packed as inserts in the trays with 24 Nulife carton packs or 24 side ears from empty carton packs qualified to be drawn for top prize -- a trip to Beijing.

"Collecting is a basic human instinct. This is the rationale behind our Olympics promotional campaign, which perfectly matches this impulse. Competitions that involve collecting items are perfect for major sporting events. Anyone who has experienced the thrill of collecting will become a repeat purchaser," Steven Cheng, Sunkey marketing manager, points out.

Thai boxing sponsorship

Boxing is one of the most popular sports in Thailand and Thai Agri Foods owns some of the most popular brands in the food industry in Thailand. The company announced before the Olympic Games in Beijing that it would award every boxing athlete who wins a gold medal with $29,000 (THB 1,000,000), a silver medallist with $14,500 (THB 500,000), and a bronze medallist with $8,695 (THB 300,000). To the delight of Thai people, their boxing team did very well in the event by winning one gold medal and one silver medal.

The producer of the coconut milk brand "AROY-D", held a warm welcome party for the athletes and other team members at the company's plant after their return from Beijing. In total, the company donated almost $80,000 (THB 2,760,000) to the athletes and the Amateur Boxing Association of Thailand. "We have been supporting Thai boxers and the association for many years financially. We hope that this has and will help to develop and promote this beautiful sport in Thailand. At the same time it is good that consumers can see us and the 'AROY-D' brand doing something for the society we live in by supporting sports," Peter Chan, the owner of Thai Agri Foods, explains.

Capturing children's interest

Nordmilch AG is aiming at a young target group with its Milram-brand milk drinks available in Germany in combiblocCompact 200 ml with a sporty football shirt design. Main distribution channels for the plain milk as well as the chocolate, vanilla and strawberry varieties are schools and kiosks.

Humana Milchunion eG is another company focusing on a range of brand milk drinks aimed primarily at children and young families. Since July the "Ravensberger" varieties plain UHT Milk, Banana, Strawberry, Vanilla and Chocolate have been available in Germany in combiblocSmall 200 and 250 ml with illustrations of a family cycling, inline-skating and playing tennis, basketball and football.

"Our marketing idea was to communicate the exceptionally high quality of our products to young consumers in a friendly, accessible way, while at the same time putting across the themes of naturalness and dynamism," said Florian Gelse, brand manager at Humana Milchunion. "We believe carton packaging is especially appropriate for expressing the naturalness and excellent quality of a product. The display surfaces are fully printable and offer ample space for vivid graphics that appeal visually to children and teenagers, but also win over their parents by giving information on the product's source and nutritional value."

SMS for an active holiday

Italian food service specialist Conserve Italia has also run a number of successful sports-related on-pack promotions. The company ran a winter on-pack promotion with a competition on carton packs in its Valfrutta juice range. Each XL 1,500 ml carton pack in the Orange, Pineapple, ACE, Blood Orange and Vitamix varieties was printed with a nine-digit code which consumers could send either by SMS or via the company's homepage to be automatically entered into a draw.

Ten top prizes of skiing trips in Piedmont as well as 38 cameras tempted entrants with printers. All the information about the raffle, along with an appropriate visual representation, was incorporated into the design on the carton pack, making for a sales increase of around 2.5 percent.

"We are extremely happy with the success of our promotional packaging. We are already looking at new on-pack ideas to generate long-term added value and intensify customer loyalty," says Mario Panzani, brand manager for Valfrutta juices.

Sporty design

Another company with plenty of experience when it comes to sporty on-packs is Alpenmilch Salzburg, one of Austria's leading dairy enterprises. The company has already run a number of successful sales promotions on its carton packs under the slogan "Alpenmilch makes Salzburg fit". In a promotion, for instance, buyers found fitness points on all carton packs of Alpenmilch, buttermilk, Acidophilus milk and fruit yogurt. For every ten points they collected, consumers were awarded a fitness test and a day at selected gyms. Each additional fitness point earned another gym day or one of several top-quality prizes.

Christian Leeb, head of Marketing and Sales at Alpenmilch explains that the promotions are aimed predominantly at establishing the brand as a synonym for top quality and light indulgence. "At the same time, we want to reward consumers for their loyalty and firmly establish their awareness that by buying our distinctively delicious and healthy SalzburgerLand quality products, they are also supporting the work and landscape conservation of farmers in the Salzburg region," he adds.

Seasonably wrapped

Mlékárna Hlinsko, the Czech Republic's leading manufacturer of UHT milk, has for many years been using creative seasonal on-pack promotions on its "Tatra" brand milk carton packs. The company's main focus is not just cultivating its own image and building customer loyalty, but also on working with other companies that have been won over by the effectiveness of this form of packaging as an advertising vehicle.

In a major winter promotion in cooperation with the Gasteinertal tourist region, the Ski amadé mountain region in Austria, and entertainment giant Sony, the four sides of the carton packs were used to tell buyers about a competition and advertise the special attractions of the Gasteinertal tourist region. As well as 33 Sony digital cameras, there were 10 winter sport trips for two up for grabs as the top prizes.

Following this successful winter promotion, which ran until the end of January 2008, Mlékárna Hlinsko is working on a collaboration with the Austrian Olympic region of Seefeld, where the cross-country skiing and Nordic Combination disciplines were held in the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympics. For the UEFA European Football Championships this year, the eyes of Czech sports fans turned once again towards Seefeld, as their national team was lodged there during the games. The Seefeld region is a popular destination for football teams from all over the world, because the altitude of the plateau offers ideal conditions for training. In the summer promotion, there are five activity holidays to Seefeld and 25 Kodak mini cameras to be won.

Parallel with this, the company is now running a joint on-pack promotion with Emco, the leading Czech manufacturer of breakfast cereals and cereal bars. Emco is advertising its new muesli variety with strawberries and almonds that, combined with Tatra milk, promises a healthy and delicious start to the day. Here too, the product advertising is linked with a competition with 500 sports prizes to be won including Kelly's bicycles and handy bicycle backpacks on offer.

General manager of Mlékárna Hlinsko, says these examples demonstrate that the company now works with a number of well-known corporations to run its on-pack promotions. "Many companies have discovered carton packaging as a powerful and innovative advertising medium that, when compared with other forms of communication through TV, radio and consumer magazines, is extremely effective and can be done at a competitive price," he says.

Eye-catcher for fitness buffs

The Coca-Cola Company is also going for the sport and fitness angle, positioning its "Cappy" range internationally as fruity energy-boosters. In line with this, the designs on the carton packs are targeted at fitness-conscious consumers.

For the Austrian market, Coca-Cola is using eye-catching on-pack promotions that underscore the sporty feel the brand is aiming for. In a summer promotion with the Zillertal tourist region, a competition offering prizes of music CDs, picnic rugs, mountain bikes and activity holidays in the Zillertal was run. A similar winter promotion took the winner to Austria's "Wilden Kaiser" mountain region.

SIG communications manager Buettgen estimates that, globally, product packaging will gain even further in significance. "We anticipate that it is specifically in saturated markets that packaging will become considerably more important in differentiating foods of comparable quality. Packaging makes a brand easily identifiable through external signals and offers an aid to orientation. Vital brand information that develops trust and ultimately generates brand loyalty is communicated via the packaging," he explains.

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