Okay, so the 2010 World Cup is now over and already seems like a distant memory (You know a guy can easily get used to 3 football matches a day!) and the most notable winners include newly crowned world champions for the very first time Spain (I’ll never forget experiencing the final with my Spanish family and the wild celebrations which followed). South Africa for the passion & excitement they showed from hosting the continents first ever finals and a certain, well known sports apparel company who managed to successfully integrate their brand in to the tournament despite not even being one of the official sponsors! (No mean feat considering how stringent & precious FIFA are concerning this topic and the official sponsors).

The brand in question is of course Nike who managed to leverage the relationships they have built with many of the worlds top footballers such as Christiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Didier Drogba and Robinho, effectively showcasing a number of their products without a single reference to the World Cup in their communications and more importantly any Official Sponsor fees to FIFA.

Who could have failed to notice that the majority of the worlds top players were wearing Nike’s distinctive CTR360 Maestri Elite FG boots! Now whilst I’m sure Nike’s endorsement fees are considerable, these will have been dwarfed by the figure required for the equivalent airtime, ad space or the figures paid to become an official sponsor. And despite rival Adidas being an official sponsor, kitting out more teams (12 to Nikes 9) and providing the infamous Jubulani ball their brand awareness throughout the whole tournament ranks at only 14.4% of the ‘official and competitor buzz’ provided by Nielsen, compared to Nike’s 30.2%!

I make that Nike 1 Adidas 0 in the battle of the sports brands and there’s now certain pair of new boots on my birthday list for next month!