Throughout FIFA’s divisions, I believe that FIFA has created the most significant collaboration between two of its departments such as Marketing, and Communications & Public Affairs Division. Each department is in charge of developing different aspects of FIFA’s goals. FIFA’s most important goals are; creating opportunities for fan engagement, providing best experiences for fans, players and all stakeholders at events, providing up-to-date information on game time, scores, and ticket information. FIFA accomplishes this through FIFA’s web site, FIFA’s App, and all Social Media channels. Marketing at FIFA consists of many sub-divisions that include Brand & Marketing Communication, FIFA Marketing Russia, FIFA Quality Concept, Hospitality, Licensing, Marketing Alliances, Marketing Event Management, Production, Sales, Strategic Development and Ticketing. FIFA’s Marketing is committed to providing sponsors with “right packages”, promoting events to fuel fan excitement at host nations, managing premium hospitality events, creating innovative and tailor made marketing programs enhancing fan experiences, managing brand identity at FIFA and events. Communications & Public Affairs Division handles public relations, internal communications, and FIFA weekly magazine. FIFA’s digital department is in charge of FIFA.com, social media platforms, FIFA app, and video content through FIFA TV. The digital department is also in charge of the storage of data, photographs and documents. FIFA’s media department handles the communication to the media and media facility services for FIFA events. FIFA’s public affairs department handles the communication, relations and engagement with public, authorities and policymakers. FIFA has established a group to develop a comprehensive mobile and digital strategy designed to improve engagement with FIFA’s stakeholders. The work was built upon FIFA’s established platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and the FIFA app, which was downloaded 30 million times around the FIFA World Cup 2014. I wonder how many times the FIFA app will be downloaded in the 2018 World Cup in Russia? In order to watch the video, FIFA has granted permission via YouTube

Prior to Social Media one of the earliest types of advertising was through word of mouth followed by engraving or drawing images on a cave wall, those images told a story, and promoted ideas.   Early printing in the 15th (1401 to 1500) and 16th (1501 to 1600) centuries created a mark in advertising and companies were able to reach a wider audience. In the 18th (1701 to 1800) and 19th (1801 to 1900) centuries advertising was expanded to newspapers.   One of the first advertising agencies was set-up in Philadelphia in 1842 by Volney Palmer, the agency acted as a broker for newspaper space and later on they became a full service by offering ad-placement services and a full production that organized advertising by a target market and population.   In the 20th (1901 to 2000) century the radio was born and was part of a new era on advertising it offered a complete new way of reaching potential audiences. Followed by television which introduced a new type of advertising that was more visual than the previous advertising methods, by the end of the 20th century the internet was introduced to the masses and it became a valuable communication tool for businesses to advertise in a complete different way.   According to Visually technology and the use of Social Media and Internet has accelerated the pace in which people are able to connect, be engaged and be informed. Below is a list of the time frame it took for various modes of communication to reach 50 million users. Telephone: 75 years Radio: 38 years Television : 13 years Internet: 4 years Facebook: 3.5 years IPOD: 3 years Angry Birds Space app: 35 days   Many organizations still depend on word of mouth as the main form of communication mostly used in marketing and advertising initiatives. These companies are considered to be in the stone ages as compared to organizations that are using Social Media in a big way. A good example of a company that is using Social Media very well is FIFA.   FIFA was taken by surprise in the last World Cup in Brazil when 1 billion people attended FIFA’s Global Stadium, according to the current Deputy Head of FIFA Digital. Senior Manager – Social Media & Video, Alex Stone they began evaluating the data collected from the 2014 World Cup in 2015.   Based on the 2014… Read more »

Benefits of using Social Media  Before taking a dive into Social Media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, businesses should create a Social Media strategy that begins by defining who their target audience is. Businesses that do not do their due diligence in creating a strategy will not be successful if they rush to set-up profiles and post without knowing their targets and what channels to use to reach their audience. According to a report published by Texas Tech University, brands who engage on social media will improve brand loyalty and businesses should use all tools that Social Media offers when connecting to their audience. For teenagers Twitter and Instagram are the most used tools in Social Media. Social Media is a great Marketing digital tool that can revolutionize outreach, visibility and marketing initiatives for small and large businesses and not too many companies are using it. Companies need to learn how to gauge how their Social Media tactics are performing and how to measure this. Currently big and small businesses are realizing the huge benefits of Social Media and its increasing importance in the race to stay relevant and attract new customers. Prior to the age of Social Media, many years ago “the Secretary” was the first point of contact between companies and customers; today that role is replaced by websites and the Social Media revolution. 2014 FIFA World Cup™ FIFA awarded Brazil to be the host of the 20th FIFA World Cup™ on October 30, 2007, as a global event the preparation of a FIFA World Cup™ began many years before the tournament, some of the key topics that a host country must review are, infrastructure of the stadiums, transportation, logistics of the event, and to create a brand. FIFA’s Social Media Explosion In order to provide a worry free web user experience of the World’s greatest sporting event to a demanding, global digital World Cup audience FIFA created a Global Stadium. FIFA’s key scope was to increase global audience, reach and enhance engagement of all FIFA’s platforms, using FIFA.com. Global stadium a revolutionary and innovative live social internet hub that is available throughout tournaments at FIFA.com and FIFA App. Fans were able to get closer to the action during Brazil 2014. The Global Stadium provided a singular destination to FIFA fans and created a great reach across the planet. With Billons of hits on Social Media Channels generated… Read more »