Though 2024 is just a few hours old, the year is off to a great start especially for the marketing communications ecosystem with the biannual continental soccer fiesta billed for January 13 to February 11, 2024 in Ivory Coast. Brand Communicator’s Editor, Ntia Usukuma takes a look at some of the hotspots for the year, beginning with the event at Abidjan and environs.
Conventionally, apart from a few agencies handling end-of-the-year campaigns, December is always a period most agencies close shop for some weeks, unwind, and relax as they prepare for the new year.
Many will wait till the second week of the year as they gradually return to full operations.
It seems this year is a bit different. Many agencies and brands are up already. They are raring to go (as the Americans would say) because something big is about to happen early this year.
Taking the lead of activities poised to rally many brands and agencies to action in 2024 is the African Cup of Nations taking place in Côte d’Ivoire between January 13 and February 11, 2024.
Still tagged AFCON 2023 because the tournament was originally scheduled for summer in 2023 before being postponed due to concerns about the weather, the Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF) and the host country seemed to have put everything in place for a phenomenal event.
Tournament Branding
Akwaba, which means “Welcome” in Baoulé language has been unveiled as the official mascot of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations. It is an elephant, which is Ivory Coast’s animal symbol. Its kit bears a resemblance to Ivory Coast’s home colours.
Over two months ago, CAF and Puma unveiled “Pokou” as the official tournament edition match ball ahead of the final tournament draw. The name was chosen to honour deceased legendary Ivorian forward Laurent Pokou, locally known for scoring 5 goals in the 6–1 victory over Ethiopia at the 1970 edition of the tournament which has stood as a record to date.
CAF equally unveiled the official song for the competition last year. The song also titled “Akwaba” featured MTV award-winning Nigerian artist Yemi Alade, Egyptian rapper Mohamed Ramadan, and Ivorian music band Magic System. The anthem is an exciting fusion of afrobeat, rap, and zouglou in a unique musical mix that remains deeply entrenched with the tradition of the competition’s previous anthems. The tournament has been remarkably branded to ensure that its acceptability in the African Market and beyond is top-notch.
Marketing Opportunities
Beyond the boundaries of the playing fields, the Cup of Nations has been a conduit for the articulation of brands’ influences as they tap into various available platforms to penetrate the hearts of consumers
Most times, a country’s participation in a major sports tournament usually transcends the sporting activity itself. It is accompanied by several business opportunities that go a long way in boosting the economy of the qualifying country as well as the host and adjacent countries.
Traditionally, during events like this, corporations and brands in Nigeria, like their counterparts in other African countries, spend millions of dollars on sports marketing and advertising, leveraging the emotional connection between sports talents and their fans to bond with millions of consumers.
With the expansion in technology, creative marketing communication experts have increasingly become adept at using this emotional bond as a platform to build patronage and loyalty from consumers when they can convince owners of brands or services to commit their funds in different areas to support the sporting activities and the personalities involved.
Market Valuation- A strong Bait
One thing that will aid the marketing of the Nigerian team is its rating in the tournament. The Super Eagles of Nigeria leads the top-five chart as the most valuable team set to compete at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations tournament, according to Soccernet.ng.
According to a chart compiled by TransferMarkt, Jose Peseiro’s squad emerges as the most valuable international team at the upcoming 2023 AFCON tournament.
Soccernet.ng outlines the top five teams participating in the 2023 tournament, along with their respective values as follows:
Nigeria- Seeded alongside the tournament’s host, relentless Guinea-Bissau, and Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria boasts a valuation of €450.50 million with their current squad. Players like Victor Osimhen, Ademola Lookman, and Victor Boniface stand out as the most valuable assets in the line-up.
Morocco- The Atlas Lions claim the second spot on the chart with an impressive valuation of around €347.80 million. Notable players such as Sofyan Amrabat, Achraf Hakimi, and Bono contribute significantly to the Moroccan squad.
Cote d’Ivoire- As the host nation of the 2023 AFCON tournament, Cote d’Ivoire ranks third on the chart with a valuation of €329.98 million. Key players like Bayer Leverkusen’s Odilon Kossounou and Sporting CP’s Ousmane Diomande emerge as the most valuable assets in the Ivorian squad.
Ghana- Seeded in Group B alongside Egypt, Cape Verde, and Mozambique, Ghana secures the fourth position on the list with a valuation of €284.85 million. Players like West Ham United’s Mohammed Kudus, Arsenal Midfielder Thomas Partey, and Inaki Williams are highlighted as the team’s most valuable assets.
Senegal: The 2021 AFCON champions and 2019 runners-up take the fifth spot among the most valuable teams set for the upcoming AFCON tournament, valued at €263.90 million.
Led by players like Sadio Mane, Kalidou Koulibaly, and Eduouard Mendy, Senegal, despite its impressive line-up, falls behind Nigeria and Morocco in terms of valuation. Seeded alongside Gambia, Guinea, and Cameroon, they aim to maintain their strong performance and defend their title.
This third-party rating would rightly make Nigeria the toast of many brands. It would make the work of ad agencies and marketers easier, and the icing on the cake would be the advancement of the team towards the final stage as no brand in Nigeria would want to gamble too much with an event most Nigerians are not connected to emotionally.
The media To Smile too
It is indeed clear that many brands, ad agencies, and other businesses would reap huge rewards from Nigeria’s participation and success at the AFCON tournament. Another group that should smile at their banks are media houses. Brands are expected to spend billions on creatives and buying of media space across several media platforms- broadcast, digital, and print.
In the words of Emmanuel Young, a media researcher. “Nigeria’s participation would elicit considerable interest from advertisers. Businesses would love to support the Nigerian team as well as leverage the live broadcast of Nigerian matches to expose their advertising materials and communicate their messages to the general public. Concomitantly, this would positively affect the revenue for media agencies and the media platforms as well.
“Sponsorship is one of the tools agencies use to communicate. Major sponsors of Nigerian football, like Telcos, breweries, and CSD producers will readily jump on this train as it begins. Many others will join as the team sustains success, then the media and ad agencies will definitely feel the impact and smile more as the Nigerian team performs in the tournament.”
A Big Pie For Aviation Brands, Others
Another sector likely to be impacted positively is the tourism and travel industry. During competitions like this, businesses in the travel industry, especially airlines, record high patronage because of the volume of people traveling to watch the games live. Flight and hotel booking agencies also record increased sales of tour packages inclusive of tickets to watch live matches.
Nigeria is presently placed fourth in terms of participating countries’ ticket purchases ahead of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations
The information was released by the Confederation of African Football, CAF, on its official X account last month.
“Ticket sales for Nigeria are among the top five on the continent,” the message reads.
According to CAF, the country has purchased a total of 12,544 tickets as of last month. Cote d’Ivoire leads the way with 32,307 tickets sold, followed by Nigeria Group A opponents Guinea-Bissau (28,614) and Equatorial Guinea (16,237). Senegal, the defending champion, is fifth with 10,959 purchases.
Many analysts believe this figure will, at least double before the tournament begins. One can only imagine the positive impact flying about 25,000 fans to and from Abidjan and other cities would have on airlines servicing that route.
The trickling effect of AFCON tournaments is so high that public viewing centres are known to benefit immensely from showing Super Eagle’s matches. Sunday Rotimi, who runs a viewing centre in Abule-Egba. a Lagos suburb says he has serviced his electric generator as he prepares to reap massively from this year’s AFCON.
His words, “During tournaments involving the Super Eagles, our business usually records huge profits. We make more money showing Nigeria’s matches than what we make from showing European league club football. When Nigeria plays, everybody is one regardless of the club a viewer supports. Even people who don’t watch football come to our centres to watch anytime Nigeria is playing. My prayer is that Nigeria should reach the final so that I can hit it big.”