Coca Cola and McDonald's May Win World Cup

Who will be the real winners of the World Cup? Spain, Brazil, Coca-Cola?

The World Cup is played in two venues – one on the field and the other is business profit. FIFA is not the Red Cross and is interested in making money. So let us follow the money to find the real financial World Cup contenders.

The difference in the financial World Cup to the teams playing is that everyone can be a winner. However, the big winners will always be the big names we see every day.

Companies pay money to be associated with the World Cup – they pay a lot of money. And no company is going to pay a lot of money unless they believe they can get a return on their investment.

Who are the players? The big players who have a general long term relationship directly with FIFA together with the annual sales are:

Coca-Cola $30 billion

VISA $3.6 billion income on $2 trillion of sales

Emirates Airlines $11 billion

Hyundai Motors $70 billion

Sony $85 billion

Addidas $15 billion

These are big consumer companies. In my opinion Coca-Cola, Emirates, Sony and Hyundai have positioned themselves to gain directly by increased sales.

Visa, in order to maintain their dominate market position, advertises their brand. If they did not advertise using the World Cup – they would advertise in other places. Visa advertises their brand name in most global events

Addidas however is in a struggle with Nike for dominance in the World Cup. Nike without having to pay FIFA any sponsor fees is getting the same exposure as Addidas according to advertising rating agencies. Addidas may be in the strange position of having to advertise just to remain the underdog.

The second tier of sponsors ( together with annual sales) with FIFA are those who directly sponsor the 2010 South Africa World Cup.

Budweiser $37 billion (Global beer producing conglomerate)

Continental $30 billion (Global tire producer)

MTN Group $15 billion (Africa's largest mobile phone network)

Seara $ 7 billion (food producer South America)

Castrol $367 billion (part of British Petroleum)

McDonald's $16 Billion (We all know McDonald's = hamburgers)

Mahindra Satyam $6.3 billion (Global business consulting and IT services )

Yingli Solar $ 2 billion (global solar panels)

This second tier group of sponsors includes several companies which are trying to create global recognition. Most everyone recognizes the names of Budweiser, Continental, Castrol and McDonald's. On the other hand, few World Cup fans know about Yingli Solar. Yingli Solar hopes that at the end of the World Cup this changes.

The South African event organizing committee has six local sponsors including BP South Africa (part of British Petroleum), First National Bank, NeoAfrica (IT and consulting), PRASA (government rail agency), South African Telkom, and Aggrego (global electrical generator rental company).

According to industry analysts, the World Cup sponsors who will benefit the most from increased sales will be McDonald's and Coca Cola.

And if there already is a loser, it is Castrol as it is part of British Petroleum – who is now responsible for the largest oil spill in world history. BP's forecast for stopping the oil flowing into the Gulf of Mexico will be after the World Cup finals. They will lose the opportunity to capitalize on advertising as BP in general is avoiding much advertising as the global press is painting their performance as negligent.

Analysts also point to two companies which will highly benefit from the World Cup – Nike and Walt Disney. Nike is getting very good press coverage, while Walt Disney owns ESPN who holds much of the world television rights.

Of course the fans will be winners, and the host country South Africa. World Cup play brings attention to South Africa, and cannot help but improve how the nation is viewed by its citizens and the world.

However, South Africa will be a loser financially. This was not unexpected as the host country's of major events seldom profit. From my understanding of events leading up to South Africa's selection of being host – they were advised over and over of this reality.

This brings to mind the current “priceless” advertising campaign of MasterCard - "There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's MasterCard" . For South Africa, it never was an issue of profit or loss – but the issue was global respect and nation building. You cannot buy respect. And you cannot pay your population to be united.

South Africa is continuing the painful process of unifying its people. For a short period while the World Cup is being played, South Africa will be united. All the difficulties of life will be forgotten.

All South African's will profit.

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