Coca-Cola picks Mango for Euro 2008 business

by Ed Kemp, Marketing 11-Jan-07, 13:00

LONDON - Coca-Cola has hired event specialist Mango to handle its experiential and promotional marketing for the Uefa 2008 European Football Championships.

The agency will handle a range of experiential activity, including the Coca-Cola fan parks. As the official soft beverage of Euro 2004 in Portugal, Coca-Cola had one fan park, but significantly boosted its investment last year at the FIFA World Cup in Germany, where it ran a Fan Fest in each host city.

It is anticipated that Coca-Cola will increase its spend in experiential marketing further at Euro 2008.

Mango will also handle Coca-Cola's promotional activity, which for the first time will see the sponsor give away the majority of its 12,000-ticket allocation as prizes to fans. The soft-drinks firm will have tickets at each of the tournament's 31 matches, which take place in Austria and Switzerland.

The change in strategy is likely to appease critics, who have blamed sponsors for damaging the atmosphere at major football tournaments by setting aside too many tickets for corporate guests.

On the eve of the 2006 World Cup in Germany, Coca-Cola launched a global TV campaign entitled "Rivals". The clay-animation ad was adapted for the UK market by Mother and fell under Coca-Cola's existing "We all speak football" theme. The ad showed rivals, such as a postman and a dog, and a lumberjack and a tree, putting their differences aside to celebrate a World Cup goal together.

Mango was unavailable for comment.