The World Cup, an opportunity for licensing | Key4Communications |

One of the highlights of 2014 will be the World Cup, to be held in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July. And this is not just a sports event, but also a business opportunity for licensing. As can be read in a report on sports brands, published in the Spanish trade magazine Licencias Actualidad , licensing professionals increasingly rely on these properties, as they are classics with a global presence and a very high media impact, particularly in the case of motor and football for the Spanish market.

The World Cup "always boosts the market -points Almudena Cerezo, Director of Marketing and Licensing at CyP -especially when the company is a licensee of the federation. But especially in this case, sales will depend on the role of the Spanish team in the competition."

The main challenge of these events is the life cycle of the brand. As the marketing department of the FIFA World Cup explains, each edition of the competition "has a restricted window of relevance for brand activation within the 4-year cycle. It is therefore our challenge to ensure that we are able to maximise the impact of this short period, whilst forging strong long-term relationships with our licensees and retailers."

In regards to the World Cup as a brand, FIFA licenses the trophy image, the emblem, and the mascot, ensuring exclusivity for each territory and working to avoid saturation - the program currently has 80 international licensees and another 90 licensees in Brazil, which will provide 1,800 product designs.

One of the main advantages of these events is the breadth of its audience: "For the last FIFA World Cup, 46% of the world’s population tuned in to at least one game. Our target audience therefore ranges from young children to grandparents, something which is reflected in the products available in our licensing programme".

"Even people who do not normally pay much attention to football (and there are some), are going to be in some way influenced by the media pull the World Cup brings. I do not think that anyone can escape being exposed to an event of this scale, and that obviously has an impact", adds Tony Domenech, Creative Director at Seven Canada.