As the Paris Olympics come to a close and after Spain's triumph in Germany, Kantar’s Client Director, Creative, Eduard Aguado, asks if this summer’s sports bonanza paid off for advertisers’ Euros and Olympics campaigns.

It has been almost a month since the curtain fell on the EURO 2024 tournament, enough time for English wounds to heal and for the Spanish to enjoy their victory. For advertisers, there has been enough time to reflect and to get a sense on whether their EUROs-inspired campaigns generated enough buzz and delivered on their intended sales updates.  

Recent data from LIFT+, Kantar’s new cross-media measurement tool, provides evidence that shows only half of the EUROs ads we tested cut through with UK audiences, highlighting that not all advertising efforts were equally effective.  

So, it is only right for us here at Kantar to digest what we observed and experienced during our creative testing and analysis of these campaigns.  

Firstly, congratulations to Uber Eats (France), who managed to get the highest predicted ‘Impact’ score using LINK AI on Kantar Marketplace, thanks to a mix of positive humour, celebrity cameos, and well-recognised brand devices. It was all about effectiveness and efficiency, and they certainly delivered. 

We all know football didn't come home as Spain won this summer's Euros, but did brands' score with their Euros themed campaigns?

There were so many excellent campaigns – here’s what advertisers can learn to score big beyond the EUROs: 

Banish the blues from advertising 

It is great to see brands being bolder and brasher in their intent to lighten up the mood – especially after a few years of ‘sadvertising’ in response to many societal pressures such as the cost-of-living crisis, the pandemic, and political upheavals around the world. This year we saw Burger King (France) with their mouth-filled VAR assistants, and Coca-Cola Zero (Italy) with every finger and toe crossed in prayer, jumping in to help provide some much-needed comic relief. Indeed, at times it even felt that many of these campaigns were more exciting than some of the football games themselves... 

Play for stereotypes – be incisive 

Sporting events, especially international sporting events, like the EUROs, the Olympics and Wimbledon, create occasions where people seek a sense of collective identity, and a connection to something greater than themselves. It is also the right moment for brands to play with these sentiments (but not to exploit them). And, when done well, people love it! 

For their EURO-inspired campaign, Irn-Bru kicked things off with a dose of classic Scottish humour and quite effectively so – though some Germans may be asking for a yellow card there. 

In the Paris Olympic Games, we have also seen this, for example with Coca-Cola's ‘It’s magic when the world comes together’, we see an emotional attempt at subverting stereotypes of the expected rivalries between athletes from different nations. Again, this sense of union and companionship proves very effective at generating effective engagement in audiences. 

Regardless of the approach, people are in the mood to FEEL something. And it is up to brands to get that feeling right. 

Sub in the celebs – make sure they are brand-fit 

Across all major three major international sporting events, there have been plenty of celebrity cameos on the stands to glam things up. Some from active players – Adidas’ ‘Hey Jude’ comes to mind – others hark back to the glory days, like Dove Men+Care partnering with Thierry Henry. 

The key element in driving creative effectiveness is finding the right balance of a celebrity who will help provide extended reach and cover, while not stealing all the attention, and being a good, meaningful fit for the brand. 

Keep the brand on-side 

LIFT+ data suggests that the ads with the most effective cut-through were the better branded ones. But there is no one recipe for branded success – in fact, in this EUROs we have seen many brands experiment with different approaches, for instance, Uber Eats (France) using established characters, Montblanc (France) using its traditional black and white style, or Fonzies (Italy) opting for more traditional visual product centricity. One thing is clear: make sure your brand does not end up being overpowered. 

Bonus for consistency 

People, consumers, are inherently lazy when it comes to advertising, so if they feel there is something familiar in the campaign (and they don’t have to learn something new), it stands a better chance of being remembered. 

Here is where consistency of the campaign idea across channels and/or executions can yield positive efficiencies – AliExpress found cross-country synergies, Qatar experimented with a single idea with multi-platform appeal, and Paddy Power had a clear continuation of its long-running campaign idea. All of them capitalised on consistency in different forms. 

So, if your brand marketing plan involves a direct or indirect creative association to any upcoming sporting events, remember to: 

  • ENTERTAIN – give people something to feel excited about 
  • BE BRAVE – play with stereotypes, be bold in your assertions (as long as the tone is right) 
  • STAY ON BRAND – it’s okay to be challenging, but there must be a brand connection 
  • USE CELEBS WITHOUT FEAR – but make sure they do not overpower the brand 
  • BE CONSISTENT – make it easy for people to ‘get’ it 

Discover additional insights and takeaways here from the Best Ads of EURO 2024.