Editorial Articles

The World Cup can be a blessing for marketers. Major events generate massive levels of Internet traffic, and savvy marketers do their best to get a piece of the action. For this marketing activity to achieve beneficial results, it’s crucial that the brand’s site is prepared for the traffic it will generate.

World Cup boosts traffic
Research by Experian Hitwise has found that one in every 150 Internet search terms in the UK is related to the World Cup. South Africa Airways for example – which sponsors the South Africa national football team – has seen a huge increase in the number of Internet searches, and it isn’t just official sponsors who are benefiting. Bavaria, the Dutch lager, was the fifth most visited beer website in the UK on the 15th June, following the controversial marketing stunt where a bevy of beauties clad in the brand’s trademark orange invaded the stadium en masse. As the news made headlines across the world, Experian Hitwise saw a spike in traffic to Bavaria’s website with the majority of traffic coming from Wikipedia and Google.

Preparation is the key
This increase in Internet traffic can lead to additional revenue and increased awareness for brands, but only if they are prepared for the sudden influx. It is crucial to maximise the opportunity that effective marketing creates. Website performance is strongly linked to customer loyalty, and a negative experience online can seriously damage a brand’s reputation. Companies need to ensure they have the technology in place to cope, or they could risk losing out on the benefits of World Cup related marketing.

No room for downtime
Online browsers show zero tolerance towards web outages and will not persevere if a site is slow to load (or, worst of all, fails to load at all). This makes maintaining a constant web presence crucial to brands, especially at times when extra traffic can be expected because of a particular campaign. Failure to do so will not only lose a company that particular visit, but can lead to significant brand damage. It is brilliant if a marketing campaign can capture the imagination of the public, but it is equally important to guarantee orders can be processed to truly take advantage of an event like the World Cup. A strategy that plans for peaks in online visitors and suitably manages web traffic will maintain the customer's relationship with the brand on an ongoing basis.

Prioritise new customers
As the Experian Hitwise statistics demonstrate, event sponsorship can result in a far higher number of web searches for a brand. Traffic management software can prioritise different types of traffic, so that people redirected to the site from a search engine experience the best service, making them more likely to re-visit the site in the future. This technology can also block any malicious requests, which will help to keep the site running smoothly.

Marketing and IT: a match made in heaven
An opportunity like the World Cup is on the marketing radar for months prior to the event itself, and marketers know that their aim is to drive traffic to the brand’s website. So why are these sites so often unprepared for what follows? The solution to this problem is to ensure open communication between marketing and IT. As the digital marketer is planning how to drive traffic and sales online, they should be proactively speaking with IT to ensure the relevant technology is in place to process the additional web hits that will come as a result of this activity. If they are pre-warned about a big campaign, IT can make sure that a scalable solution is put in place to meet additional demand.

Big sporting events offer marketers a wealth of opportunity, but for a campaign to be truly successful, a brand needs a reliable site to fully exploit the flood of traffic generated.

Graham Moore
e-retail specialist, Zeus Technology