Brands Chip In On The Most-Tweeted Sports Game

The dramatic Brazil vs Germany semi-final match yesterday scored a massive 35.6 million tweets, making it the most-tweeted sports game ever. Of course, no self-respecting brand would miss out on such a grand global spectacle. Whether an official sponsor for the tournament or not, various brand, including Visa, Audi, and Red Bull, piled on by making real-time marketing jokes on the losing Brazilian team. As we reported, Twitter recently rolled out special onboarding features to attract the World Cup audience. Coupled with brands’ timely efforts, twitter is subtly redefining the way modern sport events are discussed, capitalized and marketed.

A DVD That Smells Like Pizza?

Dominoes, in an ad campaign that’s taking off in Brazil, is hoping that the smell of Pizza will make customers think about the time-tested combination of Pizza and home movies. In partnership with ten video rental stores in Sao Paulo and io de Janerio, ten discs of ten new release titles were stamped with thermal ink and flavored varnish, both of which are sensitive to heat. While people watch the movie, the disc heats up, and the smell is released upon the DVD’s completion. The DVD’s were also printed with the message: “Did you enjoy the movie? THe next one will be even better with a hot and delicious Domino’s Pizza.” Though renting DVD’s seems old fashioned to many, streaming movies isn’t yet broadly accepted in Brazil, so this is a creative way to keep customers hungry with a fresh approach. 

Budweiser’s Buddy Cup Makes You Friends

As if providing embarrassing photos from your trip to the bar last night wasn’t simple enough with Facebook, Budweiser has provided another factor: the Buddy Cup.  The Brazilian arm of the beer giant is introducing what are probably NFC-equipped cups to its branded events, offering participants the opportunity to enter their Facebook credentials on a page accessed via a QR code (there they are again) on the bottom of the cup.  After this slight barrier to entry, any “cheers” with a similarly equipped cup will lead to a friend request being sent (and why wouldn’t Budweiser gain a “like” in the process?) and accepted.  While this is an interesting application of emerging technology, its activation of brand values could lead to some unfortunate realizations on the morning after.  The Buddy Cup was created by Agencia Africa in partnership with a digital advertising studio in Brazil called Bolha.