Unofficial, broadcaster-specific World Cup sponsors

[bagasme]

Hi,

During World Cup event that was broadcasted on my local channels (e.g. SCTV), I noticed that the channel revealed its own broadcaster-specific sponsors before and after the coverage. These sponsors are:

• Le Minerale (drink water)
• Tokopedia (e-commerce)
• Gojek (online transport)
• Telkomsel & IM3 (mobile carrier)
• IndiHome (ISP)
• ExtraJoss (supplement drink)

Here is the intro on the channel that contains these sponsors:



However, AFAIK, I thought of these sponsors as official upstream sponsors of the event (FIFA sponsors maybe) even though that none of these brands have actually affiliation or partnership with FIFA nor they have operations overseas (let alone in Qatar). When I saw list of FIFA sponsors and partners, it was clear that above brands aren't listed! I was fooled then.

What do you think? Maybe should disclaimers be added to broadcaster-specific sponsors so that they won't claim themselves as upstream (i.e. FIFA) sponsors and partners?

 

[DrClaude]

I was fooled then.

Why?

What do you think? Maybe should disclaimers be added to broadcaster-specific sponsors so that they won't claim themselves as upstream (i.e. FIFA) sponsors and partners?

Why does it matter if the sponsors give money directly to FIFA or to broadcasters that have paid FIFA for diffusion rights?

Being an official FIFA sponsor does not carry with it an ethics or value judgment, at least not in the positive...

 

[Borek]

FIFA sponsor is one thing, broadcast sponsor is another.

The real question for me is whether FIFA license allows adding broadcast sponsors to the transmission.

 

[bagasme]

Why?

Why does it matter if the sponsors give money directly to FIFA or to broadcasters that have paid FIFA for diffusion rights?

Being an official FIFA sponsor does not carry with it an ethics or value judgment, at least not in the positive...

I was confused when it came to sponsoring: did these local brands (Tokopedia and friends) actually sponsor FIFA World Cup the event worldwide or having publicity slot on particular TV channel as broadcast sponsors for transmission of the event by only that particular channel? Or put it another words: if a channel (I treat as downstream) reveals random brands as sponsors for an important event (hence the infamous dipersembahkan oleh), does it imply that these brands also become official (upstream) sponsor for that event and/or event organizer?

In this case, Hyundai was the only SCTV/MOJI (Emtek Group) broadcast sponsor that was also official FIFA World Cup sponsor.

 

[bagasme]

The real question for me is whether FIFA license allows adding broadcast sponsors to the transmission.

AFAICT, I don't see any FIFA regulations that prohibit that practice. Instead, in order to protect the World Cup brand, FIFA disallows ambush marketing. As it is written on brand protection page:

Ambush marketing can be defined as prohibited marketing activities which try to take advantage of the huge interest in and high profile of an event by creating a commercial association and/or seeking promotional exposure without the authorisation of the event organiser. Ambush marketing activities typically occur when a brand tries to link itself to a major event, be it through advertising or promotions using tournament designations or giving away/raffling off tickets, or by implementing a creative campaign that only indirectly associates with the tournament using imagery or textual references that aim to create a link to the event. Marketing activities by non-sponsor companies that seek to take advantage of the huge public interest in the event through physical on-site presence in or around event sites (e.g. stadiums) qualify as ambush marketing. The common denominator of such prohibited marketing activities is that they primarily seek free advertising.

Back to broadcast sponsors I mentioned earlier. I suspected that the drink water had ad campaign that have indirect reference to World Cup:



In the OBB intro at the start of this thread, before revealing the broadcast sponsor, the infamous dipersembahkan oleh was written This FIFA World Cup Qatar™ Match on SCM (Group channels: SCTV, Moji, Mentari TV, Champions TV) is presented to you by... . Note the bold, which means that Tokopedia and friends sponsored the transmission of World Cup on channels under SCM group.

On contrast, two editions earlier, VIVA Group (tvOne and antv) had broadcasting rights for 2014 FIFA World Cup. The broadcast sponsors as revealed was: SUPER SOCCER (Djarum-affiliated soccer portal); KIA, HYUNDAI, and Honda (car brand).

See the OBB intro below:



Interestingly, since Liga Djarum era (2006) until 2022, SUPER SOCCER became broadcast sponsors for many soccer matches across various leagues/tournaments and across TV channels (alongside with other brands that come and gone), yet I haven't found any claim that the portal is the upstream sponsor by respective events (e.g. had affiliation/is the partner of Premier League). The portal could do this possibly because of its massive financial support.

The difference between SCM-Tokopedia and other channels-SUPER SOCCER case above was the latter said the plain dipersembahkan oleh when revealing the sponsors, which IMO implies affiliation to upstream (leagues/tournaments) rather than downstream (broadcaster).

PS: In many dipersembahkan oleh reels (search for iklan sponsor on YouTube), the logo tag of the channel is customarily kept grayscaled (the same as when in interstitial ads).