The World Cup isn’t just the biggest global sporting event in existence – it’s also one of the biggest marketing events worldwide. Pretty much every country in the world gets involved in the event, with national pride sparking a level of engagement its hard to replicate elsewhere. And a lot of mobile marketers are hoping that World Cup 2010 will drive an upsurge of public awareness in mobile advertising.

Mobile marketing and sport have had a pretty good relationship over the last year or two. Sports fans naturally form communities, and mobile advertising is probably the best channel for brands to target advertising at communities. An increasing number of large brands are using a combination of mobile advertising and sporting events to reach consumers – and these campaigns cover every part of the mobile advertising spectrum:

  • Mobile barcodes: Toyota is using mobile barcodes to advertise at America Football games
  • Mobile applications: Arsenal FC launched its own iPhone application
  • Mobile TV: Verizon launched a mobile TV service dedicated to ESPN sports coverage
  • Mobile gaming: EA Mobile timed the launch of its NFL game with the start of football season
  • Mobile websites: The NHL launches it’s own advertising-supported mobile website

Those are just a few examples from recent months, and the World Cup is attracting even more attention. For the first time, mobile operators and FIFA are co-operating to ensure that every single match played will be broadcast live to mobile devices all over the world. InMobi is the largest mobile advertiser in South Africa, where the World Cup will be hosted this year. The mobile advertising giant recently declared it would be using the event to educate both the public and advertisers on how powerful the interactive medium of mobile can be.

And today, GoMo News received word of a new mobile conference being held at the end of January that is completely centered around the World Cup. It’s a good indicator of the excitement building around this opportunity – the M-Football conference is dedicated to using the World Cup as a catalyst to push mobile content, services and marketing. James Cameron, Founder of Camerjam (the company organising M-Football) explained to GoMo why the World Cup was so important for brands that want to increase their mobile footprint: “Brands looking to expand their marketing strategy to include mobile should look to the 2010 World Cup as the ideal platform from which to launch their campaigns. During the 2006 tournament, mobile data usage increased by 25% and a similar spike is expected at the 2010 event. Services such as sponsored text and video goal alerts, location and navigation tools to show fans the best place to watch matches and real-time mobile gambling and interactive games, will all give brands a massive opportunity to engage with their target audience.”