The FIFA World Cup ™ today not only reaches a massive sportive and economical dimension, it also has an important social value. FIFA wants to emphasize the multilayered social components of the event and target, beyond the football fans, people of all different kinds of backgrounds so that they could identify with the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Therefore, FIFA established a broad marketing programme for the 2002 FIFA World Cup:

Official Partners marketing rights activation
The 15 Official Partners of the 2002 FIFA World Cup - adidas, Avaya, Budweiser, Coca-Cola, Fujifilm, Fuji Xerox, Gillette, Hyundai, JVC, KT/NTT, MasterCard, McDonalds, Philips, Toshiba and Yahoo! - along with the Official Suppliers and Licensees were the only commercial entities allowed to claim any direct association with the 2002 FIFA World Cup and to use the Trade Marks on products, for promotions, advertising and marketing.

The Official Partners could benefit from a standard marketing package that included the exclusive rights to associate with the event, the use of the trademarks, exposure in and around the stadium, in all Official FIFA publications and on the Official Event Website www.FIFAworldcup.com.

In addition, they had the possibility to individualize their sponsorship according to their marketing strategy and needs. For example, the logo of the 2002 FIFA World Cup could be used in a variable way according to each Official Partner's creative ideas (e.g. every Official Partner can individually use the Official logo and create so-called artmarks and composite logos.) As a result, the individualization allows the Official Partners creatively differentiate from uninvolved third parties but also gave them a great marketing tool.

Hyundai for example produced a limited number of cars with a hub-cap and an interior with the design of the Official Event Emblem. McDonald's created 3 different happy meals for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. The Coca-Cola GO! Stadium Art Programme offered consumers in the countries that qualified for the 2002 FIFA World Cup to create a unique Coca-Cola advertising that was being showcased at match venues in Korea and Japan. The unique field-level billboards corresponding to the countries participating in the FIFA World Cup could be viewed at each match of the tournament.

The Official Mascot
'Willie', the 1966 FIFA World Cup mascot, was the first mascot ever in the event history. It was a British lion wearing the Union Jack. Since then, the Official Mascots have become a significant component of the FIFA World Cup, providing an excellent opportunity for more than just the deep-rooted football fans to identify with the event. The 2002 FIFA World Cup saw a giant leap into the future of staging. For the first time, the Official Mascots could be seen not just in and around the stadiums, but also in TV-series.

The Official Music Programme
The first Official Song at the FIFA World Cup to become famous was 'World Cup Willie', a song about the mascot of the 1966 FIFA World Cup held in England. The Official Music Programme has since then become more and more an integral part of the FIFA World Cup. For the 2002 event, it contained, beside the international pop-song "boom" by Anastacia, for the first time also a classical anthem composed by Vangelis and music from 4 bands of the two host countries Korea and Japan.

FIFAworldcup.com - the Official Website
FIFAworldcup.com offered actual news from the football world but also information from previous FIFA World Cups, information about the participating teams including an entertainment section with games. FIFAworldcup.com gave fans instant and complete access to extensive FIFA World Cup information in seven languages-English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Spanish. The official site had four main sections-Tournament, Pure Football, Entertainment, and Destination Asia-containing breaking news, real-time results, expert and authentic analysis, photo galleries, the Official e-shop, and for the first time on the Internet, exclusive archived video highlights from the vaults of FIFA.

The Official Online Store
Fans could get hold of an extensive range of souvenirs commemorating the 2002 FIFA World Cup via the official online store. They were given the opportunity for identification and a personalised event experience of the FIFA World Cup, especially in places where such items were difficult to find through traditional outlets. It was FIFA's first venture into online merchandise sales. Leisure wear, football and sports equipment, games, toys and souvenirs com of the event were available on FIFAworldcup.com. The fans were able to benefit from this service in six languages - English, French, German, Spanish, Korean and Japanese.

FIFAworldcup.com teamed up with Official Partners
FIFAworldcup.com in conjunction with Budweiser gave fans the chance to vote online for the greatest goal ever scored in FIFA World Cup history. By using exclusive video footage from the FIFA archives, participants could select their top 3 from 10 exceptional goals. The final winner of the "Goal of the Century" was revealed in the week before kick-off of the 2002 FIFA World Cup in Seoul on 31 May. Budweiser also sponsored the 'pick'em' challenge, which gave fans the chance to win an all expenses paid trip to the final by simply predicting the outcome of the games. MasterCard presented a number of promotions including the 'fans choice' of the All Star Team, e-shopping experiences, and contributions from Péle himself.

The FIFAworldcup.com Trophy Experience
The FIFAworldcup.com Trophy Experience gave fans the unique opportunity to come face-to-face with the main attraction of the FIFA World Cup, the 18 carat golden Trophy. The FIFA World Cup Trophy was displayed in each of the 20 host cities of the 2002 FIFA World Cup, giving a few lucky people the chance not just to see this icon, but to hold it in their own hands. The winners were given the opportunity to spend 1 minute with the FIFA World Cup Trophy on stage in an atmosphere similar to the ceremony at the Final. In addition, a three dimensional 18-carat gold reproduction of the 2002 FIFA World Cup Official Emblem awaited one winner in each venue at the FIFAworldcup.com Trophy Experience. The participants of the Golden Emblem Treasure Hunt had to solve riddles about the Host Cities and their local specialities, with the clues posted on the Official Website. Finally, the Official Mascot costume show, based on the Mascot TV series, was integral part of the FIFAworldcup.com Trophy Experience, providing entertainment for the young and the young at heart.

The event created excitement far beyond the circle of deep-rooted football fans. Overall, the FIFAworldcup.com Trophy Experience attracted over 200,000 enthusiastic fans.

Official Partner promotions at the FIFA World Cup
Promotions of the Official Partners on the pitch included the adidas 'FIFA Fair Play Flag Bearer', Coca-Cola's Flag Bearers Program, the Coca-Cola Ball Kids promotion, McDonald's player escorts promotion and Fujifilm's photo-reporter promotion, where the kids got the opportunity to act as photo-reporters. Other Official Partners ran competitions or lotteries with FIFA World Cup tickets as prizes, such as Gillette's "One million dollar kick". Altogether, the Official Partners used over 155,000 tickets for promotions, which was 80% of the tickets they had ordered for the FIFA World Cup.

The commercial programme for the 2002 FIFA World Cup was the most successful ever; some of the Official Partners even tripled their implementation budget (additional investments to the costs of the sponsorship package) in comparison to the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France.