Soccer’s World Cup is still two weeks away, but several brands have already built a commanding lead in the competition to cash in on the most popular sporting event on Earth.
Nike, Samsung and Castrol are dominating the social video playing field, according to a report by video metrics firm Unruly, which ranked brands by the total number of shares their World Cup-targeted videos have received on Facebook, Twitter and blogs.
As of May 22 when the snapshot was taken, Nike led with 1.28 million, and Samsung (971,504) and Castrol (962,206) had just shy of a million. Fourth-place Coca-Cola was way back with 353,067.
Notably Nike and Samsung are not official World Cup sponsors; Castrol and Coca-Cola are, so it will be interesting to see if official status helps social video sharing after people start viewing TV ads when the games begin. Unruly’s data shows that among the top 11 — the number of players on a starting soccer side — brands without official affiliation account for 54% of the 2.4 million shares.
Nike is riding the success of one spectacularly viral video, “Winner Stays” featuring Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, and other football superstars. Since the video was published on YouTube April 25, it has been shared more than 1 million times and has 67 million views.
Similarly, Castrol is something of a one-hit wonder with “Footkthana,” featuring Brazil’s Neymar and stunt driver Ken Block facing off in a human vs. rally car soccer skills contest. It has 14.9 million views and 880,000 social shares.
Samsung might be in position to rally with a series of science fiction inspired ads for the Galaxy S5 (and also a mobile video game) that feature Ronaldo, Argentina’s Lionel Messi, England’s Wayne Rooney and the U.S.’s Landon Donovan. Donovan was recently cut from the U.S. team, but that shouldn’t matter in this fantasy world. The most shared of the videos, “#Galaxy11: The Training,” has been shared 459,000 times and viewed 38 million times since it was uploaded to YouTube on May 13.
Some other interesting notes from the Unruly report and an infographic:
At 12th, Chevrolet is ahead of World Cup sponsor Kia, which appears in 26th place.
Sponsors Budweiser (16th), Sony (18th), McDonald’s (20th) and Johnson & Johnson (24th) all failed to make into the starting 11.
Chilean brand Cerveza Cristal takes the 11th spot, with its #ChileMeteMiedocampaign driving 37,404 shares. The video features Chilean players Arturo Vidal, Claudio Bravo and Gary Medel re-enacting scenes from horror films, including The Silence of the Lambs, The Shining and The Sixth Sense.
Outside of the top 11, Croatian beer brand Ozujsko has managed to get in on the action, ranking 15th.
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