Open Access

Gerd NuferORCiD

• Sport marketing is the specific application of marketing principles and processes to sports products and services. In 2014 the biggest sports event in the world, the FIFA World Cup, took place in Brazil. Billions of spectators around the world saw Germany win the trophy in Rio de Janeiro for the fourth time in history. Yet unlike in previous World Cups, conversation was not only taking place at the numerous public viewings which were held in open spaces like bars and restaurants. For the entire tournament social media like Facebook or Twitter were playing a dominant role in all aspects. With 672 million tweets on Twitter and three billion conversations on Facebook, this was the most social World Cup as well as the most social mega sports event so far. It did not matter whether it were users, athletes or companies, everyone was trying to catch up on the conversation to be informed or inform others about their opinion or latest news. This paper analyzes the implementation of social media marketing during mega sports events with a focus on Adidas’ and Nike’s social media campaigns in the frame of the FIFA World Cup 2014 in Brazil. The analysis shows that social media marketing in the frame of mega sports events gains importance. Those companies finding topics that affect people personally with a relationship to their products achieve success through social media marketing.