By Andreas von der Heydt
There has been such an ample media coverage about the World Cup battle between Nike and adidas. The same happened between Coca-Cola and Pepsi, Budweiser beer and Bavaria beer, Sony and all other major electronics companies, etc. Football´s superstars like Messi, Ronaldo, Rooney and others were however not able to fullfil the immense expectations of greedy spectators and consumers.
Instead a two-year-old celebrity octopus, living at Sea Life at Oberhausen, Germany named "Paul" and who has accurately picked the outcome of all six of Germany's World Cup matches so far is football´s new mega star. By the way, last Friday he quickly tipped Spain to beat the Netherlands. The octopus, considered by some to be the most intelligent of all invertebrates, got the choice of picking food from two different transparent containers lowered into his tank -- one with a Dutch flag on it and one with Spain's flag.
Reaction in Spain was swift, with the country's biggest selling sports daily website Marca.com running the headline: "The octopus Paul makes us champions". The container Paul opens first is regarded as his pick. On Friday he wasted no time in diving for the container on the right side with the Spanish flag on it. Two German television networks interrupted their programming for live coverage of the two-year-old celebrity octopus's picks. Networks in Spain, the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe also broadcast Paul's decision live.
Paul's selections have become top news across Germany and around the world. Some commentators even wondered aloud whether his improbable winning streak might have begun to influence some of the more superstitious players. But after Paul accurately picked Spain to beat Germany in the semi-final, some Germans called for a public roasting of the oracle octopus. Newspapers and websites were filled with suggestions on how to cook and eat him. Officials at Sea Life in Oberhausen have installed extra security to protect their octopus. Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was quoted in Spanish media reports saying -- in jest -- he was concerned about Paul's safety. Congratulations to Sea Life! Without having had to invest millions of Euro they reecived one of the highest global media coverages of the last few weeks with ever growing popularity.
And that's where the circle is closing itself. Already some months ago we pointed out that global and more regional/local (sports) events, such as football's World Cup, are an excellent opportunity to get your business pushing ahead. Either you get directly involved as a sponsor or official partner on the one side (if you're having the necessary amount of money), or you´re finding a good ambush and / or PR campaign for your business and products.
In other words: if you're an independent entrepreneur, a marketing manager of a big multinational, a key account manager, a PR assistant, a etc then you should try to find YOUR and YOUR target group's Paul.
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