The European football festival ended yesterday with Spain winning. We saw glimpses of future and also farewell of the eternal duo of Portugal, Pepe and Ronaldo mostly playing their last Euros. But as we all know every sporting event has so much marketing, with Euro’s final match attracting 400 Million viewers, nearly 3 times that of Superbowl (American consider this the greatest game of a year, poor Americans).

Let’s look this Euros from a marketing stand pointGermany being home to the biggest European marketing event, We saw brand gearing up, using the Euros as a training for their marketing practices for The Olympics about 20 days after the conclusion of Euros. Well brands (sponsors and non- sponsors included) gave their best and let’s look at winners, loosers and innovators.

Losers:

Nike: Nike betted on their 3 major stars during this international football season Haaland (Not playing in Euros), Vini Jr. (Brazil with an early exit from Copa America) and Kylian Mbappe (Their star boi) but apart from their stars Nike had the highest number of athletes wearing their shoes, followed by Adidas (Puma, imma leave it there). Following their German jersey deal stealing the deal from Adidas, adidas literally went all in on this Euros with record number of German jersey sold and filled the euros with some excellent social media engagement (Especially after that Bellingham masterclass). Nike were unable to maximize the potential of euros and nike has been having a slow 2024 with their running falling behind the brands like ON, capturing a lot of market and Nike’s apparels falling behind from Lululemon. Also, the reduced demand for their Sneakers and casual wear, Nike has been on the drawing board. All in all nike had a forgetful Euro 2024, let’s hope Nike gets the best of Olympics because that’s gonna be decider. (Btw i am a Nike Fanboy)

Coca-Cola: Coca-cola had a rather eventful Euro 2020 (Why Ronaldo? Why) but this Euros, Coca-Cola played it safe and honestly, not a lot of campaigns targeted to Euros but rather some common campaigns stretching from Euros to Olympics, with main talking points being recycling the plastic bottles. Innovative campaigns, no doubt but not actually capitalising the footballing fanbase which i guess could have been done better. With their focus shifting to sustainability, their campaigns and products have a different look to it. (And, Of course they launched new waters during Euro 2024, you can’t make this up)