FBlog

So it’s official. Football’s governing body Fifa has picked Russia and Qatar to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments. It is the first time either nation has been chosen, and it is a first for a Middle Eastern country in the history of the event.

But what does this mean for their respective country brands?

Major global sports events present an extraordinary opportunity to strengthen a national brand. If handled properly, a country’s unique values, natural assets and culture can be showcased on the world stage, creating a lasting positive legacy for trade, investment and tourism. We saw this in Canada’s management of the Vancouver Winter Olympics where no opportunity was missed to identify the Games with the country’s culture, landscape and national values – right down to the ubiquitous 2010 red mittens worn by Canadian fans throughout the event to raise funds for Canadian athletes. It is perhaps no coincidence that Canada was number one in our Country Brand Index this year.

But brand Canada was building on a strong foundation going into the Games. Russia and Qatar on the other hand, have enormous potential as country brands, but are positioned much lower this year at 81 and 70 respectively. Despite this, they should take comfort in seeing off some stiff brand competition. For its own part, brand Russia was competing against England, Netherlands-Belgium and Spain-Portugal – all countries in the top 35 of the Index. In its bid to be 2022 host, Qatar was up against three top 10 country brands – Australia, Japan and the USA (and Korea Republic which was 26 places higher in the CBI rankings).

At this point, we should probably declare an interest: FutureBrand had a key role in the brand strategy for Qatar’s 2022 bid. We are also proud to have been involved with the bid for Australia and have worked with other country brands that were in contention. But the bid is only the beginning of a journey for these country brands – each of which has potential of a different kind.

Let’s take Russia first. Whilst our research reveals relatively strong awareness and familiarity for brand Russia, as well as quite strong associations in specific areas like history and culture, it suffers when it comes to perceptions of tourism – particularly value for money, food and places to stay. Brand Russia also indexes poorly for perceptions of value system and safety. So whereas Russia is relatively well known, it has an opportunity further to strengthen perceptions in key dimensions like tourism and quality of life – both of which will be in the minds of fans as they plan their trips to matches across the country. Interestingly for Russia, they have an opportunity to start building positive associations in these areas during the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014, and a reported $6bn investment in the Black Sea resort might well help that cause.

The 2010 CBI presents a different picture for Qatar. Unlike Russia, Qatar is perceived as strong in the dimensions for doing business and quality of life – particularly for attributes like investment climate, advanced technology, education, healthcare, living standards, job opportunity and safety. But the critical areas for improvement are in awareness, familiarity and advocacy – all vital to brand success of any kind. With twelve years to go until their World Cup, there is a powerful opportunity to bring Qatar into the public consciousness, developing stories about plans for the event and raising awareness of the country more generally – not least to strengthen perceptions of heritage and culture and thing to see and do. Awareness is usually not a problem during a World Cup, with news media more pervasive than ever, but then the challenge relates more to how the event is covered by the world’s press, what stories they decide to tell and, how far this reflects the country brand’s identity, position and values. South Africa’s ranking in the Country Brand Index remained constant between 2009 and 2010 (at 31) despite hosting the World Cup, so awareness is certainly not a guarantee of brand strength on its own.

The World Cup brings nations together united in their love of football: transcending politics, economics and geographic boundaries. Host countries have an incredible opportunity to leverage the attention of the world’s media and visitor experiences to showcase their unique culture, heritage and values in this context – creating and reinforcing positive associations for the country brand.

Russia and Qatar have some years to go before the whistles blow, if they plan their events with brand in mind now, they could score more than goals during the World Cup.

The FutureBrand 2010 Country Brand Index is presented in partnership with BBC World News. Click here for more information about this year’s findings or our country branding advisory services.