World Cup 2006 Bid: A Case Study - Bidding To Bring Football Home

Abstract

Case Study The success of the English Premier League and the European Champions League has resulted in football becoming big business with an apparently limitless potential. The result is growing commercial performance in sponsorship, hospitality, retailing and media broadcasting. In this boom time for football, hosting FIFA's World Cup, the world's greatest sporting event, is seen by many as the ultimate prize. The current bidding process was introduced for the 1998 tournament in France, and was hotly contested for the 2002 tournament that was eventually awarded to Japan and Korea. The 2006 tournament has seen a step-change in attitude and approach from the competing nations. The bidding process is now a highly competitive challenge for the bidding nations' football associations, governments and marketers entrusted with the task. The decision by The Football Association (F.A.) to attempt to bring the tournament to England for the 2006 Finals has a number of implications. For between four and six weeks, England would become the focal point of world attention. As well as providing a fitting home for the world's greatest sporting event, hosting the tournament would provide a massive economic boost. The estimated worth to the nation, if the bid is successful, is at least 2 billion [pounds sterling]. Unsurprisingly, competition for the right to host the finals was expected to be, and has become, fierce. Consequently, the need for a thoughtfully constructed strategic campaign was considered imperative. In fact, the FA, recognising the benefits of creating a strongly branded bid campaign, committed four years and 9.8 million [pounds sterling] to persuading FIFA's Executive Committee, under the presidency of Sepp Blatter, that England would be the right choice as host. The centrepiece of the 2006 campaign was the official bid documentation detailing England's case. Eight consultancies were invited to make a strategic proposal as to how they would approach the project. After an intensive two-month period involving several presentations, consultancy elmwood was appointed to the bid. The approach taken at elmwood was that the only way that England would win the bidding process was if we could secure a competitive advantage over the competing nations. The strategy adopted rested on four cornerstones that permeate throughout elmwood: a passion for the design business, an inherent love of football, a commitment to the project, and a high level of creativity. Indeed, it was these qualities that The F.A. cited as key in awarding elmwood the bid contract. The first step in delivering this competitive advantage was to make our passion tangible. We felt a need to make the passion real, to inspire our client and our team. This we did by creating a special environment for the project. These were football-themed rooms within our Leeds based studios. Connected with this was the central premise that runs through the campaign and through the consultancy: Advantivity ... advantage through creativity. The process of building competitive advantage is through a creative business culture. A company with a culture of creativity is a company that will be perceived as vibrant and powerful. The creation of the themed rooms ensured that the design team not only understood but also lived the project. Immersed completely in the sport, the team members were able to draw inspiration from football memorabilia, famous quotes and images adorning the walls, and giant Subbuteo table football figures suspended from the ceiling. The rooms were separated into a creative inspiration room rendered in a fantasy football style where all creative presentations took place, and a functional project execution space where the business of design was executed. With the environment in place, we began the formal process by taking an objective look at the other bidding nations in order to assess their strengths and weaknesses. …