SITUATION
The youth football development project was adopted by Coca-Cola Nigeria in 2009. It keeps young players active whilst offering them a unique platform and a huge opportunity to achieve a successful career in football. Copa Coca-Cola projects players to their ambitions in football, places them in the limelight and facilitates their playing in the big clubs while interacting with the football stars of their dreams. The pan-Nigeria tournament featured four levels of competition – Inter-school, Inter-state, Zonal, and the Finals, which took place in the following locations: Lagos, Calabar, Enugu, and Kaduna.
TASK
In 2010, C&F Porter Novelli was tasked with differentiating the Copa Coca-Cola platform as a fresh, inspiring, and exciting competition where football dreams and fantasies are made into reality.
APPROACHES
.An all-inclusive media strategy was developed to ensure in-depth coverage of the Copa Coca-Cola Youth Football Championship over five months period of the tournament. This spanned pre, during, and post-phases of the tournament. Tactics included pitching stories on developments in the tournament to leading national sports correspondents, and reporters based at the various locations of the tournament and syndication of press releases. In addition, the activities of the Copa Coca-Cola Ambassador Vincent Enyeama and celebrity coaches were leveraged for purposes of generating content.
RESULTS
Copa Coca-Cola came to be perceived as a leader in grassroots football development in Nigeria. Commendations were received from high-level state government functionaries, and traditional rulers in the various locations of the tournament. Optimal editorial publicity was achieved for the tournament during the period. Outputs included news reports, interviews, and feature reports on the tournament.