Coca-Cola FIFA World Cup
Link responsibly sources and develops a wide range of 120+ premium Coca-Cola items for the FIFA 2022 World Cup.
The challenge
Since 2007, Link has developed a market leading reputation for creating innovative & compelling promotional merchandise for the world’s most prestigious sporting events such as the FIFA World Cup, UEFA Champions League, and the Olympics Games.
The FIFA World Cup represents Coca-Cola’s largest global promotional campaign, with millions of marketing products delivered to over 85 countries around the world.
Link’s expertise, coupled with a trusted relationship with Coca-Cola built over many years, positions us as the obvious supplier of bespoke branded promotional products for this global activation.
For FIFA 2022, Link was tasked with the challenge of creating a catalogue with more than 120 bespoke branded FIFA merchandise —including soccer balls, bags, shirts, and co-branded promotional cups for McDonalds.
Work on this hugely complex and demanding project starts almost two years in advance, most recently amid the Covid pandemic. This brought unprecedented new challenges including multiple country lockdowns, material shortages and spiralling freight rates.
The results
Link’s team has an unrivalled understanding of this activation, having built a depth of knowledge & experience over 15 years. This insight helped them navigate the challenges of the pandemic to deliver the FIFA 2022 programme successfully.
The project involved working not only with dozen of manufacturers, Coke marketing teams but also in close collaboration with other Coke suppliers to coordinate activities, mitigate risk and ensure successful activation in 150+ markets worldwide.
Link’s designers created a variety of Coca-Cola items and volumes were consolidated through four order windows to leverage spend across markets. Deliveries took place up to five months prior to the World Cup and the campaign was a great success, with more than 200 orders received and produced across the program.
In these unprecedented circumstances, Link’s dedicated project team managed the programme safely, swiftly, and effectively. Our deep understanding of this promotional activation means we can rise to any new challenge, whilst still bringing fresh ideas to engage and delight Coke customers.
“It’s been a great team effort all round. We worked very closely with Coca-Cola stakeholders to ensure risks were mitigated and their needs met every step of the way”
John Pollock - Global Sales Director, Link