Nissan looking to use Champions League to continue Olympics momentum in Brazil

By Christian Radnedge

Nissan will use their global partnership with the UEFA Champions League to continue the success from their sponsorship of the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games, discount iSportconnect has been told.

Eva Ng Kon Tia, clinic Sponsorship Manager of Nissan Brazil, herbal was speaking to iSC at the Japanese company’s customized hotel on Copacabana in Rio ahead of the closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games on Sunday.

The end of the Games signals the end of a partnership that began four years ago, when Nissan was announced as the automotive partner for the Rio 2016 organising committee.

The company was not terrifically well known in South America and so a major part of the sponsorship strategy was to increase brand awareness.

Early indicators show this has been successful so far, but Kon Tia said that despite the Games coming to an end, that did not necessarily mean the end of Nissan’s plans for growth in Brazil.

“We have to continue,” she said. “We have the sponsorship of the [UEFA] Champions League worldwide, so Brazil being a football nation there’s a natural step for us to start. Because for this it was all focus on Brazil and the Olympics but a natural step is to take advantage of this global deal.

“Also we need to keep advertising campaigns – we cannot stop interacting with the general public, so this is all part of the plan to activate these sort of things. We have the Sao Paulo motor show, which is the biggest trade show in Latin America, so already we have an area talking about the Games, our achievements, our athletes – these kind of things.”

Nissan became a partner of the UEFA Champions League in 2014 and last year spoke to iSportconnect about their deal with the European governing body.

But a big part of Nissan’s activation in Brazil was not so much during the Games this summer, but before it during the torch relay.

Around 4,200 vehicles were provided for use in the Olympic fleet both during the torch relay and during the Games. The torch relay around Brazil gave Nissan the opportunity to showcase their new car, the Nissan Kicks.

Kon Tia said that from their perspective, the campaign was a big success.

“We are not new in Brazil but we are very tiny so the past three to four years we started developing our presence here,” she said. “So the sponsorship was made for having a bit more brand presence and brand awareness, which goes together with our other strategies; we have new cars, then we have a factory that now produces cars in Brazil.

“So it was part of this puzzle and I think for a first time sponsor we managed to do something really cool, and certainly we used this as a platform for the launch of our new car the Nissan kicks.

“This worked for us very well because it was a preview for the torch relay going through the entire Brazil so we were reminding people that we have a factory here, we have dealers in every state, and for people to see the car before it was on sale.”

This campaign seems to have worked its magic on the Brazilian people, as more than 2000 down-payments and registrations have been made for Nissan Kicks’ in the country.

As well as providing a hotel open to the public during the Games, Nissan also provided areas at live sites across the city showing Games action and providing other facets of entertainment – including even a 40-metre-high bungee jump at the Olympic Boulevard.

Kon Tia said this was part of the company’s plan to be “daring”.

“We managed to convince our company our headquarters that we needed to do something very different because we are a Japanese company and sometimes we are very conservative and risk averse,” she said. “But, we managed to convince them to give us the trust to do something different, because our tagline is to be daring, so we had to do something daring for the Brazilian public and the audience.

“If you go to the Olympic park you’re not interested in seeing a display of cars, it’s not a motor show. So we managed to create something that has the key messages from the brand while at the same time being really customized for the people attending the sports.

“Because they were not there to hear about cars, they are there to see sports and have some kind of entertainment and we managed very well in the city where we have the bungee jump. This was the best investment for us because it is very aligned with our positioning of the daring ones.”

After the Olympics, it was confirmed that there had been a full percentage point increase in Nissan’s Brazil market share since the start of the Games to 3.5%.

All the early signs are good, but Kon Tia said it will take a few months before the full picture emerges of Nissan’s ploy to sponsor Rio 2016.

“We have our first indicators, we need to wait for the end of the games, but sales have started to increase, people are starting to talk about Nissan more and understand the brand,” she said.

“The number of people reacting to our posts on Facebook and following us, it’s all data that will be filtered and probably in one to two months we will have a full picture but the first indicators are very good.”

{jcomments on}