Coca-Cola's Sponsorship of 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa - A Great Opportunity to Grow Sales in Africa.

28 September 2009 - The FIFA World Cup trophy -- the world's most coveted sports icon and symbol of football supremacy -- officially started its tour of Africa in Egypt on Friday.

It will be on a 70-day tour of 52 African nations and will end up in Cape Town, South Africa in early December for the 2010 Fifa World Cup Finals draw.

Prior to arriving in Cairo, the trophy was pf course present at the official kick-off by Fifa and Coca-Cola officials from Zurich, Switzerland, last Monday, which united amongst others Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent, Fifa President Joseph Blatter and Cameroon's legendary striker Roger Milla.

"This year's FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour by Coca-Cola is bigger and better than ever before," Coca-Cola's head of worldwide sports and entertainment marketing, Emmanuel Seuge recently said. "The first Trophy Tour in 2006 was a huge success and we're delighted that we're going to give even more fans the chance to get close to the real trophy. We're especially looking forward to taking the trophy to every single country in Africa", added Seuge.

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At a recent industry gathering, Ahmet C. Bozer, who is President of Coca-Cola's Eurasia & Africa region, believes that next year's FIFA World Cup in South Africa will be a great opportunity to grow the popularity of the company's brands locally.

Eurasia & Africa is a growth engine for Coca-Cola as the region accounts for approximately 15% of Coca's unit case volume (3.5 billion unit cases in 90 countries and USD 834 million operating income).

Coca-Cola, which dominates the local markets for soda, water, and juices, is expecting to strengthen again when the World Cup kicks off in June next year. The company's main soda products in Eurasia & Africa, for instance, have seen a 7% growth each year for the past 3 years.

Bozer argues that the region has a high potential with 54% of the world's teenagers and 47% of the world's population all located there. Besides, the region is rich in terms of resources with 80% of the world's oil and 70% of the world's gas. In addition, the region has an impressive urbanisation growth combined with an emerging middle class.

Overall soft drink per capita consumption in Eurasia & Africa is recorded at 27 ko, which is below the global average of 85 ko, said Bozer. However, some countries are above that average, including South Africa. But there is a lot of potential for per capita development in Eurasia & Africa markets.

"I'd like to call this group the group with biggest runway for growth", commented Bozer.

Coca-Cola's Eurasia & Africa President expects the World Cup will play a vital role in industry volume growth for soft drinks. For the region, he expects that by 2020, it will double, spurred by the growth of soda drinks.

Coca-Cola will continue to focus on accelerating its soda push in the region and will cater for the growth of in-home consumption, said Bozer.

Coca-Cola has had a formal association with FIFA since 1974 and an official sponsorship of FIFA World Cup that began in 1978. Coca-Cola has had stadium advertising at every FIFA World Cup since 1950.