So its back – having postponed the tournament in 2020 because of Covid, UEFA have confirmed that the tournament will go ahead in 2021 with the same format. The 2020 format being different from previous competitions, in that instead of one country hosting, the competition will be hosted by a number of countries and stadia across the continent from Dublin to Baku.
The last tournament was held in France with the hosts reaching the final before losing to Portugal in extra time (1-0). This time instead of being a very French affair the aim of the organisers is to make it truly European. For marketers, this means that the competition becomes more attractive for broader European brands and one can see the opportunity for consumer brands in particular using the event to spread a European message.
From a UK perspective though, this year’s competition has a particular home grown feel. Not only will there be games at Wembley, Hampden Park Glasgow and the Aviva in Dublin; with the semi-finals and finals at Wembley, but this is the first tournament in while to feature England, Scotland and Wales teams. Indeed England are in the same group as Scotland. So expect a huge amount of media interest and very high TV audiences.
Tournament sponsors include the familiar household brands Coca Cola, Heineken, VW and Qatar Airlines, as well as less well known to UK audiences Alipay, Vivo, Hisense and takeaway.com. But whilst the marketing spend of these sponsors will be significant with significant returns there is plenty of room for other brands to ride the excitement of the competition. This is particularly true because of the timing. With Europe coming out of lockdown this will be the first major sporting event with a final featuring 90,000 live fans on Sunday July 11th.
For anyone thinking of using this event in their marketing then the sooner the planning starts the better – we have a range of products on the football page and are happy to discuss any ideas you have.
A full list of the fixtures can be found here:Euros Fixture List