Advertisers like the score despite World Cup losses

Poland's soccer team failed to advance to the World Cup's second round. But companies that backed the national team say they won. Local and international companies spent heavily to sponsor and advertise in conjunction with the national team's first trip to the World Cup since 1986. They had hoped to hitch their products to the team's success but Poland bowed out last week, losing two of three games in Korea. Still, companies said their promotion efforts scored. "Our promotional action was successful," said Rafał Łuczak, the spokesman of Bank Pekao. "Our players did what they were supposed to do; that is enter the World Cup matches in Korea." Bank Pekao, which followed a typical celebrity endorsement scheme using six players from the national team, scheduled the end of its advertising campaign for early June — before the Polish team even set foot in South Korea. "We were aware of risks," Łuczak said. "(Players) did their job, which was to attract attention." He would not comment on possible endorsement contract renewals.

Risk and reward Gambling on the team's sporting success was the only avenue of promotion for the country's alcohol producers. A broad government ban limits advertising, so the companies jumped at the chance to sustain brand awareness. "We were not sponsoring our team, as we are not allowed to do that, but only the transmissions of matches," said Paweł Kwiatkowski, the public affairs manager of Kompania Piwowarska, one of Poland's largest brewery groups. The national soccer team's loss wasn't welcomed but caused little harm. Sporting events remain the best advertising platform as the company struggles to remain active in promoting beer products, he said. "We have been present in sports for many years and will not be harmed," Kwiatkowski said. "Our brand image is about the climate of the World Cup and such a disappointing performance has nothing to do with it." Advertising executives said the companies involved in advertising activities have nothing to worry about. "Sponsors, who are aware of celebrity endorsement - related risk, have coherent marketing programs, and this risk is calculated in the contract," said Anna Murdoch, an advertising expert at the Warsaw School of Economics. A mediocre performance by the soccer team cannot damage the brand image of sponsors, she said. "The target of sponsoring is to gain and sustain favorable reaction of the environment ... and the sponsors have fulfilled their goal," Murdoch said.

Pay to play For some of the sponsors, Poland's performance in the World Cup beat expectations. "When we signed our sponsoring agreement … nobody dreamt of our team going to Korea," said Anna Celary of Siemens' handset marketing department. The local branch of the Germany-based electronics firm two years ago became involved in sponsoring the "Polish Eagles," as the 11-player team was then called. "This is but an epilogue, all of our activities concentrated on the period when everybody believed in the team," Celary said. "As a football fan I am disappointed, but as a part of Siemens I am satisfied with the contract."