At approximately 5:15pm on June 24, amid a sea of Hispanic soccer fans clad in green, an odd sight came into plain view in a parking lot adjacent to Atlanta's Georgia Dome.

Unlike the dozens of other tents set up across the lot, there was no seemingly endless line of people waiting to sample Coca-Cola's Powerade energy beverage.

The reason was simple - there was no product left to give out.

"We had to start giving out samples in cups because the bottles were going so fast," notes Geni Bean, the Atlanta-based regional marketing manager for Coca-Cola's Glacéau brand, which had its own booth adjacent to that of Powerade. "In less than two hours, we must have given out about 7,000 samples. Now, with two hours until game time, we're out of product."

The Powerade predicament was one of many sights at Fútbol Fiesta, an interactive fan zone set up four hours before the start of a "friendly" soccer match between the national teams of Mexico and Venezuela.

Fútbol Fiesta was staged by Soccer United Marketing (SUM), which presented the soccer match. SUM holds the promotional and marketing rights to all Mexican national team games played in the U.S. and oversees all domestic sponsorship and ticket sales of those matches.

Some of the scenes would make any CMO or brand manager who seeks to grow sales by targeting Hispanics salivate:

• Hundreds of people stood on line to learn more about AT&T's product offerings. Similar sights were seen at displays for Allstate, Bud Light, Sección Amarilla and Makita power tools.
  

• Crowds gathered for photo opportunities as legendary Telemundo soccer announcer and Fútbol de Primera CEO Andrės Cantor as he made his way to the tent for WKTB-Channel 47, the Telemundo affiliate in Atlanta. 

• Clear Channel regional Mexican WBZY-FM "105.3 El Patrón" teamed up with NAPA Auto Parts for an entertainment stage that featured live performances from music acts, contests with El Patrón personalities and tons of NAPA signage. The deal was arranged by NAPA's Hispanic agency of record, Atlanta-based PM Publicidad. 

• Staffers from Davis Broadcasting's regional Mexican station in Atlanta, WLKQ & WNSY "La Raza," parked adjacent to a Georgia Dome entrance, interacted with dozens of fiesta-goers in front of a station van.

• In support of its Full Throttle energy drink and its continued use of lucha libre imagery in its Hispanic marketing, Coca-Cola staged a wrestling contest in an outdoor ring for attendees.

• McDonald's gave young football players a chance to participate in a mini-match on a special soccer pitch with the quick-service restaurant's Golden Arches logo prominently displayed mid-court.

• Dozens of young Mexican men waited patiently for photos with some of the female spokesmodels at the Josė Cuervo booth.

• In an unprecedented event marketing effort, The Home Depot had no less than four tents set up in its own corner of the fan fiesta. Branded thundersticks were handed out along with message boards - emblazoned with the Home Depot logo - that gave game-goers the opportunity to put personalized messages on a sign designed to gain television exposure. All-time Mexican national team great Alberto García Aspe was on hand to take pictures.

Unofficial estimates put Fútbol Fiesta attendance at more than 20,000.

For Brian Barber, general manager of Davis Broadcasting’s “La Raza,” the turnout at Fútbol Fiesta and for the actual game is the biggest statement yet that Atlanta's Hispanic market has come of age - and is ripe for the taking for any company wishing to build their brand in a tough economy.
"I think it was spectacular," Barber says of the fan festival. "It opened the eyes for this city on how powerful and vast the Hispanic market in Atlanta is."

Additionally, the strong turnout also negates any discussion nationally of troubles in Atlanta's Hispanic community due to immigration concerns and a lumbering economy.

"In the last week we did 25 remote broadcasts," Barber says. Among the retailers that linked up with La Raza for the promotions, tied specifically to the Mexico-Venezuela game, are Aaron's furniture rental stores, Publix and a Pollo Campero restaurant in Norcross, Georgia.

La Raza even conducted remotes on both June 20 and 21 at two different NAPA locations. The first one, in the suburb of Cumming, attracted 300 listeners. The second event, featuring an autograph session in Gainesville with famed Mexican soccer player Cuauhtémoc Blanco, lured 500 La Raza listeners.

"A lot of advertisers could see a lot of money from the Hispanic market versus the amount of money spent by other ethnic groups if they tapped into the market with something like we saw this week," Barber says. "This is a market they have been missing out on."

• Inside the Georgia Dome, a crowd of 51,115 dominated by fans of "El Tri" roared and relished a 4-0 win by the Mexican national team over Venezuela's squad. Among the brands with plenty of signage throughout the stadium were NAPA Auto Parts and Coca-Cola.

 

DID YOU KNOW?
Tequila maker José Cuervo tapped Ramón Ramírez, a former midfielder with the Mexican National Soccer Team, as presenter of education grants to the Institute for Mexicans Abroad. He made the first presentation during the Mexico vs. Sweden soccer match on January 28 in Oakland, California. José Cuervo Tradicional is an official sponsor of the Mexican Soccer Federation in the U.S.

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Articles and photos by Adam Jacobson