Football’s quadrennial quest for glory is reaching its peak in Germany. The marketers are enjoying the hospitality, the stunts are all in motion and mega-campaigns for brands such as Adidas and Nike are all reaching a climax. 

But soon the trophy will be presented and the marketers will move on. Already their sights will be on the new opportunities that the next world cup will provide to go bigger and better.

And that means an exploration of South Africa, the venue for the 2010 tournament.

Most of the major brands and in particular the key Fifa sponsors that have been making a big splash in Germany already have a presence in South Africa but Nota Bene group chief executive Peter Vogel says he won’t be surprised to find one American brand targeting 2010 to make an entrance.

“Coke, Adidas, McDonald’s and Sony are all operating in the country at various levels,” he says. “The only one that isn’t already here is Budweiser. If they go with 2010 they may use it as a platform to launch the brand in South Africa. I wouldn’t be surprised.”

But interest in the country is about more than simply targeting a football mad nation. Strategically it also offers communications agencies and brands an entrée into the wider Africa market, a fact reflected in the presence by most of the global media agency networks.

It’s also a market that has a strong track record in creative media, picking up two Media Lions at Cannes in 2005 with work for Nando’s (see Cream, Autumn 2005) and The Salvation Army, both in the best use of cinema category.

The consumer profile in South Africa covers all options. In addition to the wealthy consumers there’s every slice of life down to the rural poor. This means that comparisons are often made with Latin American markets such as Brazil but there are also similarities with countries such as India and Malaysia.

“We’ve got the bottom end of the scale in terms of economics – people who can only be reached predominantly through radio and outdoor and experiential marketing,” says Lucinda Dare, media director at FCB Johannesburg and a judge for this year’s Cannes Media Lions. “Banking and investing, quite possibly if you’re looking for inspiration you look to the US but for FMCG with a low-cost point you’re looking to the Indias and Latin Americas.”

Experiential marketing is an area where South Africa has been successful. The Nando’s campaign was based around film events in townships.

At the recent Advertising Media Association of South Africa awards, the annual prize for media innovation, the Roger Garlick Award went to Cinevation.

The agency picked up the trophy for its work on the launch of the sixth Harry Potter novel for Exclusive Books when it created an experiential book store in Montecasino, Johannesburg where fans of the teen wizard would be able to enter the world of Hogwarts School.

Other campaigns from the agency include work for Fedex. Cinema goers witnessed a fraught projectionist who announced that the film hadn’t arrived but that “Fedex had been called” to bring a spare. Immediately, a Fedex van burst into the cinema, to rapturous audience applause.

Other agencies too have invested in this area. “We have people in our business that are not traditional media people so that we can handle big activation projects,” notes Vogel. Since the end of Apartheid, the number the number of TV stations, radio stations, consumer magazines have all increased rapidly, although the growth has levelled off over the last few months.

However, Josh Dovey, chief executive at OMD, says the outdoor scene has continued to expand its palette. “For me the most innovative medium, the one that shows the biggest development in the last 4-5 years, is out of home. There’s almost nothing that can’t be done.

Another area that’s on the up is the print sector. Among the international publications in the market are Heat, FHM, Sports Illustrated and Oprah – the title’s first international edition. “We are seeing proliferation in print media, particularly with magazines, niche titles,” adds Dare.

Starcom boss Gordon Patterson argues that the South African market has been particularly good at learning to integrate media. “We’ve got a really good understanding of all the elements in the media campaign and how to choreograph them,” he says. “Television planning in Europe and the US is very academic. In South Africa it’s far more strategic, about blending the quality of the experience with the quantity.”

The market also has some world beating research. The OOH business is currently rolling out Nielsen’s GPSbased system allowing the monitoring of reach, frequency as well as demographic profiles for the number of people who see each out of home ad. The project is scheduled to be delivered by 2008 in key markets. South Africa will be the first market to use the system on a whole country basis.

At the heart of the South African experience, however, is a sense that this is a can-do market. Nota Bene’s Vogel agrees. “I know a lot of guys who have come.