In his latest column for INMA, communications manager Lewis Boulton takes a walk down memory lane to explore the role news brands continue to play in millions of fans’ World Cup experience
It was 2002. I was almost seven years old.
The first World Cup I can remember kicked off to enormous anticipation. For the first time, the tournament took place in Asia, spread across Japan and South Korea; an illogical childhood connection between World Cups and early mornings still endures 24 years later. Meanwhile, a famous 5-1 demolition of Germany the previous September meant England’s “golden generation” carried the hopes of a nation heavily on its shoulders.
Three things stick in my mind from back then:
First, being huddled in my primary school’s computer room at half seven in the morning as we watched valiant England crash out in the quarter-stage; Ronaldinho’s screamer is still firing its way past David Seaman to this day.
Secondly, the country was well and truly gripped by Beckham fever. I can still see the little red Manchester United shirt emblazoned with a huge number seven on the reverse (much to the likely disappointment of my Tottenham-supporting dad).
And lastly? I remember my first-ever wallchart, blu-tacked to my bedroom wall, accompanied in the Sunday newspaper by what seemed like every school kid’s playground obsession: the official Panini World Cup sticker book. Pockets full of stickers we already had, we made Brexit negotiations look like a piece of cake. Nearly completed books proudly gather dust in my parents’ loft, waiting for posterity’s nostalgic smile.
Yes, at some point this trip down memory lane must segue to news brands. But that’s the point: Ever since I can remember, news brands have been central to the United Kingdom’s tournament experience.
As a child, it was waiting eagerly for the goodies in the centrefold so I could start trading stickers or head down the news agents with a voucher for an England car window flag. As an adult, it’s reading match reports and refreshing interactive bracket predictors to figure out the Three Lions’ easiest route to glory.
What’s more, I’m not alone: In the first two weeks of June containing World Cup action, news brands added an average of one million extra weekly readers compared to the previous fortnight.
Throughout this tournament, Newsworks is championing news brands’ role in generations of fans’ experience of the World Cup — both editorially and commercially. It’s a relationship that’s seen its fair share of ups, downs, fantastic front pages, and brilliant ads.
Read Lewis’s full column on the INMA website.
