On the morning of July 16th 2018, France brought home their second World Cup champion after defeating Croatia 4-2 in Moscow. On the same day, China-based kitchen appliance maker Vatti also became a name on everybody’s lips for its successful World Cup marketing.
After becoming the official partner of France football team on March 5th, Vatti placed a full-page ad on China’s newspaper giant Nanfang Metropolis Daily that said Vatti would refund consumers if France won, which confirmed the next day by an announcement with the signature of Vatti’s President on. According to the Notice, Vatti promised a full refund to consumers who bought its World Cup Champion Package between June 1st and June 30th. On June 30th, the day France beat Argentina to be one of the last eight, Vatti extended the campaign for three more days to July 3rd. Baidu search index showed that, the word “Vatti” was trending all the way as France won every match, and reached a climax when France defeated Croatia in the final.
According to Vatti’s announcement released on July 4th, the company’s combined retail sales value during the World Cup campaign reached more than 1 billion RMB, of which 0.7 billion came from stores with a year-on-year growth of some 20% and 0.3 billion from online channels with a year-on-year rise of more than 30%. Kitchen appliance industry came into a downturn in the beginning of this year with a negative growing trend that lasted for half a year. In this context, Vatti’s surge became a highlight. More importantly, Vatti’s brand popularity surged thanks to this campaign.
It is learned that the total refund of 79 million yuan is “limited”, quoted from Vatti, compared with the 1 billion yuan for official sponsorship of the World Cup.