Rome, Italy, was the host of the final game of European Football Champion League 2009. It is such an important event for European football fans. It also helps promoting tourism for the city. I arrived in Rome the week before the final. I saw an Adidas stand at the airport announcing the event with a ball and a phrase that read, "Welcome to History." The advertisement also had little representations of landmarks of the city. I found interesting the way they were promoting not only the game and the brand but also the historical side of the city.
There was another ad, which was simpler but after seeing the ball ad, it called my attention. The logos of the sponsors of the event, specifically: Sony, MasterCard, Heineken, PlayStation and Ford, were included at the bottom of the ad.
Afterwards, I went to the central station, which is called Termini. There, I saw a huge Colosseum made of Heineken beer bottles. It was impressive because of its size. I saw the word history in an ad again. The phrase read, "History is made in Rome."
On my way to the hotel I was staying at, I saw many other street ads and billboards of the event.
All the sponsors had their own commercials. I would say that Heineken beer was the one I saw the most. Later, I also saw a TV commercial and even though I don’t speak Italian, I knew what it was about because I already had information.
I think that the Integrated Marketing Communications strategy used to promote the Champions League was used in an excellent way, they combined different media to create both awareness of the event and to promote it. It did not matter if people were locals or tourists, if people were at home, office or taking a walk around the city, they surely would be in contact with advertisements all of the time.
I also liked the fact that they included the word history in many of those advertisements since the entire city of Rome is a historical icon.
