Problem – South Africans at grassroots don”t know who Zakumi is

When I attended the Brazil Vs USA Confed Cup match at Loftus I couldn’t help admiring the Zakumi’s dance moves during half-time. However, I couldn’t help wondering how many average South Africans know who this character is.

For those who don’t know, Zakumi is the official mascot for the FIFA 2010 World Cup. Unfortunately, if you ask the ordinary township dwelling citizen this, you will more than likely draw a blank. The same applies to the ordinary soccer loving African who regards themselves as a stakeholder in the first African World Cup.

The truth is that Zakumi has not been advertised as a sub-brand or brand extension of the 2010 World Cup. Yes, you will see Zakumi at certain World Cup related events such as the FIFA Confed Cup but Zakumi has not been advertised as a stand-alone brand.

There were a few write ups in the local and international press when the character was officially launched but the launch didn’t filter down to the people at grassroots in South Africa. Fortunately, there is still plenty of time do this before the World Cup.

The reason Zakumi is not known in the townships and the rural areas of South Africa is because FIFA and the Local Organising Committee (LOC) took it for granted that people would get to know the official mascot with time.

The solution would be a simple advertising campaign that targets the lower target markets in the relevant media that firstly educates the respective people about who Zakumi is, and what the objective of a mascot is. What the soccer powers-that-be didn’t realise is that local soccer does not really have a culture of mascots.

Go to any major rugby match and you’ll see that mascots are the norm as is the case in many parts of Europe. However, it is a very new thing in grassroots soccer, particularly. Since Zakumi will become more visible the closer we get to the World Cup it will be good for every South African to know what this character represents.

If FIFA and LOC do a very good branding job on the mascot and it proves to be very popular this could open another revenue stream for LOC. They could then build a merchandising operation around this character and sell Zakumi dolls and Zakumi T-shirts, etc.

LOC already spends money making sure that Zakumi is visible locally and internationally so it only makes sense for them to leverage as much out of this character as they can, and to do this effectively they have to start at the grassroots.