Bite-Gate Saga: There Is Opportunity In Everything

By ROSHAN THIRAN

So, who were the winners in this Bite-Gate saga? The biggest loser was the player himself – Luis Suarez and possibly his country and club.

But in every “crisis” there are winners too. The biggest winners of them all – marketers! They had a field day. All good marketers know that conflicts, if mined well, would be golden opportunities. And so Nando’s, McDonald’s and World Cup sponsor Listerine whose tagline for the World Cup was #PowerToYourMouth, all took advantage and milked it to the max (refer to tweets below ):

Translated: Hi Luis Suarez, if you are still hungry, come take a bite out of a Big Mac

(See the McD tweet here.)

(See the Nandos UK tweet here.)

(See the Listerine tweet here.)

So, what can we learn from these marketers? The key is to always be ready to take advantage of any opportunity that presents itself. Even if the situations seem unrelated, great marketers understand how to relate that back to their product and use it as an opportunity for publicity.

What are your Suarez-moments that fly by every day? How are you taking advantage and leveraging events and things that happen around you for your product or business?

Remember, only Suarez needs to be the loser at Bite-Gate. The rest of us can actually win! There is ample opportunity. McDonald’s and Nando’s were quick to cash in on the Bite-Gate party and received millions of brand impressions. So can you.

Roshan Thiran continues to be in awe of the beautiful game. He is looking forward to the World Cup final and is glad Suarez will not be on the field to bite anyone else. You can follow Roshan on LinkedIn and Facebook (www.facebook.com/roshanthiran.leaderonomics) as he shares various leadership nuggets daily. Email him at roshan.thiran@leaderonomics.com.  Click here to read more articles.