'Orange dress' campaign worked

Dutch brewery Bavaria scored at least R750,000 in free publicity in South Africa with its "orange dress" campaign, which was branded by Fifa as ambush marketing.

Brand and reputation analysis company Ornico said it tracked the editorial coverage Bavaria received in print and broadcast media in South Africa.

"The value of the South African newspaper and broadcast news coverage is R756,728 but this excludes magazine coverage and online coverage," Ornico CEO Oresti Patricios said in a statement.

"When the final tally for local publicity is done it is likely that Bavaria will have scored well over a R1 million worth of local media publicity, if not more. That's not even looking at international coverage which has been massive and in all the right media."

Ornica monitored and analysed all mentions of the word "Bavaria" and then audited the coverage to calculate its advertising value.

"This is the value Bavaria would have paid if they had placed adverts in the same media that had afforded them coverage," said Patricios.

The news value of the event was so compelling that it became an instant talking point, followed by "overwhelming" media coverage.

"It is irrelevant whether Bavaria staged the spectacle or not, the media clearly positioned the Dutch Brewery and the women wearing the bright orange minis as the hero of this story. Fifa was undoubtedly cast as the villain of the saga," said Patricios.

Fifa accused the brewery of ambush marketing after a group of more than 30 women, all dressed in the same orange mini-skirts, attended a Soccer World Cup match at Soccer City between The Netherlands and Denmark on June 14.

The minis were handed out in Bavaria gift packs in Holland ahead of the World Cup.

The women were taken in for questioning and eventually two of them, whom Fifa accused of being the organisers of the campaign, were arrested.

Barbara Castelein and Mirte Nieuwpoort faced charges of

contravening the SA Merchandise Marks Act because Bavaria is not an official World Cup sponsor.

Charges against them were dropped after Bavaria reportedly agreed not to embark on any ambush marketing for the next 12 years and "to respect the integrity of Fifa's commercial programme".