The end of another football World Cup is nigh, and as always, along with the on-field thrills and heartbreak, South Africa 2010 has served up its share of branding victories and losses. In the face of practitioners of “ambush marketing’’ perfecting their dark arts, the world football governing body FIFA this year reduced the number of top-level official sponsors from 15 to 6, in a bid to offer more focus and prominence for those parting with the big bucks. Adidas coughed up US$351 million, Visa $350 million, Sony $305 million, Emirates $195 million, and Hyundai-Kai Motors and Coca Cola splurged as yet unconfirmed multi-million dollar sums (although Coke has called this the largest campaign in its history). It remains to be seen if the resultant sales and brand awareness justified the outlay. In the meantime, in a spirit of friendly competition, here are the Brand Matters 2010 World Cup winners and losers (cue vuvuzela fanfare):

WINNERS

Nike
With its epic “Write the Future’’ spot becoming a Youtube sensation, with 13 million hits and counting, ambush marketing masters Nike proved once again you don’t need to be an official sponsor to “own’’ an event. The three-minute spot, directed by Hollywood director Alejandro Inarritu, showed the parallel universes that exist for winners and losers, and how becoming a legend or a trailer park loser could hinge on a single kick of the ball. It featured Christiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Didier Drogba and Ronaldinho, with a supporting cast including everyone from tennis ace Roger Federer to NBA superstar Kobe Bryant to cartoon icon Homer Simpson.  The Nielsen Company analyzed online blogs, message boards and social networking sites and found that the sports shoe and apparel giant was more frequently linked to the World Cup than any of the tournament’s official partners and sponsors. However, Nike didn’t have it all its own way: Rooney almost fulfilled the ad’s trailer park prophecy with a dismal showing, Ronaldo went out in a fit of spiteful, spitting pique, and Ronaldinho didn’t even make it into the Brazil side.

Germany
Whether they can go all the way remains to be seen, but once again Germany burnished its national brand with a young and fearless team playing dashing counter attacking football and notching up no less than three four-goal victories, most recently over the heavily fancied Argentina. Showing the power of teamwork, they neutralized the likes of Wayne Rooney and Lionel Messi. Dubbed “the tournament team’’ for their uncanny ability to always turn up for the big games, their Teutonic precision and verve must surely rub off on the likes of big German brands like Mercedes-Benz and BMW.

Louis Vuitton
A stunning photo by Annie Leibowitz capturing football legends Pele, Diego Maradona and Zinedine Zidane playing table football together proved a classy and canny way to grab some unofficial World Cup cachet for the luxury bag maker. Although the subsequent war of words between Maradona and Pele did take some of the gloss off.

Bavaria Beer
Hands up who had even heard of Bavaria Beer before this World Cup? Thanks to FIFA’s heavy handed reaction to 30 women clad in orange outfits emblazoned with tiny Bavaria Beer logos for the Netherlands-Denmark game – turfing them out and taking some of the women to court – the beer brand achieved instant brand legend status and is now a global household name.

Big Cola
While official sponsor Coca-Cola and arch rival Pepsi slugged it out on the international scene, locally a Peruvian cola bottled in Thailand by Aje Co. was stealing a march on the competition, particularly in Thailand’s provinces. Newcomer Big Cola invested 80 million baht to be able to emblazon its product with local favourites England’s logo in Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. While perennial underachievers England flopped, locals embraced the new cola big time, and according to the Bangkok Post it now has close to 25 percent market share.

LOSERS

Adidas
Adidas scored a massive own goal with its much-criticised Jabulani match ball. Adidas boss Herbert Hainer claimed the ball was “rounder than any other ever made’’ but players and coaches bemoaned its unpredictable flight. Adidas also ran a poor second to Nike with its bizarre Star Wars cantina ad spot, featuring World Cup irrelevancy David Beckham doing a poor Han Solo immitation. Following the 2006 World Cup, official sponsors Adidas notched a 30 percent increase in global sales, but such a boost may be harder to achieve this time.

Marks & Spencer
A big budget campaign by British department store Marks & Spencer showed the danger of counting your chickens before they’ve hatched. After emblazoning Theo Walcott in a natty M&S suit on countless billboards, newspapers and magazines, Walcott was unceremoniously axed from the England side – or, as the tabloids put it, “suited and booted’’.

France
Les Bleus, finalists at last year’s World Cup and usually one of football’s superpowers, not only failed to gell as a team, they covered themselves and their nation in ignominy and disgrace. After Nicolas Anelka was sent packing for a profanity-laced tirade against coach Raymond Domenech, several other players went on strike and the team crashed out at the first hurdle. Sports Minister Roselyne Bachelot told the players they had tarnished the image of France, and even President Nicolas Sarkozy was drawn into the row. A shocking national branding black eye, transforming a country known for culture and sophistication into a land of whiners, cry babies and sore losers in the eyes of the world almost overnight.

FIFA

Despiteits overzealous and ham-fisted attempts to crack down on anyone using the World Cup name without official sponsor status (resulting in over 3,000 trademark prosecutions in 84 countries), FIFA missed one of the golden branding opportunities of all time. Somehow the ubiquitous vuvuzela escaped their clutches and the multicoloured horns droning and blaring in the stadiums did not bear the FIFA seal of approval. FIFA also blew it by roping in Colombian singer Shakira as its star turn when surely an African would have been more apt, and with its intransigence regarding goal line technology or video reviews, leading to several embarrassing incidents such as Frank Lampard’s clear goal for England against Germany. President Sepp Blatter shouldn’t be too proud to seek some branding advice for the governing body as its image is poor.