By Kevin McCauley
Brown Lloyd James has an $80K-a-month contract to promote Qatar's bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, which would be the first Middle Eastern state to host the soccer championship.
Image: FIFA |
Qatar's bid focuses on five state-of-the-art and eco-friendly stadia to accommodate from 40-50K fans. A key selling point: upper tiers of the facilities are to be removed following the World Cup and donated to developing countries in need of sports infrastructure.
BLJ is targeting media in France, Belgium, Spain, Cyprus, Switzerland, Turkey, Russia, Egypt, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Argentina, Paraguay, Guatemala, Trinidad and Tobago, Tahiti and New Zealand, according to its contract with the Qatar 2022 Bid Committee.
Key journalists will be invited to visit Qatar in November, a month before Zurich-based FIFA announces the winner.
Qatar is competing against the U.S., Belgium/Netherlands, England, Russia Spain and Portugal. Those countries have entered bids for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments.
Australia, Japan and Korea have submitted bids for 2022 competition. Brazil, which hosted the 1950 World Cup, has the 2014 contest.
BLJ's John Watts, Christian Fianco, Dave Barrett, Alex Ely and Khaled Ramadan are coordinating the PR drive in Qatar's capital city of Doha.
Mike Holtzman, executive VP, and Alison Bradley, VP, are working the account from New York.
Fleishman-Hillard is working the U.S. bid for '18 and '22.
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