The Influence of Soccer

Unless you were hiding under a rock this morning, you are aware that USA beat Algeria in a World Cup game.  I didn't have to watch the game, I could just listen to the yelling right outside my office (where I have the unfortunate luck of sitting right beside the TV that everyone crowded around this morning).  It was quite a victory and even I - not a sports fan - was excited.  However, to a geek like me, one of the most interesting things about the match this morning is what happened online (stats courtesy of Mashable):

• "In the minutes following Landon Donovan’s game winning goal in the 91st minute of action (which sent the US to the round of 16), traffic spiked to 11.2 million visitors per minute, which moves the event past the 2008 presidential election as the 2nd highest traffic spike of all-time."
• "The plethora of World Cup breaking news briefly knocked Yahoo Sports offline."
• "Tweets containing 'USA' spiked to 6% of total tweet volume."
• Many Twitter users encountered the "Fail Whale" as a result of the traffic volume on Twitter during the game.

And, I think every status update on my Facebook news feed was related to the game.  Yes, soccer has the power of influence this month.  It will be interesting to see how that influence is capitalized on by marketers both immediately and in the coming months.  Some of the lucky ones advertising during the World Cup coverage are even getting some of the chatter; a favorite among those I have talked to:Enjoy the games.