Qatar’s bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup had the ultimate objective of influencing 24 FIFA Executive Committee members to vote for Qatar, the so-called dark horse in the bidding race.

The campaign leveraged integrated media platforms that were carefully crafted to work in tandem to reach a range of target audiences.The role of much of the branding and messaging was to attribute a specific personality to “Brand Qatar” that was a country which, for many, was relatively unknown and often misunderstood.The new “Brand Qatar” had to demonstrate how taking the World Cup to a new and unchartered region would fulfill FIFA’s strategic ambitions to bring football to every corner of the globe. It was also important to introduce the idea of Qatar providing a new type of World Cup, a compact format which would be great for players, fans, the media and FIFA alike.

Qatar’s bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup was unique because it evolved throughout the duration of the bid process in a consistent but fresh way.The bid was very visible, initially in Qatar, appealing to local audiences in Qatari television adverts, on lamppost banner adverts and on enormous building wraps in Doha.

The bid then became more regional, appealing to Middle Eastern neighbours to support Qatar bringing the World Cup to the Middle East for the first time with poster adverts at the region’s busiest airport in Dubai.

The global push came with the launch of the online and digital applications; the bid website itself, the iPad app and Facebook and Twitter accounts dedicated to following the bid’s progress.The final stage of the campaign was sponsored programming with the “Generation Amazing” documentary airing on television prior to the final decision being announced on the 2nd of December 2010.

Ultimately the success of the campaign can be proved by the fact that Qatar were successful in their bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. However, it is important to recognize the consumer and media based success the campaign achieved along the way.The campaign attracted over 500,000 Facebook subscribers from across the globe and 200,000 car owners felt so strongly about the campaign that they stuck “I support Qatar’s bid for 2022” on their car bumpers as part of the “Show the World you’re a true supporter” campaign.Even Qatar’s competitors recognised Qatar's success as Chuck Blazer, United States representative on the FIFA Executive Committee, whose nation lost out to Qatar in the final vote, said that Qatar had waged "an excellent sales campaign," adding that "I respect the fact that they won."