Peter Shilton, Bryan Robson, Sir Bobby Charlton and Alan Ball make up a few of an unlikely, yet highly effective, pub football team in Carlsberg's latest TV advert, showing that companies will stop at nothing in their efforts to create an impact in the run-up to the World Cup.

Promotion is the cornerstone of companies' World Cup activity, and brewers in particular have invested huge sums of money to ensure their brands are the ones that consumers reach for.

Carlsberg's 'pub team' ad forms part of a £10.5m TV advertising spend on the brand for this year.

Coors Brewers has gone one better, and is pumping £14m in football-related activity for its Carling brand during 2006. The brand's Love Football campaign returned to TV screens earlier this year with a new creative featuring personalities from the Sky Sports team as well as a radio campaign.

The company is also offering consumers the chance to win up to £50 through a ringpull promotion.

A Coors spokesman says: "The great thing about the promotion is that it will help keep consumers interested throughout the tournament and not just when England are competing."

TV advertising may make up the bulk of World Cup promotion, but companies have also used different tactics to get their brands noticed. Unilever is offering consumers the chance to win a Peperami-shaped 'fanimal' football figure which shouts phrases such as 'Peperami's barmy army' when thrown in frustration at the TV set.

Likewise, PepsiCo has taken a different approach for its male-friendly Nobby's crisp brand. Unable to offer consumers the chance to sit pitch side, the company has come up with the next best thing. Ten winners will have the run of a pub for an evening, which will be kitted out in England colours, with free beer and snacks available via Nobby's barmaids.

Chris Grantham, consultant at brand agency Dragon Brands, says that despite the investment companies put into promoting their brands, only a handful will be effective enough to be truly memorable. He says products clearly linked to football stand more chance of success than some of the more generic sponsors, such as Mastercard or Fuji Film. "Some brands use the World Cup as a blunt awareness tool to show their ubiquitous ­nature but you have to ask 'would you notice if it was not there?'"

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