Women’s World Cup: album stalls on newsstands, but strong selection can boost sales

Now go. It is with this positive mindset that newsboys in São Paulo face the effect of Brazil’s 4-0 victory in the Women’s World Cup debut on their businesses — more specifically, on the sale of competition sticker albums, which are stranded on newsstands.

The hope is that, motivated by the good presentation by Pia Sundhage’s team, Brazilians will start their collections. Launched at the beginning of June by Panini, the Marta, Ary Gomes and their gang still haven’t “caught on” among children and adults and, for the sellers interviewed, there are two reasons for this lack of interest: price and failure in the promotion strategy.

Ana Maria Pellegrini, owner of República, in the neighborhood of the same name, in downtown São Paulo, reports the low demand for nerds. “I’ve been selling it for a month and only 20 albums and about 1,000 stickers came out, which is much less if we think about last year [na Copa masculina]”, she tells, already pulling some numbers from her memory. “At that time, [vendi] about 1000 albums, apart from the stickers, which went out a lot. I remember that, on a Saturday, I received 150 albums and, on Sunday, I didn’t have any more”.

The value per pack of stickers remains the same as the Men’s World Cup, R$ 4. The album, with 80 pages, jumped from R$ 12 to up to R$ 15 in some newsstands, an increase that reaches 25%. In hardcover, it jumped from BRL 44.90 to BRL 54.90 (it is not fixed, in some newsstands there are offers, but this is the standard price). There is, however, good news in the world of World Cup stickers this year: a digital version of the album, which can be purchased on FIFA’s website.

O F5 spoke with employees of newsstands in different neighborhoods of São Paulo this Monday afternoon (24), right after the victory of the Brazilian team. All were emphatic in stating that sales are well below those registered in the Men’s Cup. “Last year I think I sold 100,000 stickers, this year so far I haven’t even sold 300”, says Fábio Teixeira, from Banca Paulo Afonso, in the Santa Cecília region.

Even at Banca Pacaembu, in front of the stadium of the same name and where the Football Museum is located, employees report that demand is much lower than expected, even more so if we take into account the public that circulates there: in large part, people who love football.

Over the weekend, the stock reached zero — which does not necessarily indicate a popular outcry for the stickers: the 80 packages that the newsstand had received were bought by the same person.

Merchants claim that low demand may have been hampered by poor disclosure by Panini. The problem may have affected the movement at Banca Maria Elisa, in the central region. Employee Nicoly Oliveira says that they did not receive any sign or banner. Not even inside the store.

“Who bought most of the stickers was a gentleman who always comes here, the rest was one or another person. 40 packages came out last week and 40 the day before. Quite different from last year, when we sold more than 2,000 albums”, he says. She claims that sales started three weeks ago and that, so far, 25 albums have come out, in addition to these 80 packages — and nothing else.

Ana Maria, from República, also noticed the difference in the promotion of male and female albums by Panini. “Last year, we received posters and plaques to announce the albums and stickers, this year, not even that. Today we only have this here, so we put it inside”, he says, pointing to a small round paper with just a photo of the cover of the book.

In a note, Panini recognizes the low public adherence, but denies failure in marketing. “The search for the album and its stickers is still not at the level that occurs with men’s soccer”, he says. “But we understand that, as the World Cup progresses, the subject tends to become even more popular and the scenario changes”.

The company also says in its statement that it “invested heavily” in different media fronts, such as TV, radio and internet via influencers, in addition to working the product with national team athletes and having distributed “a series of materials to points of sale, according to sales in the first period.”