Citi's Filippo Falorni Talks World Cup Consumption

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
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**Tom Keene** (0:07)
We begin now with some serious coverage. We make jokes about it, but it's not funny. It's a huge, huge research study for global Wall Street. Paul, why don't you bring in Filippo here, because you're more attuned to the World Cup than I'll ever be.

**Paul Sweeney** (0:21)
Absolutely. Filippo Falorni joins us here. He's the director in the Equity Research Department of Citi, covering a lot of the consumer products companies.
Filippo, I know you guys did a big survey of consumers around the world and how they plan to consume the World Cup, what kind of stuff they're going to do around the World Cup. Talk to us about some of your findings.

**Filippo Falorni** (0:43)
Yes. Good morning, guys. Thanks for having me on.
Look, we did a big study here. We looked at seven countries globally, the three host countries, US, Mexico, and Canada, and then countries in Europe and Latin America, where soccer fans are very passionate about the games. And look, generally, one of the main takeaways that the engagement globally is very elevated. Ninety-seven percent of respondents, they plan to engage somehow with the games, whether it's watching it live on TV, whether it's following on social media or going live to the game. About 20 percent of respondents said they plan to go live. And the average ticket prices, you've heard a lot about those ticket prices being very elevated. People already spent about $590 on average to buy tickets for once in a single game. So it's elevated, but the engagement level are very high.
And then we asked specifically because I cover more the consumer staples group, specifically about food and beverage consumption. And generally, we are seeing on average, people plan to spend about $115 extra per week during the games on food and beverage items. So clearly, there's going to be an increase in consumption behavior. We've also seen in terms of responses, that people plan to be a little bit more relaxed with their diets or with their typical eating and drinking habits. So that could be also a bit of a boost for general food and beverage companies.

**Paul Sweeney** (2:15)
You know, we see here in the US, Filippo, Super Bowl time, and it's all about chicken wings and beer and all that kind of stuff. And I know that consumer products companies that you cover, they go big time on advertising. What do folks tell me that they're going to do around game time these days in terms of their behavior?

**Filippo Falorni** (2:33)
Yeah, absolutely. So we ask both in terms of food and beverage consumption. In terms of food consumption, the clear favorites were pizza and potato chips. About 49% of respondents said they planned to eat pizza in the game, that 46% salty snacks. So not a big surprise there, right? Those are kind of like clear favorites.
And in terms of beverages, within alcoholic beverages, beer was the clear winner. 64% of respondents said they planned to drink beer. And then in non-alcoholic soft drinks, traditional soft drink sodas, about 57%. So not big surprises. Companies are definitely pushing significantly their marketing campaign. And you have, FIFA has some global sponsors, right? So those are the ones that-

**Tom Keene** (3:20)
I'm sure you're going to quaff a beverage with Jane Frazier as she watched England go after it with Harry Kane and all, but you need to explain to me, Alessandro Bostoni gets a red card against Bosnia-Herzegovina.
And for the third time around, Italy doesn't make the World Cup. Filippo, discuss.

**Filippo Falorni** (3:41)
No, it was devastating. I'm Italian, born and raised in Italy.
It's been really challenging to see our team miss it for the third straight time. We need a big generational shift, I think. Hopefully for the next one, we'll be in a better shape.

**Tom Keene** (3:58)
I mean, John Farrow got his first gray hair off this. I mean, Filippo, help me out here with the importance to Italy, just as one example, that they did not make the World Cup, which frankly sounds un-American. How can you have it without Italy?

**Paul Sweeney** (4:14)
I know.

**Tom Keene** (4:14)
Filippo, what is going on with the offspring, the Ute of Italy?

**Filippo Falorni** (4:19)
Yeah. No, you're right. I mean, look, I was very young when we won the World Cup in 2006, and I remember that was a phenomenal day. But I think what the problem has been is that the new generation, they haven't given a lot of opportunities to really step up, to be games, and then when you have big games, like the Bosnia and Russia sudden that game, you feel too much pressure. That was, I think that's what happened.