A nice little circular from La Poste

A few days before its official appearance - on 28 February in the ten World Cup host cities and on 3 March, D-100, in France's 14,000 post offices - take a look at La Poste's round stamp, one of its many World Cup spin-off products. The stamp is worth 3 French francs, and shows a blue football with the FRANCE 98 logo backed by the flag symbolising the universal aspect of the 1998 World Cup. It is the first time a stamp of this shape has ever been issued in Europe. For the stamp-collecting fraternity, it's quite an event

Telly-communication

On 1 January this year, a short programme (50 seconds long) was broadcast on the television channel France 2. This was the first in a series of films entitled "The World of the Cup" to be sponsored by France Telecom.

The initiative, one of the company's many World Cup projects, is aimed at recreating great moments from previous World Cups, from 1930 to 1994. In all, 140 original short programmes are to be shown, all of them combining fact, sport, humour and anecdote, and offering television viewers a new and engaging look at previous World Cup competitions. France Telecom initiated these original little "spots" to involve as large a public as possible in the run-up to the competition. "The World of the Cup" goes out from Monday to Saturday around 8.30 p.m., and will continue right up to 9 June this year, the eve of the World Cup kick-off

The logo of success

The CFO Marketing/Partnership department has just rubber-stamped the 2,000th promotional project undertaken by one of its Partners, namely "Danone Japan", which gives good instance of the increasing activity being mounted world-wide by the various FRANCE 98 Partners.

All 45 Commercial Affiliates are now using the FRANCE 98 emblems in their commercials, promotional operations, sales outlets/offices and on their products. It was confirmed after a study carried out by the English polling company SRI that two out of three consumers preferred buying a product carrying the World Cup emblems to a similar product without. The CFO marketing department estimates that more than 10,000 advertising/promotional campaigns have been carried out throughout the world by the 45 World Cup Commercial Affiliates.

On World Cup wavelength

Radio France, the CFO's radio partner, is to create a station devoted entirely to the World Cup. A great first in World Cup history, it will be called "98 Radio France." Gilbert Denoyan, acting station co-ordinator at Radio France, talks to us about the station that will not only broadcast all 64 matches live, but will also be a rich source of interesting and useful information for French and foreign listeners alike. So tune in and enjoy the FRANCE 98 atmosphere!

France's leading radio station Radio France is to launch a special World Cup station for both French and foreign listeners between 6 a.m. and 1 a.m. on 1852m long wave. Throughout the World Cup, 98 Radio France will provide football commentary, news, useful tips and light entertainment all linked to the event. The programmes will be based on five main approaches:

" News from the tournament and live coverage of the 64 matches with com-mentary from Jacques Vendroux (Editor-in-chief of the project) and the Paris 98 Radio France editorial team as well as some fifteen local radio reporters.

" Useful information concerning the ten World Cup venues (ticket sales, accommo-dation, traffic news, weather and enter-tainment). Thanks to its local reporters, 98 Radio France will really be at the heart of the World Cup in all regions.

" Programmes in English, German, Spanish and Italian to keep foreign visitors up to date with what's happening.

" Match overviews: reports about the host cities and the surrounding regions where the matches are being played, as well as about the competing nations.

" Sharing love for the game with an array of personalities from the world of sport, entertainment and the arts (see inset).

98 Radio France takes to the air on 8 June, two days before the Opening Match of FRANCE 98.

What exactly is Radio France setting out to achieve in creating this special World Cup station?

We want to provide a means of following FRANCE 98 as the event unfolds. As well as complete coverage of the tournament, we'll be offering practical hints and keeping the public up to date with related events. The World Cup should be a celebration, so we want our station to be lively, exciting and zippy, just like sport itself. We'll be airing lots of little topical items, too, to give it all pace, and playing music from all of the competing countries.

What will be the content of the foreign language programmes?

Above all, we want to provide practical information and useful hints. And with the help of Radio France International, we'll be supplying general-interest news from all 32 qualifying nations. Through 98 Radio France, supporters from all over the world will be able to stay in touch with what's happening back in their home countries. And when the World Cup is over, they'll leave with the feeling of having been well looked after.

And you've got a little something up your sleeve too, in the form of a mini transistor 98 Radio France!

That's right. A pocket radio with earphones that only picks up the 98 Radio France frequency will be given to all accredited personnel as well as to listeners at the Paris Maison de la Radio. In all, we'll be manufacturing 100,000 radios.

A STAR-STUDDED PANEL OF EXPERTS

98 Radio France will have a large number of consultants on hand to assist journalists covering the competition. Listeners will be able to tune in and hear the views of French ex-footballing greats such as Jean Tigana, Alain Giresse, Eric Pécout, Dominique Batheney, Marius Trésor, Maxime Bossis and Dominique Rocheteau. An impressive panel which will also count Yannick Noah in its ranks. And that is by no means all.

98 Radio France will also be calling on the services of many famous names from showbusiness and literature to provide a sideways glance at the competition through a series of little topical items. Among those involved will be : Francis Huster, Claude Nougaro, Robert Hossein, Richard Virenque, Patrick Bruel, Chico Buarque, Patrick Cauvin, Pierre Barouh, Yves Boisset, Claude Lelouch, Madeleine Chapsal, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Julien Clerc, Renaud, Francis Cabrel, André Dussolier, Smain, Jean-François Balmer, Michel Jonasz - and the list is not yet complete!