They're captured in a variety of actions, but they're all wearing dark blue T-shirts with the Pepsi logo. Under the ceilings of the stations are advertising banners with more photos of the football idols and, once more, they're emblazoned with the Pepsi logo.

The Skytrain advertisements are part of the "Pepsi Football 2006" campaign that has been under way since early this year. They invite people to be part of the campaign by persuading them to answer questions posted on digital screens displayed on Skytrain platforms and inside the trains.

The campaign is part of an extraordinary marketing battle between the two cola giants - Pepsi and Coke. The Skytrain ads might, in fact, tempt people to believe that Pepsi is playing a more dominant role in the coming World Cup 2006 than its illustrious competitor.

Other Pepsi activities that take advantage of the world's football fever are the "Pepsi footballer packaging design collection" - essentially, a collection of Pepsi cans featuring images of the international football stars sponsored by Pepsi - the "Pepsi World Challenge 2006", which is taking youngsters from 11 countries to meet Thierry Henry in London and other well-known players in Cairo, and the "Drink Pepsi, Win Seven Gold Medals" campaign.

The marketers believe that the long and intensive period of advertising is enough to make people think of Pepsi when heroes of the game, such as Ronaldo and David Beckham, spring to mind.

Yet it is Coke that has paid millions of euros to be the only official cola brand able to burnish its corporate profile with sponsorship of the World Cup 2006. Earlier in the year, Coke hurried to make this point clear after its official sponsorship status was approved by launching an international campaign called "We All Speak Football". Thailand was included in that campaign, and it had three main elements.

The first was the tour by the Fifa World Cup Trophy, in which the real trophy, to be held aloft by the winner of the cup, was shown at Siam Paragon shopping complex in March and about 10,000 Thai football fans took the opportunity to look it over. The trophy was also taken to 28 other countries.

The second part of the campaign is "Flag Bearers", providing three lucky Thai teenagers aged between 12 and 15 who are real football fans to carry the national flags of football teams and lead them onto the field during the competition.

The third is releasing limited-edition collectible Coke cans featuring pictures of top players in the World Cup 2006.

The multi-million-dollar battle between the two cola companies is particularly intriguing in Thailand, because Coke has never succeeded in beating Pepsi in the local market.

Coke has even slammed the door on Pepsi playing a bigger official role in the next World Cup by signing up with Fifa already, to be an official sponsor again in 2010. The deal has made Coke Fifa's "elite partner".

But Coke's strategy to be an official partner of the competition allows it to dominate the limelight only once in every four years, whereas Pepsi's strategy of sponsoring individual football stars allows the brand to get close to consumers in every big match throughout its sponsorship period.

This year, for example, Pepsi has the chance to display its logo in every big match in which its sponsored players take part - including the World Cup. Coke, on the other hand, will have something like one month of World Cup competition in which to justify its huge investment.

While Pepsi has been campaigning since early this year to tap World Cup fever, Coke has been able to offer the "closeness" of official sponsorship, allowing people to touch the trophy, to get to the real games, and to get close to the heroes of the game.

The outcome on the Thai market, where Coke has never beaten Pepsi into second place, could be a good measure of whose strategy has won the great marketing campaign of World Cup 2006.

Nitida Asawanipont

The Nation