If Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) knows how to do anything, it’s marketing. How else would it be able to sell brown, sugar-flavored soda water, and still be so profitable? But as World Cup fever sweeps the world, the company's showing that it knows how to keep everyone cool.

Coca-Cola has massive promotions worldwide to keep its name in front of futbol fans. It's giving away TVs to restaurateurs, securing sponsorship rights, and running plenty of TV, radio, print, and movie-theater advertising for the rest of us. Although the company hasn’t disclosed its costs, one analyst projects that the beverage titan has sunk as much as $600 million into its marketing campaign -- Coke's largest ever.

The company began its advertising campaign last year, starting in Africa, and gradually expanded it globally. Coke’s campaign for the 2006 World Cup saw sales increase by 5% in the half-year prior to the event, and the company aims to beat that figure. Coke began planning this year’s event in 2007.

According to the Wall Street Journal:

Unlike some well-known World Cup advertisers, Coke already has a major presence in Africa. South Africa is the company's ninth-biggest market world-wide in terms of sales volume, and while soda sales languish in the U.S., first-quarter sales of Coke's beverages in North and West Africa rose 12%, and were up 9% in East and Central Africa.

PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) has also been running its own Cup campaign, with Pepsi and Gatorade brand sponsorships of the U.S. team, but it pales in comparison to its American rival. Through global-scale initiatives such as this, Coke continues to ensure that it retains what superinvestor Warren Buffett calls top “share of mind.”

Discover how Coke's World Cup marketing has poured into fans' ears.