With the domestic soccer season at an end, the thoughts and bar chat were on the European Champions League final and, beyond that, to the highlight of the soccer summer, Euro 2004, which kicks off in Portugal in late June.
By coincidence, on the return flight to Hong Kong, I was sitting next to an advertising executive and soon we were talking about Euro 2004; this time not in terms of the content, but instead from the viewpoint of the advertising world, where the event is seen as the European equivalent of the US Super Bowl.
US advertisers have long believed that the Super Bowl is the best way of reaching as many consumers as possible across a range of demographics in one event. Now, I don't think that we can expect to see Janet Jackson putting on a half-time show, but in Europe, where it is difficult for an advertiser to reach a pan-Europoean audience even when using border-crossing reality shows, it is certain that sporting events such as these can bring together audiences from across the region.
Interestingly, it is anticipated that Euro 2004 will attract larger European audiences than the Athens Olympics later in the summer.
The eight official sponsors of the tournament are reported to have shelled out in excess of US$20 million for that privilege to the organiser, UEFA.
And scores of other brands are gearing up both ad and marketing campaigns to try to capture some of the glamour of the event.
Perhaps it is this 'glam' or 'hype' factor that helps to contribute to making it even more difficult than usual to evaluate the effectiveness of this spending. Of course, the easiest way of measuring the impact is by reference to TV audiences, which for Euro 2000 was an aggregate of more than 1.5 billion including about 110 million for the final alone.
Returning to the comparison with the Super Bowl, where the audience figures quoted by the NFL are one billion viewers worldwide and 100 million live in the US, the Euro event does not have the same one night impact.
However, I understand that in common with the Super Bowl which advertisers use to showcase new campaigns, we are going to see the three-week long event used in a similar fashion by advertisers.
Some, for example, have been using their involvement with the tournament to assist with long running marketing campaigns. As part of its in-store promotions, McDonald's has selected 700 children to serve as 'player escorts' to accompany the stars on to the pitch at every match in the tournament.
With all that said, will it all be worth it, particularly when both the quantum of spend is considered alongside the fact that all of the advertisers are working on very much an even playing field?
The answer to that lies in the fact that we see no let-up in the interest that such events arouse in the big brands and the fact that, in Asia, there is still a great void in anything equivalent for advertisers to get their teeth stuck into other than a Grand Prix or two and the much-talked about and hyped-up Beijing Olympiad.
Let's see if that takes us into the big league.