sports management

GLOBAL FOOTBALL THE IMPACT OF CORONAVIRUS ON SPONSORSHIP

Like most industries around the globe, the global football world screeched to a halt as the coronavirus spread and grew into a worldwide pandemic. By early March, major european leagues like the English Premier League, German Bundasliga, Spanish La Liga, and Italian Serie A had suspended matches, and continental competitions like the Champions League and the Europa League soon followed suit. The halting of match play has created a season unlike anything we have seen before.

Although most leagues have restarted playing games in front of empty stadiums, the effects of the pandemic will be felt around the world’s football leagues for at least the next year.

Without match play, a major stream of content has been eliminated for fans. And it has forced players, teams, and leagues, as well as their promoted brands, to get more creative driving value through their social media channels. Some have excelled during this time, while others have not. Looking through the social data, we can paint a picture of how the coronavirus has influenced the global football world, as well as how brands have reacted.

GLOBAL FOOTBALL SPONSORSHIP REPORT

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Looking at the data between March 1 and May 14, we can begin to understand the impact of the coronavirus on the global football ecosystem.

HIGHLIGHTS

Let’s dive deeper into the total value metric. As you can see, global football entities (athletes, teams, and leagues) have generated more than $487 million for partnered brands through their social media promotion. This is actually a significant increase over the same time period last year (March 1 through May 14, 2019) when these entities drove just over $386 million for brands. This is somewhat surprising, especially when we also discover that in 2019, there were about 7,000 more posts about global football brands than during the same time in 2020 (~ 60,000 in 2019 vs ~ 53,000 in 2020). This eliminates the theory that additional value is being driven because entities starved for content are more willing to promote brands at a higher rate. Are more people more engaged with social media because of the loss of work and worldwide stay at home orders?

As the overall data shows, the pandemic has not diminished the value global football athletes, teams, and leagues can drive for partnered brands. Next, let’s look at which brands and industry segments have been particularly successful over this time frame.

Total value created by

6,800+ global football

properties through social

(AAV)

$487M

Total number of branded posts by

global football properties

52,576

Total number of followers (Instagram,

Twitter, Facebook) of

global football properties

8.2B

Total number of new followers

123M

Total number of Interactions across socials

3.9B

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As the previous section showed, the pandemic has not slowed down the value being driven by figures and entities across the global football world. In this section, we will explore which brands and brand segments have been the most successful since match play began to grind to a halt in March.

BRANDS ANALYSIS

APPAREL AND ACCESSORIES

The Apparel and Accessories brand section has performed best, receiving $111M across all brands and having the top 2 brands overall.

$54M

BRANDS OVERALL IN TERMS OF VALUE RECEIVED WERE TOP 10

$15M

$41M

$31M

$29M

$24M

$20M

$19.3M

$18.7M

$17.6M

Familiar names head the list within the segment, such as Nike, who lead the way. This is unsurprising when you see the athletes and teams that they are sponsoring. Of the athletes who have driven the most since March 1, Nike has received promoted posts from Cristiano Ronaldo (most value driven), Neymar (2nd most), Lionel Messi (3rd most), and Sergio Ramos (4th most). And this pattern continues to teams as well. Incredibly, Nike has received promoted posts from 49 of the 50 global football teams driving the most value.

It is important to note here the concept of incidental value. What this means is that even if an athlete is sponsored by a particular brand, they will sometimes generate value for

$0 $20M $40M $60M

$54M

$41M

$8M

$4M

$2M

Top Brands - Apparel & Accessories Segment

Brands Value From Social Promotion (USD)

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different brands. Take Lionel Messi for example. He is probably the best known Adidas athlete in the world, but because Nike sponsors FC Barcelona’s jerseys, whenever content is posted of him in uniform, Nike receives value. And because Nike sponsors so many famous teams’ uniforms, it often seems like they sponsor every well-known player in the world, too.

Adidas, like Nike, has some big name players and teams promoting such as Lionel Messi, Karim Benzema, Liverpool FC, and FC Barcelona. Puma, New Balance, and Umbro round out the top 5.

FINANCIAL

The second most valuable brand segment by AAV was the financial sector, which drove $100M in value and had three of the top ten brands overall.

The top five brands in this category were Mastercard, Unicredit, Santander, Standard Chartered, and Allianz. Some of the value

these brands have received comes from their associations with top teams and leagues in the global football world. Standard Chartered is the long time primary jersey sponsor of Liverpool FC, who won the Champions League last year and rank as the top team in the world by value received. Allianz serves as the stadium sponsor for both Bayern Munich and Juventus, two of the most successful and visible teams in the world. And, Santander is the leading sponsor of the Spanish first division - in fact the official name of the league is La Liga Santander.

AUTOMOTIVE

Following the financial brand segment was the automotive industry, which has generated $51M.

The top five include well known brands Ford, Nissan, Jeep, Chevrolet, and Audi. Jeep and Chevrolet are similar in that they are the primary jersey sponsors of historic clubs with legions of fans across the world. Jeep sponsors Juventus, with big name stars like Cristiano Ronaldo and Paulo Dybala donning their

$0 $10M $20M $30M

$29M

$20M

$15M

$13M

$6M

Nike has received promoted posts from 49 of the 50 global football teams driving the most value.

$0 $5M $10M $20M

$19M

$14M

$6M

$5M

$2M

$15M

Top Brands - Financial Segment

Brands Value From Social Promotion (USD)

Top Brands - Automotive Segment

Brands Value From Social Promotion (USD)

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name across the jersey. And Chevrolet is the primary sponsor for the Premier League giant Manchester United, one of the most famous clubs in the world. Elsewhere, Audi is one of the biggest sponsors of Major League Soccer in the United States.

ALCOHOL

Next up we have the alcohol industry, which generated $47M Of the alcohol brands, only Heinekin found its way into the top

ten overall. A key reason why Heineken has a significant leg up on its competition is the fact that it is the primary sponsor of the UEFA Champions League, the biggest European competition. All the top teams and players in the world play for this title, and fans tune in by the millions to watch the best teams across Europe collide, all while seeing Heineken frequently.

Other successful alcohol brands include Amstel, Carlsberg, Mahou, and Anheuser-Busch.

TRAVEL

The travel industry is one of the industries that is most connected to the world of global football, and since March 1 it has generated $33M.

$0 $5M $10M $20M

$24M

$9M

$6M

$2M

$2M

$15M $25M

$0 $5M $10M $20M

$18M

$6M

$3M

$2M

$1M

$15M

Top Brands - Alcohol Segment

Brands Value From Social Promotion (USD)

Top Brands - Travel Segment

Brands Value From Social Promotion (USD)

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The top 5 include Emirates, Qatar Airways, Hotels.com, Etihad Airways, and Marriott. Three of these companies have close ties to the governments of countries in the Persian Gulf (Emirates and Etihad Airways to the United Arab Emirates, Qatar Airways to Qatar) who also have a presence in the global football world, meaning they are active investors in the ecosystem.

Emirates is the stadium sponsor for Arsenal FC, a popular English Premier League team, as well as the jersey sponsor for Real Madrid and Paris Saint Germain (PSG). Combined these two teams have five of the top 10 most valuable players by AAV. In addition, Qatar Airways is the primary jersey sponsor for FC Barcelona, who command an army of fans across the world and rank as the second best team in the world in terms of both AAV and total engagements across social media.

CONSUMER ELECTRONICS

After travel comes consumer electronics, which was valued at $19M. The top five brands in this segment are Sony, Beko, Acer, Oppo, and Beats by Dre.

Most of these consumer electronics brands are promoted by a multitude of top teams around the world, but some have relationships with big name players that help drive visibility. For example, Beko, a sleeve patch sponsor of FC Barcelona, is promoted by Spanish stars like Lionel Messi, Gerard Pique, and Vinicius; Acer is promoted by Paul Pogba of Manchester United; and Beats by Dre is promoted by the US Women’s National Team star Alex Morgan, one of the most renowned female players in the world.

GAMBLING

Next comes the gambling industry, which accounted for a value of $18M. The top brands in this segment were bet365, Bwin, Dafabet, Betfair, and Betfred.

Gambling companies have emerged as some of the most aggressive jersey sponsors of soccer teams around the world. In 2018, 60% of all teams in the top 2 English divisions (the Premier League and the Championship) wore jerseys branded

In 2018, 60% of all teams in the top 2 English divisions (the Premier League and the Championship) wore jerseys branded with a betting company’s logo on the front.

$0 $2M $4M $8M

$9M

$7M

$835K

$500K

$440K

$6M $10M $0 $2M $4M $8M

$8M

$6M

$910K

$840K

$570K

$6M $10M

Top Brands - Consumer Electronics Segment

Brands Value From Social Promotion (USD)

Top Brands - Gambling Segment

Brands Value From Social Promotion (USD)

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with a betting company’s logo on the front. Although these companies rarely sponsor huge global powerhouses, they are ubiquitous with mid-table teams. For example, Dafabet is the current sponsor for small Premier League team Norwich City FC. An exception is Bwin, who in the past sponsored Real Madrid’s jerseys and today sponsors spanish side Valencia. These companies’ prevalence cannot be overstated. In 2018, bet365 announced partnerships with 10(!) La Liga teams. A problematic development in this industry is that governments in England and Italy have moved to pass legislation limiting gambling advertising similar to when the United States took action when DraftKings and FanDuel were advertising at an extreme rate.

BEVERAGE

Finally, we have the beverage brand segment, which accounted for $16M in value since sports began to shut down. Big name companies from different styles of the beverage industry lead the way. Soft drink brands Pepsi and Coca-Cola are, unsurprisingly, the top two, while Gatorade, Red Bull, and Chaokoh complete the top five.

Coca Cola, Pepsi, and Gatorade follow the traditional promotion method, with players, teams, and leagues promoting their brands. However, Red Bull has taken a slightly different approach. Red Bull has actually founded and completely bought out select teams in different countries. In Austria, they bought out the team formerly known as SV Austria Salzburg, renaming it Red Bull Salzburg, as well as buying stadium naming rights and jersey sponsoring rights. This team is now a walking advertisement for Red Bull. In Germany they did something similar, forming a new team called RB Leipzig (German corporate rules don’t allow the use of Red Bull in the name of a club). Through astute player development and financing, they have turned both of these teams into successful European clubs, who, last year, could advertise Red Bull in the Champions League. Both the traditional strategy, as well as Red Bull’s innovative one have led to success both when games play as scheduled, and when they aren’t.

$0 $1M $2M $4M

$5M

$4M

$3M

$1.3K

$1.1K

$3M $5M

Top Brands - Beverage Segment

Brands Value From Social Promotion (USD)

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LEAGUE PERFORMANCE

LA LIGA

The Spanish first division, better known as La Liga, has been the cream of the crop both in terms of value and interactions generated since play halted. In fact, La Liga’s value created - about $11.6 million - is more than $10 million more than the next best league (the Bundesliga), and the Spanish top flight has more than 15k more interactions (likes, shares, comments) than the next best league (the English Premier League).

The data shows that a huge reason for La Liga’s advantage over other historic leagues is the popularity of its top two teams, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. These teams have huge fan bases not only in Spain, but around the world. In terms of value generated, FC Barcelona ranks second worldwide (at more than $57 million) and Real Madrid rank fourth overall (at just over $51 million) since March 1. The next best team in La Liga is Atletico Madrid, an up-and-coming powerhouse in global football, who rank all the way back at 28th with a little more than $1 million generated. As you can see, there is a huge drop off between the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid and the rest of the league. For further evidence, the fifth most successful team in terms of value generated in La Liga is Valencia FC with just over $66k, about nine hundred times less than Barcelona.

The primary reason FC Barcelona and Real Madrid have become so beloved worldwide is that through the years they have attracted many of the top players in the world. From the likes of Diego Maradona to Ronaldinho to Alfredo Di Stefano to Zinedine Zidane. And the same is true in the present.

When we look at the top players in La Liga in terms of value generated, FC Barcelona and Real Madrid dominate. Lionel Messi ranks first in La Liga and third worldwide, followed by four Real Madrid players: Sergio Ramos (4th worldwide), Karim Benzema (5th worldwide), Gareth Bale (7th overall), and Vinicius Jr (8th overall). The first non-Real Madrid or FC Barcelona player is Atletico Madrid’s Joao Felix at 32nd overall.

By leveraging the global superpower brands of FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, as well as the players on the current rosters, La Liga has been able to dominate all opposing leagues in terms of value received and interactions generated.

TOP 5

La Liga (Spain) 119M

LEAGUES TOTAL INTERACTIONS

English Premier League 103M

Bundesliga 16M

MLS 7M

Liga MX 6M

Since the coronavirus pandemic shut down almost all of the world’s leagues in early March, players, teams, and leagues have had to adjust on the fly to provide interesting content to a global football fan base starved for action and desperate for competition.

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ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE

The English Premier League is the most visible league in the world, with the largest following across social media and the greatest number of well-known teams. Despite this, they trail both La Liga, and, somewhat surprisingly, the German Bundesliga in terms of value generated for partner brands. Since March 1, the league has generated just shy of $1M in value for sponsors through social media. However, when looking at engagement metrics the power and influence of the league is apparent. With over 103 million interactions across its social channels during this time, the league is right up there with La Liga for the top spot, and has almost 87 million more interactions generated than the next best league - the Bundesliga.

Unlike La Liga, the Premier League doesn’t have two teams that dominate the league and accumulate massive followings worldwide. The league is widely considered the most competitive one in the world, and routinely has 5-6 teams challenging for the title in any given year. This distribution of strength is apparent when we analyze team value generated. The Premier League has five of the top ten teams in terms of value generated for partners. Leading the way is Liverpool FC, who rank first out of any team in terms of value generated at over $72 million. Historic and world famous clubs Manchester United and Chelsea FC are next best - and from a global perspective these two teams rank third and fifth overall, respectively. Rounding out the league’s top five are Tottenham Hotspur (ninth overall), and Manchester City (tenth overall).

Another way that the Premier League differs from La Liga is that it isn’t as “star-driven.” The English teams tend to rank higher worldwide in terms of value driven than players do. This isn’t to say that the league has no star players, but fans are tuning in to root more for their teams than for specific players. Still, some players are very valuable. The first is Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba, who has used his flashy hairstyles and goal celebrations to accumulate a huge social media following. Pogba ranks sixth worldwide in terms of value driven. Within the Premier League, he is followed by Arsenal midfielder Mesut Ozil (10th worldwide), Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford (13th worldwide), Manchester City goal scoring machine Raheem Sterling (17th worldwide), and Tottenham midfielder Dele Alli (19th worldwide). One thing the last three names have in common is that all are British players who also play for the English National Team.

The English Premier League offers a stark contrast to La Liga’s style of leveraging two famous teams. Instead, the league shows how tribal fans can be as they root for their favorite team despite player turnover.

GERMAN BUNDESLIGA

When it comes to doing more with less in terms of value generated, the German Bundesliga has thrived since play stopped. As we touched on earlier, the league has been able to generate more value than the English Premier League (and every other global football league save for La Liga) despite having much less global popularity and social media clout. Since

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March 1, the German league has generated about $1 million for partnered brands. This becomes particularly impressive when you analyze the league’s social media metrics in comparison. The Bundesliga has about 15 million followers across its social networks and has generated about 16 million engagements. This is only a few million more followers than Mexico’s Liga MX, and the top leagues in the world generate about seven times more engagement. Despite this, the league is among the best when it comes to value generated.

Looking at the teams within the league, it is apparent that the Bundesliga follows the La Liga style of having a couple very famous teams at the top and a steep drop off afterwards. In this case, Bayern Munich is the league’s prominent team. Bayern has won the league a record 29 times, including 14 of the last 20 and seven in a row since 2013. They are also a renowned team globally, consistently competing for the Champions League. Worldwide, they rank as the 7th best team in terms of value generated at about $13 million since March 1. The drop off in the Bundesliga after Bayern is even greater than in La Liga. The next best team in terms of value generated is Borussia Dortmund, who rank 69th at $174,500. After Dortmund comes VFL Wolfsburg (77th worldwide), followed by FC Schalke 04 (90th), and RB Leipzig (97th). The good news for the Bundesliga is that it was the first of the major global football leagues worldwide to restart, giving it a monopoly on games played even if those games don’t have fans in the stadium. This increased coverage certainly provided more engagement and value for brands in the short term and could draw in more fans for the long term.

Zooming in even closer, unsurprisingly we find that players on Bayern Munich are also driving the most value for brands. At the top of the list we have an anomaly, however. Young English phenom Jadon Sancho of Borussia Dortmund leads the way with $276,000 in value generated since March 1st. Compared to the Premier League and La Liga, this is a very small number for a player leading the league in value generated. Sancho ranks just 37th worldwide. This is a difference between the other leagues and the Bundesliga, even with a famous team at the top, there are no players generating much value. After Sancho, it is all Bayern players rounding out the top five, with Robert Lewondowski (44th worldwide), Alphonso Davies (46th), Thomas Muller (55th), and David Alaba (64th).

Despite having lower engagement numbers, lesser known players, and a smaller following than La Liga and the Premier League, the German Bundesliga has been able to drive good value for partner brands and can now look to capitalize on their time alone in the spotlight.

SERIE A

Finally, let’s look at the last of Europe’s “top 4” leagues: the Italian Serie A. Serie A was hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 virus, as Italy was the first European country to experience large numbers of infections. It was the first league to attempt to hold games in front of empty arenas, and then the first league to postpone games entirely as the situation spiraled out of control. However, with big name teams and world famous players calling Italy home, the league, its teams, and its players have been able to drive value for brands despite the cancellation of matches.

Serie A offers a fantastic blend between the star-powered style of La Liga and the team-oriented loyalty of the Premier League. Similarly to the Premier League, Serie A has a large number of famous and competitive teams at the top who consistently challenge for titles. Despite the recent domination of Juventus (winners of the last 8 titles), teams like AC Milan, Inter Milan, SSC Napoli, AS Roma, SS Lazio, and Atalanta BC are competitive on the world stage and have large followings worldwide. The league mixes this competitiveness with tremendous star power, too. Look no further than Juventus’ Cristiano Ronaldo, the most famous global football player, if not the most famous athlete, in the entire world.

Despite this, the league has drawn disappointing value and engagement metrics since March 1. Shockingly, official Serie A league accounts have just 7.9 million followers across social networks. This is less than the US’ MLS (8.3 million), and significantly less than Mexico’s Liga MX (11.9 million). This may explain why the league’s engagement numbers rank below the likes of the Russian Premier League and only slightly above the Indian Super League.

This becomes more confounding when we look at the value the teams are driving under the Serie A umbrella. Unsurprisingly, Juventus is the team driving the most value at about $20.6

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million, good for the sixth most in the entire world. The team from the northern city of Turin not only has the advantage of history with 35 titles won, including each of the last 8, but also has some of the biggest names in world football donning its black and white striped jerseys. Cristiano Ronaldo and Paulo Dybala are the two most prominent examples, and they follow in the footsteps of all-time greats like Alessandro Del Piero and Michel Platini. Following Juventus on the list of value driven are two more global powerhouses in Inter Milan with $7.5 million (12th in the world), and AS Roma with $3.6 million (15th globally). The top five are completed by Diego Maradona’s old team, the historic SSC Napoli (61st globally), and upstarts Atalanta BC (78th globally), who last year had their greatest season in club history.

When it comes to players driving the most value in Serie A, the spotlight shines on Cristiano Ronaldo. In almost every category, the goal scoring legend dominates. He has driven about $10.4 million for partnered brands since March 1, more than $4 million more than the next best player (Neymar). He also has about 150,000 more interactions on posts than the next best player (Neymar again) and by far the best interaction per post ratio at 7.5k. After Ronaldo comes his Juventus counterpart Paulo Dybala. Dybala has used his popularity both in Italy and in his home country of Argentina to become one of the best known players in the world. Dybala not only ranks ninth worldwide in value driven ($1.1 million), but also fourth worldwide in interactions generated (49 million). After Dybala comes Papu Gomez. It is surprising that Gomez ranks so high on this list, but he has developed a cult following among fans of Atalanta BC because of the role he plays on this overachieving team. His teammate, the Slovenian midfielder Josup Illicic is also in the top five in terms of value driven among Serie A players. The last player on the list is Juventus winger Douglas Costa. The Brazilian has played for a number of big teams including Bayern Munich and his fancy footwork has made him a fan favorite for years.

Serie A’s famous players and competitive teams make it a great league for both fans and brands. Because of this great mix, it is surprising that the league itself is not able to drive more value.

When it comes to players driving the most value in Serie A, the spotlight shines on Cristiano Ronaldo.

Starting from the players side, some clear content themes emerge that are particularly successful with fans and drive large amounts of value for brands. When looking at the most successful posts by top ten athletes (in terms of value driven), one of themes that emerges are viral challenges. Take for instance Cristiano Ronaldo’s “Living Room Cup.” In this challenge, which he posted on Instagram, Ronaldo sets a timer for 45 seconds and does as many ab crunches as he can. He then challenges his fans to do the same and try to beat his record. Challenges like these allow fans to train like their favorite players and connect with them. Other athletes have followed suit. One of Lionel Messi’s top posts invites fans to visit a link in his bio for a new challenge. These stay-at-home challenges are fun, easy to share with friends, and allow fans to feel closely connected to the athletes they adore.

Another theme among players that is popular with fans is posting throwback clips of goals they scored and skill moves they did back when games were being played. Take for example

TRENDING CONTENT Finally, the last piece of information we can learn from examining the global football data since play stopped in early March is what types of posts are the most successful at driving value, driving engagement, or both.

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this video that Karim Benzema posted on his Instagram of an old skill move he made in a game against Atletico Madrid, or this video that Sergio Ramos posted of a skill he pulled off in the warmups for a Champions League game.

The final popular theme that emerges when analyzing successful posts by athletes is documenting their daily lives in quarantine. Fans want a window into players’ everyday lives, so videos of players working out at home on the treadmill, cooking food for the family, playing soccer in the driveway with their mom, or clapping their hands for essential workers tend to drive great value for brands and attract the attention of many fans. One final interesting note from the players side is that a majority of the value and engagement comes from Instagram. Almost every single player’s top post comes off of that platform. This is a departure from the trends we see among teams, where oftentimes the posts that generate a lot of value come off of other platforms such as Facebook.

Let’s transition now away from athletes and to the team perspective. As we just touched on, one of the main differences we see between teams and athletes is that teams are able to drive value and engagement on a more diverse set of platforms. Still, there are two major trends in successful content posted by teams.

One final interesting note from the players side is that a majority of the value and engagement comes from Instagram.

The other piece of popular content posted by team accounts is videos or photos from practice. Although games are not being played, all leagues have permitted players to resume training in preparation for the season getting back underway. Videos of practice like this one from FC Barcelona are popular with fans eager for play to begin once again. The other advantage that this training footage has is that it is often reposted by the official league account. Thus, fans who don’t follow FC Barcelona but follow La Liga are able to engage with this content, or people who don’t follow Manchester City but follow the Premier League can generate impressions.

Using the data from players, teams, and leagues from March 1 through May 14, we can paint a picture of what successful content looks like for a fan population starved for game content as games continue to be postponed. It will be interesting to see if the content trends stay the same as leagues start to ease restrictions and schedule games once again.

Predictably, the first piece of successful content teams have been posting is old game highlights or famous moments from seasons past. When it comes to engagements driven, nothing beats this type of content. This old footage can come from years ago. Take for example this post from Real Madrid remembering Cristiano Ronaldo’s incredible bicycle kick goal against Juventus in the 2017/18 Champions League, or this post from FC Barcelona asking fans about their favorite all- time Champions League goal scored by the team. This footage can also be recent. One of Liverpool’s most popular posts was a replay of midfielder James Milner’s goal line clearance from earlier this season, and similarly, one of Manchester United’s most popular posts was a set of game highlights from a rivalry victory over Manchester City from earlier in the season.

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After diving deeper into the different industries and sports properties, we can start to make broader conclusions about why certain brand segments are receiving more value from the world of global football and what sports properties are driving the most values and engagement. Let’s start by looking at the most successful brand segments.

TAKEAWAYS Since play stopped, the Apparel and Accessories segment has received massive value, to the tune of $111.6 million. This comes out to be about 17% of all value received by brands between March 1-May 14th from the world of global football. $94.8 million of that total number comes from just two brands, Nike and Adidas. These Apparel brands have such a huge advantage because of all the incidental value they receive. Whenever a player or team posts a photo or video from a game, the Nike swoosh or Adidas three-stripes logo is visible because they sponsor the team or league’s uniforms. Oftentimes, famous athletes are also sponsored by one of these brands as well, so in any photos or videos taken outside of the field, they are likely dressed head to toe in that brand’s clothes. For example, an athlete could be posting a seemingly non-branded post, like a “Stay home, stay safe” message for fans to follow stay-at-home orders, but they are doing it in a Nike tracksuit, driving value for Nike.

Take this Instagram photo by Manchester City superstar Raheem Sterling. This is not an explicitly branded post, Sterling just wants to tell his fans that he is back training with the team ready for the season to resume. But Puma and Marathon Bet each receive value because of the training top and shorts that he is wearing in the photo. This photo was actually reposted on to the official Premier League Instagram account, meaning it drew even more eyes, leading to more value for the brands involved.

This theme shines even brighter when we look at the top ten brands in terms of value received since March 1. The gap between the top ten brands and the rest is wide. Over 40% of total value received by all brands was received by these top 10 brands. And when we look at these brands, most are not only receiving value from explicitly promoted content, but from incidental content as well. Heineken (5th overall in value received since March 1) and Santander (10th) each sponsor a major soccer league and receive visibility in posts like this one for La Liga, or this one for the Champions League (look at the stadium board surrounding the field). Gazprom (8th) and Emirates (9th) are the jersey sponsors for popular teams around the globe (Real Madrid, AC Milan, Arsenal, Zenit St. Petersburg, FC Schalke 04), and receive value from players’ posts like this one or teams’ posts like this one. And as we touched on before, Nike and Adidas are omnipresent across players’, teams’, and leagues’ content.

GLOBAL FOOTBALL SPONSORSHIP REPORT 2726 GLOBAL FOOTBALL SPONSORSHIP REPORT

Pivoting away from brands to the sports properties promoting these brands, we find some interesting insights when we look at which entities are driving value and engagement. First let’s focus on AAV, in other words, the value these entities are driving.

Players, teams, and leagues combined to drive about $487.1 million between March 1 and May 14. Of this value, an astounding $403.1 million was generated by teams, nearly 83% of the total. About 13% of value was driven by the players, and just 4% of value was driven by leagues. The vast majority of value is being driven by teams. While these seem like surprising numbers, when we dig a little deeper it starts to make more sense. On average, teams promote far more brands than players or leagues do. When looking at the top ten teams in terms of value driven, they, on average, promoted 165 brands. Compare this to the top ten players, who averaged 12, and the top ten leagues, who averaged 56. Global football teams have done a good job of continuing to promote their partners during the months of sports on hold and global lockdown.

Take an example from Liverpool FC. This was a recent post from the team account. In it, the logos of Nike, New Balance, and the insurance brand AXA are visible. Compare that to a recent post by star player Mohamed Salah. In Salah’s you can see the Adidas logo, but that is all. Players often post their activities off of the field, which lend themselves less to sponsorship and driving value for brands. Teams, meanwhile, almost always post content from games or with players in uniform, which is ripe for driving value.

When we look at total social media engagement, the numbers begin to even out between types of sports entities. Teams still account for about 56% of all interactions, but players jump up to 36%, while leagues stay down at 8%. This is logical, as fans oftentimes use social media to communicate directly with their favorite players. Fans use team accounts to encourage players or provide criticism, but for daily updates and the most personal information available, it is easier and more effective to get your information directly from the players themselves.

At Hookit, our goal is to evolve the sponsorship model in the age of new media, advanced technology, and changing fan behavior. While marketing analytics have been applied to nearly every other type of marketing spend, sponsorship has lagged behind in measurement even as social media has dramatically changed the dynamics of sponsorship, creating huge opportunities for brands to engage fans and target consumers.

As a pioneer in the Spontech space, Hookit brings the power of AI to revolutionize the way brands invest in sponsorships in order to maximize their ROI. Our platform allows brands and sports organizations to evaluate their current partnerships, optimize their sponsorship strategies, and discover new potential partners.

ABOUT HOOKIT

28 GLOBAL FOOTBALL SPONSORSHIP REPORT

To learn more, email us at [email protected] or visit www.hookit.com