The changes aren’t likely to affect individual team fandom, but the shifts, which are the most extensive in recent history, will affect how teams show up on TV and who will get to see their games.

As with many aspects of the media industry, the audience is the key factor in the conference realignment, much of which won’t take effect until the 2024 season. That’s when eight teams will leave the Pac-12 to join conferences with more lucrative TV deals: Four will join the Big Ten and four will join the Big 12.

Unlike the other Power Five¹ conference members, the Pac-12 does not have a long-term TV rights deal, which has a direct impact on the revenue each member school receives. For example, the Big Ten expects its seven-year deal with CBS, FOX and NBC to be lucrative enough to distribute between $80 million and $100 million annually to each member school. The $8 billion deal is the biggest in the history of college athletics, and it gives the contract holders access to some of NCAA football’s highest-ranked and most-watched teams, including Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State.

Conference membership affects all sports within each member school, but the shifts in recent years have all been motivated by the rights associated with live football games. Based on an analysis of the value associated with each conference’s TV exposure during the 2022 season, the realignments that take effect next year will have a significant impact for the SEC, Big Ten and Pac-12.

The value of TV exposure is clear. One-third of Americans say they’re college football fans², making the league the fourth-most popular in the U.S. (behind the NFL, NBA and MLB). And big teams draw big viewership: More than 17 million viewers³ watched last year’s marquee late-season matchup between Ohio State and Michigan, the highest viewership of the regular season. For comparison, nearly 2.3 million viewers³ watched the Brooklyn Nets play the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round of last year’s NBA playoffs.

While top-ranking teams and storied rivalries will always command national TV coverage, the implications of the conference membership changes will have different outcomes at the local market level. Last year’s week 8 game between UCLA and Oregon (which will both leave the Pac-12 next year) attracted a national audience of 3.34 million³. Once these two teams join the Big Ten, they will expand the conference’s TV audience across the entire country and both coasts.

To better understand how the conference changes will shape local TV viewership beyond individual games, we examined the difference between Pac-12 and Big Ten TV viewing in Los Angeles, Portland and Seattle during the 2022 season. These designated market areas (DMAs) are home to four West Coast teams⁴ that will switch conferences next year.

Due to the size of these three markets, last season’s Pac-12 programming reached 123% more households and 151% more individual viewers than Big Ten programming did⁵. And while the 0.1 difference in co-viewing might seem insignificant at face value, it becomes far more meaningful when you multiply it by the total viewing population of the three DMAs.

When we break down the aggregate conference viewing, we can see the impact that the conference changes will have on each individual market. Despite the sprawling population of Los Angeles—home to UCLA and USC—Portland stands to gain the biggest percentage lift in viewership next season.

While the Big Ten will benefit next year from the arrival of USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington, the Big 12 will benefit from the arrival of the University of Colorado, home to this year’s hottest college football story. The Colorado Buffaloes have been in the news ever since NFL legend Deion Sanders took over as head coach last year, but the team’s 3-1 start, including an upset over TCU (Texas Christian University) to open the season, has made their games must-see TV for football fans. In fact, the team’s double-overtime victory over Colorado State on Sept. 16 attracted 9.3 million viewers³ despite the fact that it didn’t start until after 10 pm ET. The team’s Sept. 23 game against Oregon attracted more than 10 million live and same-day viewers, the largest audience of the season.

While our national TV exposure value analysis doesn’t suggest a significant change (+1%) for the Big 12 when Colorado joins next year (along with Arizona, Arizona State and Utah), the impact on local TV viewing is a different story. The impact of Coach Prime was immediate, as the Denver TV audience for the Buffaloes’ first game was 117% higher than last year’s. And that was just a starting point.

In aggregate, the increased attention bodes well for the Pac-12 this year and the Big 12 next year, as the average viewership at the household level is up 976% and up more than 1,100% among viewers 2 and older. The hype over the Buffaloes is also boosting co-viewing by 15% this year.

There’s no mistaking the appeal of NCAA college football among sports fans, especially when big matchups come to town. And while marquee rivalries will always command national TV exposure, we can see how local market TV viewership contributes to the value associated with the teams involved with the most recent changes among the Power 5 NCAA conferences.

Sources

¹The five most prominent and highest-earning athletic conferences in Division I NCAA football: ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC
²Nielsen Fan Insights; Q2 2023
³Nielsen National TV Panel; live + same day viewing (3 a.m.-3 a.m.)
⁴UCLA, USC, Oregon, Washington
⁵Nielsen Local TV measurement

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The 2023 Women’s World Cup is here and so are our predictions for which teams will advance and who will go on to take home the gold. Gracenote’s Head of Analysis Simon Gleave talked us through the dynamic dataset and how we make sure it stays accurate throughout the tournament.

Game predictions are just a slice of the insights available for sports broadcasters and content providers through Gracenote.

Access to a constant flow of data like schedules, live results, athlete profiles, medal tables and more to build engaging audience experiences that keeps sports fans tuned in.

Learn how you can deliver a winning fan experience.

Visit our Global Sports Data solution

The post 2023 Women’s World Cup tournament predictions appeared first on Nielsen.

Interest in women’s sports is growing at a meteoric pace. 

The 2023 NCAA tournament drew nearly 10 million viewers for the final game between Iowa and LSU—up 103% from the previous year. The WNBA draft audience increased 42% between 2022 and 2023 and was up 89% with female viewers¹. Interest in the Women’s Super League increased 81% from 2022 to 2023², and this year, 41% of the global population are excited for the Women’s World Cup, rising from 34% before the 2019 Women’s World Cup³. 

This massive shift hasn’t occurred in a vacuum. It’s the result of brands, sponsors and broadcasters investing in and prioritizing women’s sports. 

Visibility for the win

Consider how the BBC approached women’s football in the past four years. Previously, women’s football fans had to search high and low to watch their favorite teams compete. While a few games were shown on main linear channels, the rest were tucked away in digital space. But then, in 2019, the broadcaster doubled down on the Women’s World Cup, showing nearly triple the number of matches compared with the Women’s Euro 2017 on Channel 4. Three years later, the broadcaster did it again, prioritizing the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 by airing 26 matches in total⁴.

Source: British Audience Ratings Bureau

The BBC not only gave more prominence to channel slots, but they also promoted the coverage of the 2019 and 2022 tournaments—along with other women’s sports—through an integrated campaign.

Between 2017 and 2019, U.K. viewership rose from 11.7 million to 68.6 million. In 2022, 57.9 million people watched the UEFA European Women’s Football Championship. This growth was largely led by women ages 35+, but in looking at new male audiences, younger fans are particularly interested in women’s sports, reinforcing the diversity of the growing appeal⁵.

These major tournaments are drawing bigger and bigger audiences, creating a halo effect of opportunity for the players, the fans and the sponsors. Nearly 80% of the general population are now aware of the 2023 Women’s World Cup and 40% find it appealing—the highest scores for any female competition⁶.

The takeaway is clear: Prioritizing the access and promotion of women’s sports increases visibility and grows audiences and sponsorship opportunities. To do so, broadcasters and sponsors must internalize these three facts.

Sources

The post Women’s sports viewership on the rise. appeared first on Nielsen.

Interest in women’s football is growing fast. Excitement for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup is up 7 percentage points from the 2019 tournament¹. There are a bevy of reasons driving this rise, but one chief among them is the players themselves. 

The relationship between athletes and fans is powerful. Think back to the first player you connected with. Did they inspire you? Make you feel seen? Sway what cereal you ate or shoes you bought? Sixty-five percent² of global sports fans agree that female athletes can be role models in society. In some ways, athletes are the original influencers. And finding an athlete you connect with can deepen your interest in the tournament, team and sport itself. 

We tapped Nielsen InfluenceScope to discover Instagram’s 10 most influential athletes and the 10 breakthrough players for the 2023 Women’s World Cup. Given the right platform and brand partner, these athletes have tremendous potential to supercharge the growth of women’s football.

Instagram’s 10 most influential female football players

Note: Leah Williamson (England) would have ranked fourth, but is not included in the list due to injury.
Note: World Cup 2023 is Kerr’s hometown tournament, which could potentially increase her follower growth and sponsor value significantly.
The methodology includes a range of performance and sponsorship-related key performance indicators (KPI) including social following, content engagement, fan base growth, quality, reachability and equivalent media value of branded content published by each player. Leveraging the flexibility of InfluenceScope, different weights are given to each KPI in order to distinguish them in terms of importance. All data is from June 2022 – May 2023.

Take Alisha Lehmann, a Swiss forward who plays for Aston Villa who ranked No. 1 on our list. Her Instagram following has increased by 75% in the last 12 months to more than 13.4 million, making her the most popular Swiss sports person on the platform—even more followed than tennis legend Roger Federer. 

Spain’s Alexia Putellas, the 2022 Ballon d’Or winner, grew her following by 65% over the past year, Manchester United Alessia Russo forward increased hers by 280%, and VfL Wolfsburg and Germany’s Jule Brand’s following went up by an eye-popping 517%, the highest growth by a player in Nielsen’s top-10 most influential players. 

While these players may have less reach than some of their male counterparts, they often have higher engagement and a much more reachable audience. This represents a huge opportunity for brands, says Jon Stainer, Managing Director of Nielsen Sports. 

“The footballers participating at World Cup 2023 are not only exceptional sports women but also social media powerhouses, capable of driving impactful conversations and fostering genuine connections with their followers,” says Stainer.

Instagram’s 10 biggest breakthrough players (born 2000 or later)

In the case of breakthrough players, leveraging the flexibility of InfluenceScope, more weight was given to the growth in following and performance over the past year than to more static KPIs: the solution allows the weight of each KPI and—at a later stage—of each data point to be changed according to the objectives.

The data shows just how potent the connection is between these athletes and their followers. Across Instagram, more than half of the creators have an engagement rate below 5%. Seven of the women on Nielsen’s top 10 list are above that, and all of the biggest breakthrough players are above that benchmark by wide margins.

Those connections lead to the kind of results that make sponsors’ ears perk up. Seventy-one percent of consumers trust advertising, opinions and product placements from influencers, according to the 2021 Nielsen Trust in Advertising study. In another study, where Nielsen’s Brand Impact service measured the effectiveness of influencer ads in nearly 200 campaigns, the results were even more impressive. An average of 80% of people who viewed influencer ads were able to recall seeing the brand featured in the ads, and the ads also drove a nine-point increase in both brand affinity and purchase intent relative to consumers who didn’t see them. 

When engagement rates are this high, it translates into significant value for sponsors. As a group, the top 10 female footballers deliver an average of over $65,000 USD of media value per post. On her own, Lehmann’s posts embody more than $300,000 USD in media value per post, and Barcelona midfielder Alexia Putellas posts are still valued at $100,000 USD despite being injured for most of the past year. 

These athlete influencers are especially well suited for the platforms they exist on. Instagram is generally dominated by women and younger audiences, allowing sponsors to reach these coveted demographics, who they may struggle to communicate with otherwise.

As we head into the 2023 World Cup, these athletes can be a critical force for unlocking new heights for the tournament, the sport and all of women’s sports for years to come. The fan engagement and brand value is already there, and with the right partnerships and promotion, new audiences are sure to follow.  

For more insights and stats, explore our Women’s World Cup data hub. 

Sources

¹Nielsen Brand Tracker – FIFA Women’s World Cup, April 2019 – Jan 2023
²Nielsen Fan Insights, March 2023, Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Spain, U.K. and U.S.

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Bridget Nelson, Head of Brand Performance and Audience Research at MassMutual, joined us as we discussed: 

• The role of sports sponsorship in MassMutual’s marketing mix
• Using data to evolve a brand’s sponsorship strategy
• Optimizing sponsorship investments by holistically measuring impact on business objectives

The post Building brands with sports sponsorship appeared first on Nielsen.

Compared with most live sports in the U.S., which air outside of traditional work and school hours, the majority of the World Cup games were held at times when many Americans would be otherwise indisposed. That fact notwithstanding, this year’s World Cup matches, especially those involving the U.S. team, attracted massive TV audiences in the U.S. In fact, three of the matches the U.S. team competed in this year are in the top 10 most-watched English broadcast World Cup matches in the U.S. dating back to 1994. And this year’s U.S.-England match boasted a U.S. audience of almost 15.5 million to the English telecast—the highest U.S. viewership of any men’s World Cup game to date.

For context, consider the viewership associated with new fall TV programming—the primary driver of the annual advertising upfronts. This year, the four primary English broadcast networks¹ attracted an average of 3.9 million viewers for primetime programming airing in the first month of the new fall TV season². The audience grows to 5.5 million when we factor in time-shifted viewing over one week, but the aggregate viewership still pales in comparison to that of the World Cup matches featuring the U.S. Those four matches engaged an average of 12.2 million viewers across English telecasts.

The viewership of this year’s tournament is perhaps more notable when Nielsen Fan Insights indicates that just 28% of U.S. respondents are interested in soccer. Overall, Americans remain most interested in the NFL, the Olympics, the NBA and MLB.

The appeal and interest in this year’s tournament has also withstood some intense competition. From an audience perspective, fall is when linear TV programming gets a boost, and this year was no exception, as sports viewing increased 222% in September as the new American football season kicked off. In October, sports viewing volume increased another 19%, just ahead of the start of the year’s World Cup, which is typically held in the summer.

By the time the tournament started, the matches that were broadcast on traditional cable began challenging other sports events for slots in Nielsen’s weekly top 10 listings. And over Thanksgiving weekend, possibly the biggest sports viewing period of the fall, survey respondents claimed the World Cup was their third choice for sports viewing, coming in behind NFL and college football. Yet perhaps more noteworthy is that the two matches listed in the top 10 cable listing for the week of Nov. 21-27, 2022, didn’t feature the U.S. men’s team:

• 4.1 million tuned in for the Argentina-Mexico match
• 3.6 million tuned in for the Spain-Germany match

Given the 90-minute matches, tuning in—especially midday—is a commitment. Most Americans acknowledge the need to balance their interest in the games with other aspects of their daily lives. While the majority of fans are keeping track of the action by watching highlights on TV, many are following on social media and hearing from others via word of mouth, including texting. And with 47% texting and 43%³ scrolling on social media, big moments in individual matches have attracted audiences who might not have already been tuned in.

Take the Group State match between Brazil and Serbia for example. Nielsen Gracenote had given Serbia a 32% chance of advancing, possibly limiting audience engagement for the Thanksgiving Day matchup with tournament-favorite Brazil. But when Brazil’s Richarlison de Andrade, known mononymously as Richarlison, made a dynamic scissor kick goal just before the 73-minute mark, viewership jumped 7% during the five minutes following the goal.

Given the wide appeal of live sports, sponsorship activations remain a key way that brands can engage with new and existing fans. And while long-term success will hinge on bridging the gap between awareness and conversion, sponsorship activations in the sports industry have risen in their ability to convert fans.

For example, our 2022 annual sports report noted that during the pandemic, when we controlled for the impact of changing levels of brand awareness and sponsorship maturity, levels of purchase intent among exposed fans were higher than levels of brand familiarity. In addition, a recent Nielsen analysis of 100 sponsorships between 2020 and 2021 in seven markets across 20 industries found that the sponsorships drove an average 10% lift in purchase intent among the exposed fanbase.

During this year’s World Cup, nearly two-thirds of those who watched or intended to watch live World Cup matches in our World Cup Viewing Habits Survey said they recalled the ads they saw during the matches they watched. And not surprisingly, food, snack and alcoholic beverage brands benefited the most, gaining the best recall among audiences.

The World Cup, like the Olympics, presents a unique opportunity for brands and agencies to attract audiences who might not otherwise be inspired to watch. With an average 4.7 million⁴ people watching the 2022 men’s World Cup live on cable and broadcast—higher than the average primetime programming we saw this year—advertisers would be wise to consider global tentpole sporting events in their marketing mix.

From a soccer perspective, they won’t have long to wait to score a golden goal, as the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup is just around the corner. The opportunity therein speaks for itself; the 2015 final between the U.S. and Japan was the most watched World Cup match (men and women) of all time.

Notes

1. ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX
2. Sept. 20-Oct. 17, 2022
3. Nielsen World Cup Viewing Habits Survey, Nov. 27-Dec. 1, 2022
4. Nielsen National TV Panel

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The tide of popularity is turning for football in North America, to the benefit of sponsors and advertisers. Since 2015, the U.S. has added 10 clubs to the MLS, while Canada founded the Canadian Premier League in 2017 with eight current teams and Mexico’s Liga MX boasts some of the largest crowds of any North American league¹. 

This new popularity is creating hotspots of football fan bases across future host countries. In Canada, for instance, interest in football in general has increased 32.8% since the announcement that the country will host 10 2026 World Cup matches². And according to Nielsen Scarborough, in the U.S. Houston is the 2026 World Cup host city with the most football fans per capita, followed by Los Angeles and Miami/Ft. Lauderdale.

World Cup host cities are home to their own football clubs, so fan concentration in these areas makes sense. But, importantly, the popularity of local teams can spread to surrounding areas, enlarging the sphere of influence for advertisers that partner with regional teams or athletes.

To reach these fans, advertisers are using social media sites like Twitter, TikTok and Twitch. According to Nielsen’s 2022 World Football Report, while free-to-air television is still the preferred method of viewing matches (81%) for football fans who watch sports, social media is now a go-to platform, with 72% of fans claiming they use apps to watch the action. 

And when their teams do well, fans flock to social media to follow and like and engage with content. The Canadian men’s team, for example, saw a significant increase in social media content & interactions in the 2021/2022 season after qualifying for their first World Cup in 36 years. The women’s national team saw a similar increase in social media engagement when they won gold in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

The qualification also sparked interest in football for Canadians in general, with 35.6% saying they are now more interested in watching football than before the team qualified for the World Cup, according to Nielsen Fan Insights.

National team football fans in each host country prefer YouTube for sports news and content. While Twitch is among the lowest used by percentage, fans over index significantly on its use compared to the general population. To further expand its reach for the 2022 World Cup, Twitch is adding a live streaming component to their coverage for the first time, granting Brazilian Twitch influencer Casimiro Miguel the rights to stream matches to his millions of followers.

In addition to the notable on-screen audience exposure that sponsors receive on both live TV and social media, Nielsen’s 2021 Trust in Advertising study found that brand sponsorships in sporting events rank just behind recommendations from friends and family, as 81% of consumers reported either completely or somewhat trusting them (vs. 89% who trust recommendations). Football fans are also eager to learn more about the brands sponsoring their favorite team—56% of percent actively inform themselves about brands engaged as a sports sponsor.

But football sponsorships are more than an opportunity to increase brand awareness—they can be the key to staying top of mind with fans when it comes time to make a purchase. According to Nielsen Fan Insights, 67% of football fans think brands are more appealing when they participate in sports sponsorships, and 59% would pick a sponsor’s product over a competitor’s if price and quality are the same, compared to 45% of the general population. And Nielsen’s 2022 Global Sports Report found that the sponsorships drove an average 10% lift in purchase intent among the exposed fanbase.

As the 2022 World Cup heads to the first match, winners and losers will be decided both on the field and off, with advertisers tallying up the cost of sponsorship against the impact on brand awareness and revenue. Brands that want to get ahead of the game for the 2026 World Cup and start making early inroads in North America need to start planning now for campaigns that can build on the momentum of 2022 and turn today’s fans into tomorrow’s customers.

Notes

1. The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football
2. Nielsen Fan Insights, August 2022

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According to Nielsen Sports, the average on-screen Quality Index Media Value (QIMV)¹ of a sleeve patch for the full regular MLB season is projected to exceed $12.4 million, significantly more than any other professional sports jersey sponsorship in the U.S.

Outside of the U.S., you’d be hard pressed to find a team jersey that doesn’t include some degree of corporate sponsorship—a trend that picked up momentum back in the 1970s among European soccer clubs looking for a bit of added revenue. Compared with other jersey sponsorship opportunities, however, the slower pace of baseball will showcase brands in a different perspective than they might otherwise be accustomed to.

For example, think about the screen time associated with a typical soccer player—a competitor who rarely stands still during game play and is often minimized on the screen to present viewers with large areas of the playing field at a time. These broadcast dynamics minimize the amount of time viewers can clearly see any on-jersey sponsorship branding. Season length and game duration are also uniform sponsor valuation considerations.

The approval of sponsorship sleeve patches on MLB jerseys was a part of the latest collective bargaining agreement between the league and players association. Shortly after the new agreement was signed, the San Diego Padres became the first team to enlist a sponsor, agreeing to a multiyear deal with Motorola for a reported $10 million per year. 

By the end of the season, Nielsen projects that the sleeve asset alone will deliver a 1.5:1 return on Motorola’s rights fee investment. That’s because the patches are projected to have 39.5 hours of TV exposure during the 2023 season (out of 486 hours of total game time), and the media value of that exposure is $14.9 million².

Given the metro areas they support, sponsorship patches on the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants jerseys would generate the highest QIMVs. The QIMV for the top five teams are projected to generate an average of $24.2 million for the upcoming MLB season, while the five at the opposite end of the spectrum are projected to deliver an average of $6.9 million.

For sponsors, televised sports present significant exposure opportunity. In the U.S., 98% of the 50 most-watched broadcast programs in the first three quarters of last year were sports programming³. And in terms of ROI, a recent Nielsen Sports analysis of 100 sponsorships between 2020 and 2021 in seven markets across 20 industries found that the sponsorships drove an average 10% lift in purchase intent among the exposed fanbase⁴.

While all marketers are focused on growing sales, brand awareness topped the list of priorities among the marketers surveyed for Nielsen’s 2022 Annual Marketing Report. And in line with that, 71% of marketers in North America believe new ad formats, including sponsorships, are very or extremely important media mix considerations. The percentages are even higher in the auto and financial services industries (84% and 74%, respectively).

In addition to the notable on-screen exposure that jersey patches receive, Nielsen’s 2021 Trust in Advertising study found that brand sponsorships in sporting events rank just behind recommendations from friends and family, as 81% of consumers reported either completely or somewhat trusting them (vs. 89% who trust recommendations).

With this year’s MLB postseason almost upon us, it won’t be long before the 2023 kicks off on March 30. If each of the league’s 30 teams secures a sponsor and has a sleeve patch on opening day, those patches are projected to generate an aggregate QIMV $371.4 million for the season’s 162 games.

Notes

1. Media value of the live broadcast exposure received by the sponsor
2. Nielsen Sports QIMV
3. Nielsen National TV Panel
4. Nielsen’s 2022 Annual Sports report

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With so many eyes on the tournament, brands are sure to be investing heavily in partnerships with popular players to try and make inroads with new and enthusiastic audiences. But not all sponsorships are equally impactful, and budget-conscious marketers looking to maximize their spend need to identify the best value for their advertising bucks.

According to Nielsen’s 2022 World Football Report, while free-to-air television is still the preferred method of viewing matches (81%) for football fans who watch sports, social media is now a go-to platform for all things football, with 72% of fans claiming they use apps to watch the action. And to meet these fans where they are, marketers should be partnering with players, turning midfielders into influencers and fan engagement into brand engagement.

In general, influencers can heavily sway campaign performance and impact. According to the 2022 Nielsen ROI Report 71% of consumers trust advertising, opinions and product placements from influencers, and influencer marketing drives 80% brand recall and a 9-point increase in both brand affinity and purchase intent relative to consumers who did not see the influencer ads².

And when it comes to the wide world of sports influencer marketing, football has some of the most powerful figures. Nielsen InfluenceScope measured the average social media value of branded posts for Instagram’s top 10 most influential footballers. This number represents the media value derived from the logo exposure a brand gets when partnering with an influencer.

Cristiano Ronaldo is the most-followed footballer—and the most-followed person overall—on Instagram, with over 471 million followers. His reach, account growth and engagement rate all make him the most impactful influencer in football. A recent Instagram post from Ronaldo promoting his partnership with Clear Haircare garnered over 4 million interactions in the first 24 hours, highlighting the footballer’s extensive reach and impressive fan engagement.

But advertisers don’t need to partner with top influencers to give campaigns a leg-up on the competition. Teaming up with less-followed players still offers the benefits of a rapidly-growing audience. Rising stars also generally have higher engagement rates than their more-followed teammates, so while overall reach is lower, penetration within the fanbase is much higher. Partnerships with up-and-coming footballers can ensure brands get in on the future Cristiano Ronaldo’s early. Because as a player’s fan base grows, so does a brand’s pool of potential customers.

This year’s top upward mover, Barcelona midfielder Gavi, has skyrocketed to social media popularity and now has a social media value eclipsing that of Sergio Ramos, even though Ramos has nearly ten times the followers. Despite his increasing popularity, Gavi’s Instagram timeline lacks any sponsored posts, signaling that brands and advertisers currently face a challenge when it comes to identifying and partnering with these up and coming sports influencers.

But, as with many marketing challenges, the answer—and opportunity—lies in data. Knowing which players have social value today is important, but by identifying the sports influencer superstars of tomorrow, brands and advertisers can maximize the impact of their marketing dollars. With billions of sports fans following the action on social media, brands that are able to harness data to dial in the right combination of influencer and message will score big with audiences—and with campaigns.

For more insights, visit our World Cup Hub or download What fans want: The 2022 world football report.

Source

1. FIFA
2. Nielsen Brand Impact Q2 2022 norms

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Deirdre Thomas, Nielsen’s Managing Director of U.S. Audience Measurement, and Mediahub Worldwide’s Cheryl Jean Claude recently spoke at Brandweek 2022 about how brands and agencies use insights to make intelligent media mix and allocation decisions when it comes to sports and streaming. 

Check out the on-demand session below to learn more about the following key takeaways:

• Audiences are increasingly gravitating to streaming options, with streaming winning the largest piece of the total viewing pie (35%) for the first time in July (Nielsen, The Gauge).

• The NFL’s Thursday Night Football streaming package on Amazon Prime (which Nielsen is measuring in a first-of-its-kind deal) and Major League Soccer’s exclusive streaming deal with AppleTV are evidence of this new streaming-first frontier when it comes to watching live sports. 

• Investing in the correct mix of advertising across broadcast, streaming, social and influencer marketing is critical in reaching a brand’s target audience. 

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