February 18th, 2022, YouGov
In recent years, brands across a wide range of sectors have signed high-profile sponsorship deals in the esports space in an attempt to build relationships with a fast-growing younger audience.
This includes several deals with insurance companies. YouGov BrandIndex data reveals which insurance brands are generating the most buzz among gamers in the United States and the United Kingdom – and demonstrates that insurers with skin in the game are reaping rewards.
A brand’s Buzz score is a net measure based on responses to two questions: “Over the past two weeks, which of the following brands have you heard something positive about?” and “Now which of the following brands have you heard something negative about?”. By calculating the difference between these two scores, we create our Buzz metric.
Gamers in this piece are defined as those who play video games for at least an hour per week.
In the US, Geico ranks highest among gamers with a score of 15.4. The brand has been marketing in the esports space since 2015, currently sponsoring TSM and Panda.
State Farm, official partner of Twitch Rivals North America, also ranks high among gamers with a score of 14.9, as does USAA, an official partner of the Call of Duty League.
Rounding out the top five in the US are Allstate (11.6) and Progressive Insurance (10.9), who signed a multi-year naming rights deal with the Immortals organization.
The story in the UK, meanwhile, is different. Churchill Insurance claims the top spot among the market’s video game players with a score of 2.9, ahead of LV= (Liverpool Victoria) (2.6), Direct Line (2.6), Admiral (2.5) and Aviva (2.4).
None of the top ten brands have esports sponsorships in place as far as we can tell and that, perhaps, contributes to these low scores, relative to those we see in the US. The data suggests that this space may represent an opportunity for UK brands keen to engage with this typically younger audience as it begins to turn to the requirements of home and car-ownership.
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Methodology: Buzz score is based on the questions: “Over the past two weeks, which of the following brands have you heard something positive about?” and “Now which of the following brands have you heard something negative about?” and delivered as a net score between –100 and +100. Scores reported represent a 1-year daily average between February 10, 2021 – February 9, 2022. Scores are based on an average sample size 3,778 (US) and 1,964 (GB) adults who play video games one hour per week or more. Daily figures are based on a four-week moving average. Learn more about BrandIndex.