December 7th, 2022, Rishad Dsouza
Being the most popular single-sport global event, the FIFA World Cup is among the biggest platforms for brands looking to make a global impact through sponsorship. In this piece, we use YouGov BrandIndex to explore the Impression metrics of select sponsors of the 2022 edition among fans of the World Cup.
The sponsors we highlighted in this piece are Adidas, Coca-Cola, Hyundai, Kia, and Visa. World Cup fans are defined as those who say they are somewhat interested in the World Cup or that it is one of their top interests. Impression scores among this group are compared against scores among people who are not at all interested in the FIFA World Cup, to get a read of the extent to which brands are making an impact, if at all, on the target audience of these sponsorships.
Across the markets we examine in this piece, Adidas has the most pronounced lead in Impression scores among fans of the World Cup than among non-fans. The size of the gap is most likely on account of the fact that FIFA World Cup fans are generally more interested in sports and hence more likely to have a positive Impression of a sportswear brand like Adidas.
A brand’s Impression score is based on the questions: “overall, of which of the following brands do you have a positive impression?” and “which of the following brands do you have a negative impression?”. The percentage-point difference between the two responses delivers the Impression score.
Beverage giant Coca-Cola also registers better Impression scores among fans than non-fans. A brand like Coca-Cola with a universally recognised core product gaining marked advances in Impression scores among fans of the World Cup may be the best indicator of the power of World Cup sponsorships. Coke’s Impression scores were highest among World Cup fans in the UAE at 31.5 (vs 23.2 among non-fans), closely followed by fans in the US at 29.6 (vs 23.1).
Results for Hyundai and Kia have been slightly more mixed. Hyundai did register better numbers among fans than non-fans in Britain (16.9 vs 12.8) and the US (18.7 vs 13.7) but scored more weakly among Australian fans (26.3 vs 30.3). Kia outperformed among fans in UAE (15.6 vs 10.4), Britain (15.3 vs 11.6) and US (8.6 vs 12.6). We will revisit the scores for these auto brands at the end of the World Cup to see if they were able to gain ground in Impression scores in markets where they lagged.
Visa enjoys high scores across markets, with a clear uptick among fans of the World Cup compared to those who aren’t interested. Visa’s highest Impression score is among fans in Britain at 49.9, about 8 points clear of the score among non-fans. It registers mid-forties scores among fans in the US (45.8 vs 41.8) and UAE (44.2 vs 38.6) too.
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Methodology: YouGov BrandIndex collects data on thousands of brands every day. A brand’s Buzz score is based on the questions: “overall, of which of the following brands do you have a positive impression?” and “Now, of which of the following brands do you have a negative impression?” and delivered as an OR net score between –100 and + 100. The sample size of fans ranges from 171 adults to 508 adults in each market, while that of non-fans ranges from 127 adults to 1312 adults between November 6 and December 4, 2022. The figures are based on a two-week moving average. Learn more about BrandIndex.
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