The winner takes it all – alongside the sponsor
The latest research piece from Whitevector looks at the impact sports sponsorship can have for brands.
August has indeed been an intense month of sport. In cricket, the Ashes series culminated in England’s victory over Australia at The Oval on August 23rd, the Athletics World Championships (featuring the world-record-breaking feats of the sprinter Usain Bolt) were held in Berlin over the period August 15-23, and, to top it all, the Premier League 09/10 season started in mid-August.
As sport is a popular topic for discussion and debate in everyday life, so it is in online discussions as well. There are numerous sports-related discussion forums and blogs, but contributors to lots of other forums and blogs also take part in topical sports speculation and buzz. What makes these discussions interesting from an advertiser’s point of view is that the events themselves and many of the individual athletes operate under expensive sponsorship contracts, and the sponsors naturally hope to increase their brand’s visibility through an association with the sport, the event or the individual athlete.
Therefore, it is worth analysing to what extent the major sports events mentioned above have impacted the level and content of discussions involving the respective sponsors. This, however, won’t give the full picture, as any online discussions about the event itself affect the visibility the sponsor receives. In other words, every time a cricket enthusiast writes something about the Ashes series, even though he might not necessarily mention the sponsor (electricity supplier nPower in this case), he does make the event more visible, which, in turn, boosts any associations there might be between cricket and nPower.
Consequently, in this article we have looked particularly at online discussions concerning the Ashes, its sponsor nPower, and sprinter Usain Bolt and his team’s sponsor, sports wear producer Puma.
During the nPower Ashes Test Series 2009, the matches were widely discussed in British social media. An analysis of blogs, forums, and microblogs (eg Twitter) during the series (July 6 – August 25), shows there were almost 3500 discussions about it. Over the same period, nPower was discussed in over 500 different discussions. In comparison, nPower’s competitor E.ON was mentioned in about 300 discussions.
Discussion Trend for the Ashes and nPower during July 7 – August 24. Source: Whitevector
When looking at general Athletics World Championships related discussions, there are less than one thousand discussions in different UK based forums and blogs. Thus, during the time the contests were on the Ashes was well over three times more popular as a discussion theme, which is of course an indication both of the UK’s interest in cricket, as opposed to athletics, and reflective of the fact that the England team managed to beat Australia.
However, according to an analysis of the discussions that mentioned Usain Bolt, one thing is for sure: he came out as a clear individual winner. During the two weeks of the Championships, there were about 2700 different discussions concerning him.
It is not surprising that Bolt was a hot topic all over the world as he set new world records in 100 and 200 metres sprints. As might be expected, discussions around Puma peaked after he won the 100 metres race. Those conversations mainly discussed the Puma trainers that Bolt used but there were also discussions about the sponsorship itself.
Discussion Trend for Usain Bolt and Puma during August 13 – August 25. Source: Whitevector
Besides gaining visibility through the sponsorship, brands also wish to convey desired brand images through the sport they support; cricket clearly conveys a different image than sprinting, for example.
A ‘Topic Association’ analysis from Whitevector’s Chat Reports service (below) reveals that nPower is indeed very strongly associated with the Ashes series. It is actually more likely to be mentioned in context with cricket than with electricity prices or customer service. It should be noted that the chart represents the time when the Ashes series took place, so the result might be different after two months, for example, but the indications are that this sponsorship delivered good results for nPower.
Topic Association for nPower and E.ON during July 6 – August 25. Source: Whitevector
To conclude, there are of course many factors to consider when assessing a sponsorship’s effects on consumers, but the volumes of online discussions as well as the topic associations are both relevant and interesting. Sponsorships could thus be viewed as a way of creating exceptional levels of buzz amongst consumers, and an analysis of online discussions provide an excellent way of assessing a key element of the success of the sponsorship. After all, these discussions do portray consumers’ opinions, preferences, and thoughts as they express them in a spontaneous and genuine way.