Consumer engagement can peak with “perfect” Champions League final
BMRB Sport research shows that while the UEFA Champions League is only the country’s sixth most followed sporting property, it enjoys the highest level of passion among followers, delivering a more engaged audience for sponsors and broadcasters. (BMRB Sport’s “Passion Index” allows us to compare the quality of sporting audiences in terms of their degree of interest in the sport)
Even this embittered Arsenal fan can admit, the prospect of a Liverpool vs Manchester United final is the most exciting on offer. Of all the combinations possible, these two teams have by far the greatest combined following in the UK, three and a half times more than a Chelsea vs Barcelona final would naturally connect with.
Newspapers hold up well as medium of choice
The ability of sponsors to reach Champions League audiences isn’t not only restricted to TV coverage. In fact, 15% of those who followed the tournament in the last year didn’t watch any of the games on TV.
Newspapers remain an important way of catching up on the detail and background to the matches, with 36% of all followers reading about it in the papers. Among passionate fans, the Internet has not yet overtaken Radio at 11% vs 13%.
Sponsor comparison: Liverpool vs Chelsea semi-final
For sponsors, the high level of engagement among followers of the Champions League offers a high-quality communication environment. However, the presence of team sponsors and tournament sponsors can create unwanted competition. The Liverpool vs Chelsea semi-final presents this problem in the beer category (tournament sponsors Heineken vs Liverpool shirt sponsors Carlsberg), and in the mobile handsets category (tournament sponsors Sony vs Chelsea shirt sponsors Samsung).
Neither mobile handset manufacturer has yet found a way of getting Champions League fans, passionate or otherwise, to be more likely to choose their brand than the average adult might. Sony Ericsson’s 12.3% penetration among fans, and Samsung’s 13.8% are almost exactly their national averages, and among passionate fans, Sony Ericsson’s 11.6% is actually below average.
Beer brand usage is unsurprisingly higher among Champions League fans than the population as a whole. However, Carlsberg massively outperforms Heineken among passionate followers, with their 19.4% penetration among this group being 42% above that of the population as a whole.
These data are taken from the latest wave of BMRB’s TGI Sport+ survey, conducted in the last quarter of 2007.
Sport+ is available to TGI subscribers or via BMRB Sport’s consultancy services. For more information, please contact:
James Smythe Director, BMRB Sport James.smythe@bmrb.co.uk 020 8433 4456 07881 686262
