With the 2024 Olympics here, let’s use some new data to review how brands are using long-term sports sponsorships to build brand equity.

Olympic sponsors score big on brand awareness

These days, marketers tend to be judged on their ability to create consumer demand, generate sales, and deliver immediate returns on their ad spend, but top brands know better than to ignore top-funnel metrics. We’ve studied thousands of campaigns over the years and found that on average, a 1-point gain in top-funnel brand equity metrics—like brand awareness and relevance—drives a 1% increase in sales.

The Olympics provide a great example of the impact that long-range sports partnerships can have on brand awareness. A little more than 40% of global consumers were aware of Visa’s association with the Olympics ahead of the Tokyo Games in 2021, and that figure has increased three points to 43% as of May 2024. It jumped two points in France (from 29% to 31%), five points in Australia (from 33% to 38%) and twelve points in the US (from 37% to 49%).

You can find insights about Visa and other Olympic partners on our Olympic Insights Hub, an online resource we launched recently to share data about fans, brands and athletes throughout the summer. For instance, P&G’s association with the Olympics has gained two points in awareness between 2021 and 2024, Samsung’s seven points, and Airbnb’s nine points (figure 1).

Tying long-term goodwill to current fan enthusiasm

The brands above are not resting on their laurels and have been making the most of their association with the Olympics in recent months. From January to May 2024, Visa has spent nearly $29 million on advertising, Airbnb $250 million, and Coca-Cola over $440 million, according to new data from Nielsen Ad Intel.

Since the beginning of the year, nearly 80% of total ad spend from this year’s Olympic sponsors has gone to television, but every market is different. In Germany and Indonesia, for instance, more than half of Coca-Cola’s media budget went to online channels, and in the UK, two-thirds went to outdoor channels.

Wherever they may be, sports fans are simply more likely than the general population to engage with sponsors and purchase their products. By advertising around the Games, Olympic sponsors can capitalize on fan enthusiasm and years of goodwill: short-term and long-term marketing working hand in hand.

Measuring success holistically

Brand awareness is crucial—consumers rarely buy from brands they don’t know—but the benefits of long-term sports sponsorship go well beyond awareness. And measuring success should be an integrated endeavor.  

“We think about measurement holistically,” said Molly Beck, Strategy and Planning Lead for Google’s Center of Excellence for Sports Marketing in a recent Nielsen webinar on driving value through women’s sports. “We’re looking at broadcast reach and views as we always do, as we always will, but being a fan… is more than just tuning in on Saturday night for this or that game.” Streams, game highlights, tickets, scores, following a player on TikTok and shopping for a new signature shoe line are all part of the fan experience, and therefore a part of the measurement equation too. “As a brand, you’re only going to get so much value from showing up courtside. A lot of it is going to come from how the fan is consuming around that moment, before that moment and after that moment.”

That’s where a long-term partnership pays off. For WNBA Chief Growth Officer Colie Edison, “Many brands are trying to seize the moment…but if you don’t have the patience to actually do a multi-year investment, you won’t make the most of your relationship.”

In our interviews for the 2024 Annual Marketing Report, Adam Isselbacher, SVP, Group Director Research & Analytics at UM Worldwide concurred and reminded us that “brand building is not just about making a brand visible. It’s about embedding into the consumer consciousness.” That takes time.

This summer, channel your inner-Olympian and invest in your brand for the long-term.

For even more insights, explore Nielsen’s Olympics insights hub.  

The post Top brands are like Olympic athletes appeared first on Nielsen.

This is a boon for everyone: the fans who love sports, the brands who want to sponsor them and the arenas and platforms that make the viewing happen. The natural question this raises, how do we keep this going?

Maintaining momentum will hinge on the industry’s ability to show measurable upside for those with skin in the game. And the best news is, it’s already there.

Up and to the right

While the rise of women’s sports is bigger than any one sport or any one person, it’s undeniable that women’s basketball has been at the forefront of enthusiasm this year. 

The 2024 Women’s NCAA tournament averaged nearly 19 million viewers (with a peak of 24 million viewers) for the final game between Iowa and South Carolina — up 89% from the previous year and beating viewership for the Men’s final for the first time ever. The 2024 WNBA Draft audience increased 511% and was up 668% with female viewers ages 2-17. And overall interest in the WNBA grew 29% between 2023 and 2024. 

Like a rising tide that lifts all boats, this momentum is spreading beyond basketball. The National Women’s Soccer League had a 17% boost in interest between 2023 and 2024. Interest in England’s Women’s Super League jumped 52% after England won the 2022 EURO—thanks in part to a better broadcasting deal, and is still enjoying gains into 2024.  On June 11th, Tennis Channel’s T2 channel began dedicating every Tuesday exclusively to women’s tennis matches, a weekly initiative called Women’s Day. And 2024 is predicted to be the year that the global women’s sports industry finally breaks the $1 billion barrier, a 300% increase from 2021.

The audiences are there. The growth is there. And once you understand what’s fueling the success, you can prove the value is there, too. 

Value and values

For years, investment decisions around women’s sports have been largely rooted in DE&I aims. This mindset is important, but it can also be limiting. That’s because women’s sports investments make good business sense. Losing sight of the measurable value undermines its ability to flourish. 

Global fans of women’s sports are a diverse group—43% of women’s sports fans are male, and they skew young, are tech savvy and highly engaged consumers. Seventy-four percent of women’s sports fans are the chief income earner in their household, compared to 70% of men’s sports fans. And 57% of women’s sports fans have kids under the age of 18, compared to 53% of men’s sports fans.  

Let’s look at the WNBA again. Compared to other sports fans, WNBA fans are much more likely to engage with a brand online, talk about the brand with friends and family and actually make purchases. 

These are invested audiences with significant purchasing power—a brand’s dream. This advertising potential should translate into strong media rights deals, but, historically, women’s sports have suffered from undervaluation. Nielsen Sports recently analyzed the value the Women’s Super League delivered through broadcast and found it to be €18.3M. Those rights sold for €7.3M, which means the media rights were undervalued by 2.5x. That’s a problem the right data can fix. 

Sponsorship has always been a crucial revenue driver for women’s sports and when broadcast distribution increases and makes it easier for fans to watch games, the value delivered to sponsoring brands naturally increases as a result. This creates the cyclical growth women’s sports needs, delivering and measuring ROI is driving investment. 

In Nielsen’s Driving Value through Women’s Sports Webinar, Google Sports and Entertainment Strategy Lead Molly Beck shared this anecdote: Google wanted to invest equitable spend across men’s and women’s sports and realized they couldn’t. There wasn’t enough women’s sports inventory. “That led us to realize that one of the biggest challenges is visibility,” said Beck. “Google’s sponsorship creates more reach for the League [WNBA], which then improves the return on our investment.”  

Maintaining momentum 

Women’s sports are gaining serious traction with desirable audiences. And it’s done so by following its own playbook. When compared to men’s sports, the audiences are different, media consumption is different and fan expectations are different. This makes it a particularly exciting and vital time for everyone to tailor and sharpen their growth strategies 

To maintain and grow the momentum around women’s sports, there are four key things brands, leagues and rights holders should prioritize. 

1. Improve content access

There’s an industry idiom that says it’s hard to be a fan of women’s sports and it’s hard not to be a fan of men’s sports. Why? Because of content access, content discoverability and content volume. Women’s sports will never get a true shot at ubiquity if games are hidden away on obscure channels, if highlights aren’t shared across popular channels, and if publishers don’t create more spaces for women’s sports content.

Platforms can solve this by creating more content for fans to consume, easier paths for everyone to find it and embracing a test and learn mindset to identify what truly works for these unique audiences and channels.
Leagues, Teams and rights holders can solve this by expanding their understanding of who the fans are, why they love the sports and what kind of content they’re looking for now versus historically.
Brands can solve this by focusing their investment on growing and amplifying women’s sports stories and adding genuine value to the fan experience through consistent and authentic sponsorship.

2. Enhance event experiences

Despite growing enthusiasm for women’s sports, many marquee events are still housed in small and antiquated venues. Take the WSL for example. The 2023-2024 season enjoyed a 43% growth in attendance, with Arsenal breaking WSL attendance records three times and having a higher average attendance than 10 of the Men’s Premier League teams. Yet, only 38% of WSL matches were played at Premier League stadiums. This discrepancy stands in the way of everybody’s growth.

Leagues, teams, rights holders and brands can solve this by investing their activation and marketing spend towards women’s games being played on the biggest stages and delivering the packed and premium event experiences fans want and deserve.

3. Develop household names

There are three things that build leagues: Big sports moments, fierce competitions and household names. The athletes can handle the first two, but they need support to build their brands. Growing players into icons is increasingly critical to the fan experience and league visibility.

Leagues, teams and rights holders can solve this by making it easier to be a fan through broad distribution and cross-promotions, giving players the tools they need to create effective content and maintaining a deep understanding of what animates their specific fans.
Brands can solve this by partnering with young talent who have a natural connection to the brand. When done intentionally, these partnerships have the dual benefit of raising the athlete’s profile while deepening the brand’s credibility and status among fans.

4. Measure holistic performance

Budgets are under intense scrutiny and pressure is on to show results across every activation. Data is essential, and it must be comprehensive if you want a true picture of performance. Yes, reach and frequency are important but how effective was the creative? Are you tracking cross-channel engagement? Is overall awareness and consideration trending in the right direction?
You need data at every turn. What’s more, you need committed investment to understand what impact you’re delivering over time. One-and-done campaigns rarely succeed in capturing and optimizing all potential ROI.

Leagues, teams and rights holders can solve this by understanding the goals of your brand and broadcast partners, measure against the outcomes they want and deliver actionable results to fuel continued testing and learning.
Brands can solve this by outlining clear goals and objectives and remaining patient and committed to holistically measuring results. True connection and impact takes time and requires a measurement framework that captures the entire partnership across tangible and intangible values.

When everybody wins

In Nielsen’s Driving Value through Women’s Sports Webinar, WNBA Chief Growth Officer Colie Edison closed the conversation out with this: “[Women’s sports] is a microcosm of the broader experiences of women in the workplace: Men are judged by potential, and women are judged by performance. We need to break the cycle that has continued to undervalue women and women’s sports.” 

When women’s sports have the space to shine, support from brands and rights holders and measurement frameworks to capture holistic value, everybody wins. 

For even more insights, watch Nielsen’s full conversation with Google and the WNBA on driving value in women’s sports. 

The post What’s next for women’s sports: Fueling growth by proving value appeared first on Nielsen.

Webinar

Driving value through women’s sports:
spotlight on Google & WNBA

Watch the webinar

Webinar

Driving value through women’s sports: spotlight on Google & WNBA

Watch the webinar

Learn more about…

Why Google invests in women’s sports and how they measure success

The WNBA’s growth plans for fans and sponsors

How brands can create a measurement framework for further investment in women’s sports

60%

of WNBA fans are likely to recommend a brand sponsor to others.

Source: Nielsen Fan Insights 

77%

increase in WNBA sponsor value delivered to brands in the 2023 vs 2022 seasons.

Source: Nielsen Media Valuation

41%

of WNBA fans can recall Google as a sponsor.

Source: Nielsen Research

The post Driving value through women’s sports appeared first on Nielsen.

• How World Athletics enhanced their hosting strategy and event delivery
• Ways to justify investment through long-term value and legacy impact
• Enhanced analysis methods beyond economic factors

The post Webinar: How World Athletics is driving host city success beyond economic impact appeared first on Nielsen.

Case study

Evolving the measurement of sports events

How World Athletics and Nielsen are setting up host cities for success

Download the full study

Case study

Evolving the measurement of sports events

How World Athletics and Nielsen are setting up host cities for success

Download the full study

Introduction

Understand the value of hosting sports events

Nielsen has worked with World Athletics, the sport’s international governing body, on new measurements that provide deeper insights into hosting the 2022 and 2023 World Athletics Championships.

Objective

Assess positive outcomes 

With World Athletics looking to demonstrate the wide-ranging value of hosting its events, the organization turned to insights, data and analytics company Nielsen, whose Event Impact Assessment (EIA) Framework incorporates new measurements to give a more comprehensive picture of the positive outcomes an event can have for a host.  

Challenge

Justify investments in sports event hosting

Hosting a major event such as the World Athletics Championships requires the support of various stakeholders, ranging from local governments and national sporting federations to broadcasters and commercial partners. All have different objectives beyond economic impact alone, whether it be ensuring a positive benefit on society, promoting sustainability, leaving a positive legacy or driving purchases. There is also increasing pressure on securing funding for events. Setting out clear KPIs that can be measured are more important than ever, with hosts needing to be able to justify investment, fine-tune strategy, improve event delivery, and leave a legacy.

Solution

Quantify the success of events

Nielsen’s EIA Framework has evolved to measure the success of events through the lens of five key pillars: attendance, economic, media, social and environmental. It then puts together a holistic impact report that includes a thorough assessment within each area, having gathered information from the local organizing committee (LOC) and rights holder, surveyed athletes and spectators, and applied its own media value data. 

By studying the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Oregon, Nielsen’s EIA framework found that the event provided a total impact of US$237 million across the five pillars. Together with the LOC, World Athletics identified ‘community’ as an area to improve for the next World Athletics Championships in Budapest in 2023 and set clear KPIs, encompassing attendance, social and environmental impact, and inspiring participation.

Key findings

Key findings from Budapest 2023

404,000

Attendance

Seven of the nine evening sessions sold out in Budapest, bringing event attendance to 404,000, up from 150,000 in Oregon. 

$240,000

Social and environmental impact

Environmental initiatives put in place at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest resulted in a reduction of 1,700 tonnes of CO2 emissions–a savings of US$240,000.

77%

Participation

Nielsen found that 77% of spectators at Budapest 2023 agreed that they were inspired to participate in track and field more often, an increase on 41% who felt the same having attended Oregon 2022.

$408M

Total event impact

Budapest 2023 generated US$408M in total event impact across Nielsen’s five pillars: economic, media, social, environmental, and attendance.

Source: Nielsen Event Impact Assessment: World Athletics 2022 and 2023

How it works

With a network of analysts stretching across the globe, Nielsen can transform large data sets into actionable insights, helping clients connect to the audiences that matter most – regardless of sport, league, event or location.

Nielsen Sports has been working with World Athletics since 2019, measuring events including the World Indoor and Outdoor Championships, World Cross Country Championships, Road Running Championships and Relay Championships. The EIA Framework is modular and flexible, meaning it can be scaled down for smaller events and run fully for major championships.

Conclusion

Demonstrate the value of sports events with Nielsen’s EIA Framework

Nielsen’s Event Impact Assessment Framework enabled the host cities Oregon and Budapest to demonstrate the holistic value of staging the events, while also providing a blueprint for future bidders to assess the impact of hosting World Athletics competitions. Using Nielsen’s EIA assessment from Oregon 2022, World Athletics was able to make further positive changes for Budapest 2023. 

Nielsen’s Event Impact Assessment results help us evaluate and continually evolve our events. The framework enables us to understand what worked well, what drove success and potential areas of improvement. We’re already using the data to help identify priority areas for our next World Championships: Tokyo 2025. One of the emerging trends for major events is to improve on sustainability of the events, and Nielsen’s EIA data helps us look at ways of reducing our carbon footprint as much as possible.

Maria Ramos
Director of Brand & Marketing
World Athletics

Want to talk with our team of experts?

Contact us

Want to talk with our team of experts?

Contact us

Want to talk with our team of experts?

Contact us

The post Evolving the measurement of sports events appeared first on Nielsen.

Select highlights include:

• The final in the ninth FIFA Women’s World Cup was the first to not feature either the U.S. or Germany.
• The 2023 MLS season was the first in a new, 10-year TV rights deal with Apple TV.
• Lionel Messi kicked off his arrival at Inter Miami FC by scoring a game-winning free kick in this year’s Leagues Cup just six days after his deal with the MLS club was announced.
• The introduction of a pitch clock shortened MLB games by an average of 24 minutes.   
• The NFL Sunday Ticket made its debut on YouTube.
• The Olympics announced four new sports for the 2024 summer games in Paris: Breaking, sport climbing, surfing and skateboarding.
• Sports Illustrated named Coach Prime the Sportsperson of the Year after his first year of coaching the University of Colorado football team.
• The budding romance between Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has amplified the profile of the NFL and its games.

Headlines aside, audience engagement with sports on TV remained a major pastime this year, with fans in the U.S. spending more than 1.7 trillion minutes watching games from the five most-watched U.S. sports leagues. While impressive in aggregate, time spent watching NFL games accounted for 55% of the total.

From a viewership perspective, nothing attracts audiences like the Super Bowl, and the matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles for Super Bowl LVII was the second-most watched game in league history. In total, audiences watched just under 48 billion minutes of the matchup. For context, viewers spent 52 billion minutes in 2022 watching Stranger Things, the year’s most-streamed program. And given the immense popularity of the NFL, playoff and Thanksgiving games accounted for the other nine most-watched games of the year. And what’s more, this year’s Thanksgiving games all attracted significant percentages of viewers who watched away from home.

In addition to satiating the needs of football fans, this year’s NFL games are helping fill the void caused by a lack of new primetime programming as a result of the writers strike. Compared with last year, all of this season’s Monday Night Football games are being aired on ABC in addition to ESPN and ESPN2—making it the only day of the week with one game that’s aired on multiple channels. 

The adjustment has been a boon for viewership, with the games on ABC attracting larger audiences than the traditional primetime programming did a year earlier. The week 4 matchup this year, for example, had an audience of 8.7 million on ABC, compared with an audience of 5.7 million for the two programs that ran at the same time on ABC a year earlier. And the Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce romance is attracting more female viewers.  

Sponsorships deliver significant value for brands

Fans weren’t alone in enjoying the action of the 2023 year in sports. Brands, always eager to partner with opportunities that broaden their exposure with new and existing audiences, continued to benefit from the growing sponsorship opportunities available to them. 2023 was the inaugural year for sponsorship patches on baseball team uniforms, and two of the year’s most valuable brand activations were on MLB jerseys. Across the league, Avnet benefited the most, aided by the fact that its sponsorship involved the Diamondbacks, who competed in the World Series. In total, the top 10 most valuable sports sponsorships delivered more than $259 million in media value¹ for brands in 2023.

Brands aren’t the only beneficiaries of the exposure that media delivers to the sports world. The teams themselves also benefit, especially when it comes to social media. And while the Golden State Warriors have perennially been the leader in social media value, Lionel Messi joining Inter Miami FC catapulted the MLS squad to the top of the list this year. In fact, the average simulated value² of a post for the team was more than twice that of one from the Warriors.

Well-positioned for 2024, the sports industry remains a fixture with a growing fanbase of audiences and brands. The undeniable appeal of sports, combined with audiences’ growing engagement with streaming content, however, has amplified the competition for broadcasting rights—a factor that could affect viewership among casual viewers. 

For true NFL fans, for example, watching every game requires access to several traditional broadcast channels, access to Amazon Prime Video and a subscription to the Sunday Ticket on YouTube. Similarly, New York Yankee fans needed access to broadcast, cable, Amazon Prime and Apple TV if they wanted to see all the action during the 2023 season. True sports fans will typically go where the action is, but holistic sports viewing growth will be tough to come by in an a la carte, game-by-game approach.

Through the lens of the audience, finding ways to ease sports viewers’ transition to streaming will be critical. The way in which ESPN is approaching NHL games is a good example, as it provides access to more than 1,050 out-of-market games from every team on its subscription ESPN+ service, while broadcasting another 100 games exclusively across ESPN, ESPN+, Hulu and ABC. The Apple TV-MLS deal is another stand-out, as it provides a consistent service and experience for nearly all MLS games. Sports remain the biggest draw for TV audiences, but ensuring that they can find the games they want without having to continue adding services and fees will be critical in the long run.

Notes:

¹ Nielsen Sports’ Quality Index Media Value is the calculated media value of the live broadcast exposure received by the sponsor.

²Simulated social media value refers to the value of a post if a team were to sell a sponsorship for it.

The post Tops of 2023: Sports appeared first on Nielsen.

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

The post The Big Ten effect: With 4 new football teams next year, the NCAA conference will extend its TV reach in key markets appeared first on Nielsen.

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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