London-based SportsPro Media recently released a list of their 50 most-marketable brands in sports and 50 most-marketed athletes. Each list was compiled using a variety of criteria in partnership with Nielsen and Hookit. We encourage you to visit SportsPro’s rankings landing page for the full rankings and additional insight into methodology.
Note: the 50 most-marketable sports properties will be released on Monday, October 12th.
Most-marketable brands in sports
SportsPro’s brands ranking took into consideration social activity of every major professional athlete, team, and league – over 500,000 accounts. The sponsorship value by brand was found via two key metrics: potential value and promotion quality. So, how did brands invested in soccer fair? By our count, 31 soccer brands made the cut:
Rank | Brand | Category |
---|---|---|
1 | Nike | Apparel / Footwear |
2 | Emirates Airlines | Airline |
3 | adidas | Apparel / Footwear |
5 | Red Bull | Energy Drink |
7 | Santander | Banking / Financial Services |
8 | Standard Chartered | Banking / Financial Services |
9 | Puma | Apparel |
10 | Beko | Home Appliances |
11 | Gatorade | Sports Drink |
12 | Anheuser-Busch InBev | Alcohol |
13 | Rakuten | eCommerce |
14 | Jeep | Automotive |
15 | Toyota | Automotive |
16 | Electronic Arts | Video Games / Entertainment |
17 | Pepsi | Soft Drink |
18 | Heineken | Alcohol |
19 | Chevrolet | Automotive |
20 | Mercedes-Benz | Automotive |
21 | Allianz | Banking / Financial Services |
22 | Coca-Cola | Soft Drink |
24 | NBC | Television / Radio |
27 | AT&T | Communications |
34 | T-Mobile | Communications |
35 | Automotive Technology | Pirelli |
36 | Budweiser | Alcohol |
38 | Barclays | Banking / Financial Services |
39 | Bet365 | Gambling / Betting |
40 | Audi | Automotive |
43 | DHL | Shipping / Logistics |
44 | Qatar Airways | Airline |
46 | Hyundai | Automotive |
Most-marketable athletes
Soccer brands faired well in the rankings, so that brings about the obvious question – how did soccer players fair? In these rankings, MediaPro partnered with Nielsen to compare four key athlete social metrics: relevance, reach, return, and resonance.
Rank | Athlete | Team |
---|---|---|
1 | Lionel Messi | FC Barcelona |
2 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Juventus |
6 | Neymar Jr. | Paris Saint-Germain |
9 | Mohamed Salah | Liverpool |
10 | Paulo Dybala | Juventus |
11 | Eden Hazard | Real Madrid |
15 | Kylian Mbappé | Paris Saint-Germain |
16 | Erling Haaland | Borussia Dortmund |
17 | Alex Morgan | Tottenham Hotspur |
19 | Paul Pogba | Manchester United |
20 | Robert Lewandowski | Bayern Munich |
23 | Virgil van Dijk | Liverpool |
25 | Megan Rapinoe | OL Reign |
34 | Son Heung-min | Tottenham Hotspur |
39 | Dele Alli | Tottenham Hotspur |
Categories: Just For Fun, Research, Social Media, Sponsorship