Sportz™ measures Sports
by David Kilburn
Sports sponsorship has grown to US$ 16 Billion business worldwide
as major marketers use it to build brands and nurture relationships
with consumers. Yet despite the multi-million dollar price tags,
advertisers have all to often lacked tools to determine how well
a sporting hero or an event fits their brand, or how to best to use
it.
New research by WPP companies Millward Brown and BMRB aims to
show marketers how to project the passion that consumers have for
sports onto their brands
The research, entitled ' SportZ ' was conducted in Japan, China,
France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK, and the USA among 21,000 sports
fans. SportZ studies consumer attitudes and behavior toward sports,
and how these impact a sponsors' brands. The study shows potential
sponsors how identify the sport with which their consumers have
the strongest affinity, and how the life styles and values of fans
match brand values.
In China, for example, Tsing Tao beer drinkers are 56% more likely
to be interested in Golf than the average sports fan. In Shanghai,
4.7 million Core Olympics Fans go to McDonald’s; only 1 million
go elsewhere
The research has implications for media planning, “ . .
. it allows us to look at sporting events, sporting teams and sporting
stars as distinct channels with their own personality in exactly
the same way we would look at magazines or TV programmers. It allows
us to understand how consumers perceive and bond with them. We
can now plan a brands sponsorship of a tennis match or advertising
on a football team's internet site in same the way we would plan
a fashion ad into Vogue, understanding whether the consumer feels
the environment is appropriate and the associations that will be
passed onto the brand,” says Andrew Meaden, General Manager
of MindShare in Japan.
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