As one of the biggest sporting events of the summer, the European Championship provides the opportunity for marketers across the continent to boost their brand’s profile.
With the tournament bigger than ever, there is also increased pressure on brands to differentiate from the others that are looking to capitalise on the increased exposure.
For many companies such as Adidas and Nike, the tie-in is obvious, and the aim is to nurture and consolidate the existing relationship they have with customers. For others, the tournament is a chance to expand into new markets, boosting brand awareness along the way.
YouGov BrandIndex data allows us to decipher which sponsors are already having some success among consumers in the UK, France and Germany.
YouGov’s Ad Awareness metric measures whether a respondent has seen or heard an advert from a particular brand in the past two week. On this front, Carlsberg, McDonald’s and Nike are three companies that have seen an uplift in Ad Awareness in the UK.
Nike’s mini-film featuring Cristiano Ronaldo, has helped the sports manufacturer’s score rise by 4 points in a week. McDonald’s has seen a similar increase, a jump of 6 points. Carlsberg, which has asked fans in Britain ‘how far they would go for Euro 2016 tickets’, show a 4 point upturn.
There’s more good news in Germany for Carlsberg and McDonald’s, where the UK trend is repeated. Coca Cola is the stand-out brand – the data shows an impressive ten point increase, from 28 to 38.
Those in the host nation of France seem more impervious to the marketing activity that is dominating the advertising landscape. McDonald’s has suffered an Ad Awareness downturn there, while only Carlsberg has shown signs of improvement (a rise of 2 points).
A key point our data uncovered across all three countries is that the uplifts were more pronounced among men (a difference of 5 points when looking specifically at Carlsberg). It follows therefore that marketers are missing out on building positive relationships among female consumers – certainly something to consider for future sporting events.
Image PA
