Early indications from YouGov/SMG Insight SportsIndex suggest that FIFA’s brand health may be a long way from recovery as brand perception scores for the sporting body have dropped dramatically after bribery allegations emerged in the press recently.
YouGov/SMG Insight SportsIndex is a daily measure of perception among the public, allowing 7 key metrics (Buzz, General Impression, Corporate Reputation, Recommendation, Customer Support, Value and Quality) to be accurately tracked across 50 sporting events covering 17 sports simultaneously.
Immediately after the story broke on 10th May, ‘Buzz’ scores for FIFA fell and failed to improve over the next two weeks, falling even further to -26 by 30th May, the day of the Blatter news conference. On this day, of those respondents who had heard anything about FIFA, 92% had heard something negative.
Reputation scores for FIFA were also severely affected as scores plummeted to a new low of -7 whilst, in the space of three weeks, Impression scores fell from 0 to -21. All six FIFA sponsors - Adidas, Coca-Cola, Emirates, Sony, Visa and Hyundai did not see similar decreases in either Reputation or Impression scores.
Frank Saez, Managing Director for SMG Insight commented on the findings, 'Analysis of brand values associated with FIFA’s top sponsors show the brands associated with the World Cup as scoring positively across a basket of daily brand health indicators. In contrast, we are seeing FIFA’s corporate brand health heading south quickly, from +2 to -20 across the SportsIndex metrics of ‘Reputation’ and ‘Impression’. This downward trend and potential negative association is likely to raise concerns amongst sponsors of the World Cup'.
FIFA’s Index score (the average score of all key metrics excluding Buzz) has suffered long-term damage and shows no signs of improving. None of the sponsors involved have so far seen their Index score damaged by their association with FIFA.
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