The “big five” European football leagues (called “soccer” within the U.S. and nowhere else) have secured more brand sponsorships than ever before. Combined, the leagues are near 5,000 sponsorship deals for the upcoming season, a 13% increase year-over-year, in line with a latest report from sports intelligence platform SponsorUnited.
Why we care. Last 12 months’s men’s World Cup proved the reach the global sport has with U.S. audiences. Streaming services bring the foremost European leagues to stateside fans, providing CTV ad opportunities, in addition to social engagement. The adtech world can be recovering at measuring the exposure of sponsored logos across the digital ecosphere. For all these reasons, it’s no surprise that sponsorships are growing.
Here are among the top trends across the large five European leagues.
More brands, more deals. The number of name sponsorship deals rose at a rather higher rate than the full variety of brands (3,560 brands within the report) — 13% versus 10%. This implies that brands like what they see and have expanded to more leagues within the last 12 months.
Top brands. Coca-Cola tops all brands with 47 sponsorship deals across the large five leagues: The Premier League (England), Bundesliga (Germany), La Liga (Spain), Serie A (Italy) and Ligue 1 (France).
Six of the ten most lively brands have deals in all of the large five leagues.
Top categories. The top categories aren’t what Americans might associate with a visit to the ballgame. Construction and Industrial is the highest category, followed by Technology and Business Services, to round out the highest three. Food and beverages (non-alcoholic) are available a distant eighth and ninth.
There is a definite B2B flavor for the highest sponsorship categories. This suggests that among the many soccer crowd’s mass audience of three.5 billion, there are also many business decision-makers.
Construction and Industrial was the one category so as to add 100 deals last 12 months. Other categories just outside the highest 10 include Hotel, Restaurant, Government and Healthcare, in line with SponsorUnited.
Premier League within the lead. England’s Premier League averaged nearly 60 sponsorship deals per team last season, up over 30% year-over-year. The top teams with 100 or more partnerships include: Newcastle United, Leeds United, FC Union Berlin, FC Koln and Atalanta B.C.
Top athletes. Former Paris Saint-Germain teammates Neymar Jr. and Lionel Messi were the highest two athletes with essentially the most individual sponsorship deals. Here’s a have a look at the opposite top footballers.
The biggest news this summer is that Messi joined up with Major League Soccer’s Inter Miami club. U.S. marketers take note. The brand buzz that starts within the European big five leagues might be coming to a stadium near you.
Dig deeper: Will Women’s World Cup bring the prize audience marketers want?
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