An increase in the availability of live action on mobile phones and the allure of a mega-merger may have ignited a battle for football fans’ attention during the 2014 NFL season, according to the results of the ninth annual NFL sponsor awareness survey conducted by Turnkey Intelligence for SportsBusiness Journal/Daily.
Verizon, which has been an NFL partner since 2010, completed in 2014 its first season of a four-year, $1 billion extension of that original deal that significantly increased the amount of NFL content the brand could offer to its wireless subscribers. Verizon customers beginning last year could access, through an app on their smartphones, all non-blacked-out home-market NFL games, all postseason games, NFL Network and NFL Network’s RedZone, featuring game-day highlights.
Verizon also sponsored 19 teams last season, including both Super Bowl teams (New England and Seattle), and it had a sign on an end-zone video board at the University of Phoenix Stadium, where the game was played. (Arizona is another among its 19 teams.)
Nearly 28 percent of all respondents in the survey correctly identified Verizon as the league’s official wireless service provider, an increase of more than three percentage points compared with the year before, and almost 10 percentage points higher than AT&T, its closest competitor in the category as well as for overall U.S. market share in the space.
AT&T, however, enjoyed the biggest increase of any of the 66 brands measured in this year’s study: 18 percent of NFL fans surveyed believed the company was the league’s official wireless partner, an increase of more than five percentage points over last year’s study and the highest level the brand has ever attained in the study’s history. AT&T’s 11 percentage-point improvement among avid fans specifically was the biggest movement of any kind by any of the brands measured.
Fueling the brand’s exposure to NFL fans last season was AT&T Stadium, home to the Dallas Cowboys, hosting four nationally televised games. That was the same number as in 2013, but with the Cowboys last year on the road to the playoffs for the first time since the 2009 season, those four nationally televised games averaged 29 million viewers, up 9 percent over the average for the four games in 2013.
Additionally, AT&T was in the headlines through 2014 for the company’s proposed $48.5 billion purchase of DirecTV. A longtime partner of the NFL, DirecTV last fall renewed its NFL Sunday Ticket service through 2022 to retain exclusivity for the league’s out-of-market TV package. AT&T had made it clear that its desired acquisition of DirecTV would likely be scuttled if DirecTV failed to complete its NFL renewal. With that deal completed, the media company merger awaits federal regulatory approval.
Other key findings in this year’s survey:
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Verizon was one of four official sponsors in the survey to garner an increase in fan awareness among both avid and casual fans compared with last year’s study. FedEx, McDonald’s and Marriott were the others. McDonald’s saw a nearly seven percentage-point increase among casual fans compared with last year, the biggest gain among sponsors in the eyes of that fan segment. Additionally, this is the second year in a row McDonald’s has lead the QSR category, ending a five-year run by Subway.
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Papa John’s was correctly identified as an NFL sponsor by 54 percent of avid fans. This is the third consecutive year that company has been the most recognized brand among avid fans in the survey.
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Gatorade, a league sponsor since 1983, saw a decline in its awareness level among avid fans for the fourth consecutive survey. This year’s study also marks the first time fewer than half of all fans surveyed (49 percent) correctly identified the brand as an official NFL partner. Since the inaugural study, Gatorade has lost nearly one-third of its mindshare among the survey’s fans. Its score in that initial survey was 71.5 percent. The percentage of respondents answering “I don’t know” for the category’s sponsor, meanwhile, has grown from a 21 percent mark that first year.
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Anheuser-Busch remains one of the league’s most consistent sponsors in the survey. The brand’s recognition rate of 41 percent among all fans matched its average of the previous five years.
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Visa’s seven percentage-point drop among avid fans was the steepest decline of any sponsor among that set of fans. However, the brand’s recognition rate of 33 percent among casual fans was its second-highest mark ever in the survey among that group.
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Pepsi, the league’s official soda since 2002, saw a similar but reversed divergence: Its rate among avid fans (39 percent) was its highest since garnering a 46 percent response rate in 2011, yet its 10 percentage-point drop among casual fans was the biggest movement of any kind by any of the brands measured in this year’s study.
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General Motors received its lowest recognition ever among avid fans (16.5 percent). The car maker in December told the NFL it was ending its 14-year run as the league’s official car and truck sponsor following the 2014 season.
Methodology
For this project, Turnkey Sports & Entertainment, through its Turnkey Intelligence operation, conducted national consumer research surveys among a sample of more than 400 members of the Toluna online panel who were at least 18 years old.
The 2015 survey was conducted Jan. 14-20, a period that coincided with the AFC/NFC championship games and is comparable to the time periods for the 2014 and 2013 surveys.
Respondents were screened and analyzed based on their general avidity levels. Fans categorized as “avid” were those who responded “4” or “5” to the question “How big a fan are you of the NFL?”, claimed to “look up news, scores and standings several times a week or more often,” “watch/listen/attend at least 10 games per season,” and “have a favorite team.” Fans categorized as “casual” responded “3” to the same initial question, then claimed to “look up news, scores and standings several times a month or more often,” “watch/listen/attend at least 3 games per season,” and “have a favorite team.”
When asked to identify official sponsors, respondents selected from a field of companies and brands that was provided to them for each business sector. Only the top-scoring companies and brands are listed in the results published here. The percentage responses listed have been rounded. The margin of error for each survey is +/- 4.9 percentage points.
Turnkey Intelligence performs research for more than 70 North American major league teams, league offices and brands. The NFL and several of its teams are among the company’s clients.
