U.S. sports fans believe the NFL promotes its corporate partners better than any other property, while In the U.K., professional soccer is the highest-ranking sport because of its strong reach, according to a new study conducted by rEvolution. rEvolution also found that esports have an extremely high level of sponsor friendliness in the U.K. The Chicago-based company fielded a series of four online surveys in the U.S. and the United Kingdom from December through March that asked 1,000 fans ages 18+ in each country attitudinal and behavioral questions about sports properties and the brands that sponsor them.
A “sponsor friendliness” index was created for each country using survey results, such as the impact of the sponsorship on brand opinion. That was paired with data that measured the interest, or “reach,” of each sport to determine an overall ranking.
Darren Marshall, rEvolution’s chief of staff, said that most properties typically score high in one category and not the other.
On average, fans were more likely to express loyalty to sponsors of emerging sports than traditional leagues because they recognize how vital those brands are to the existence of the newer leagues.
