Thread by @CashNSport

The 2022 World Football Report

Some excellent global data from @nielsen on what makes the business of football tick

PS, Africa is not included here but these types of reports we are looking to produce.

Thread ⬇️
#Qatar2022 #SportsBiz #WorldCup2022

Football remains the world’s most popular
sport, generating powerful interest in 40%
of the global population.

It was one of
the three most popular sports in 10 of the
13 countries analyzed, which include
the world’s top 10 economies.

Australia and Japan 😯

Ignore the female audience at your peril

Currently, 37% of global football fans are women.

If you're a brand and create content only for the boys, you're missing out on a large female audience

Unsurprisingly, 81% of football fans watch on free to air television and 62% pay to watch.

What surprised me and is climbing quickly is the number that are tuning in via social media and OTT (streaming) platforms.

There was some very interesting data on football interest among Asian countries.

Less than 28% of Japanese are interested in football and only 40% of Chinese.

That just about half are willing to pay to watch speaks to the importance of free to air sport being available. Key!

The report also highlights the importance of data. Fans are hungry for data and the more data that is available to them, the more engaged they are.

Brands can also use this data to tell interesting / compeling stories to fans and set themselves apart from competition

As @TTM16 stated earlier on, teams need to communicate more!

Full
schedules, live match results, play-by-play data, historical data,
analysis from a team of experts—viewers need it all, updated live
and around the clock.

This research proves it.

Earlier we also spoke about sponsorship and I'm sure people wonder why sponsors put their brand on team shirts.

Well, the more you see a logo the more you're likely to pick it over another. It's proven in the data ⬇️

In terms of who is sponsoring the World Cup, the non alcoholic drinks brands lead the way

Nielsen found that 59% of football fans would favor
a sponsor’s product over a rival’s brand if price and quality
were the same

Have you ever found yourself fiddling on your device while watching a game, you're not alone.

The data also revealed the growth and prevalence of second screen activity. Sport has to compete for attention with many other activities

These are some of them ⬇️

For brands, broadcasters and platforms, this attention-
splitting presents potential opportunities. Roughly
80% of fans brows social media or use an app
during a game.

Creating content that's adaptable to the in-game situation can set brands apart from the rest

These types of reports are not only interesting to the general public, they are critical for brands to get an understanding of what fans want.

The more informed brands and sports teams are, the better they spend their time and money and the better the Return On Investment!