How the World Cup is impacting brands

According to a new BrandKeys survey finds most US World Cup viewers say they would support brands who advertise or support their favorite soccer teams - even though major league soccer isn't a huge deal in the US. So far during the World Cup the brands most consumers identified as 'most engaging' were Gatorade, Hyundai, Nike and Adidas - but not all of those brands are World Cup sponsors.

by Kristina Knight

"Ranked #1, Gatorade is an official sponsor of soccer, U.S. Soccer, the governing body of soccer in the United States, but not a FIFA sponsor. Number 3 Nike, does sponsor teams, but isn't an official FIFA sponsor either, so another example of effective ambush marketing. Beats by Dre isn't an official sponsor of World Cup Soccer, in fact so much not a sponsor that FIFA banned players from wearing their headphones in any stadia. The 'official' FIFA World Cup sponsor is SONY, which didn't make the list," writes Robert Passikoff, President, Brand Keys.

Meanwhile, AppFigures is following the Apple store to see how the World Cup is affecting app sales and downloads. Their findings indicates World Cup fever is most definitely here. In April, for example, the FIFA app ranked in the 400s but since play began, downloads have spiked, moving to the number one spot in several countries including the US, Germany, India and the UK. Other apps feeding off the World Cup frenzy include: Univision Deportes and watchESPN.

And PM Digital is watching the social space, to see how that is feed the World Cup beast. Their findings show the US has the highest number of Twitter users (24% of the population) followed by Japan, the UK and Spain. But, the player with the top social media followers/mentions are Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Neymar Junior (Brazil) and Wayne Rooney (UK). As for Facebook, Brazil (69 million Facebook users) and Germany (22 million Facebook users) lead the way followed by Spain and Argentina (16 million Facebook users each).

Image via Shutterstock

Tags: AppFigures, Brand Keys, FIFA social media, FIFA world cup, PM Digital, social marketing, social media