Neymar most valuable World Cup player for brands
Brazilian footballer Neymar Junior tops the list of the World Cup’s most valuable players when it comes to delivering return on investment for existing sponsors or enticing prospective new ones, according to a MediaCom report.
The agency’s business science team analysed player performance statistics, provided by Opta, to show which individuals shone on the field, combined with UK TV viewing figures revealing the most watched teams by a British audience.
MediaCom then assigned every player with an individual sponsorship value ranking.
Neymar scooped the top spot thanks to his four crucial goals and successful pass rate, in addition to Brazil receiving the second highest cumulative viewing figures so far, with a combined 35.7m people in the UK tuning in.
Germany’s Thomas Műller came in second place despite outscoring Neymar, but his ranking was brought down by fewer people watching the country’s matches – 23.8m.
England’s matches have drawn the largest overall UK combined audience with 38.5 million people, yet the most valuable England player, Wayne Rooney, only reached number 15 in the list.
Switching focus to brands, Coca Cola leads the way with 29.4 per cent of all sponsor brand mentions (when appearing alongside World Cup hashtag), while Nike scored 16.8 per cent compared to Adidas’ 15.9 per cent, despite the latter’s status as official Fifa Partner. Sony and McDonalds make up the fourth and fifth places with 7.2 per cent and 3.7 per cent respectively.
Of the England sponsor brands to feature in the brand social mentions list Nivea is the second highest spender on traditional advertising in the UK with around £3.6m spent across its various brands, yet it only registered 0.3 per cent in terms of social media brand mentions in connection with the World Cup.
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MediaCom
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