The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo named Europe’s most marketable footballer, again

Author

By John Glenday, Reporter

June 11, 2015 | 2 min read

A continent wide hunt for Europe’s most marketable footballers has seen Cristiano Ronaldo confirmed in his position at the top of the tree, ahead of the 2016 European Cup qualifiers this weekend.

In arriving at a top 10 list Recombu surveyed public awareness levels of key players to see how valuable they might be as endorsers by quantifying player appeal and aspiration on a national and global basis.

This saw process saw Ronaldo leave rival players choking in his dust courtesy of a global fan base courtesy of his unparalleled name recognition, with 83 per cent of people able to identify the Portugese star.

Other players to make the grade include Spain’s Andreas Iniesta who is recognised by 48 per cent of people globally and 99 per cent of his fellow countrymen – not to mention the highest perception scores of any top 10 rival for both public aspiration and trust (80 and 71 per cent respectively).

This compares with national awareness levels of 97 and 95 per cent respectively for Italy’s Andrea Pirlo and the UK’s Wayne Rooney.

Andrew Walsh, football expert and global director enterprise services, Repucom, said: “Sponsors shouldn’t just look at the most famous players to market their brands but actually at how perceptions shift between countries and population demographics to ensure the biggest return on their investment. Take appeal as another defining criteria of public perception. Globally, of the percentage of people that know of Götze (39%), Van Persie (46%) and Ronaldo (83%), more women than men say that they actually like these players. This makes them especially effective brand endorsers for products aimed at this target group.”

Europe’s Top 10 Most Marketable Footballers (Global DBI Score)

1. Cristiano Ronaldo (77.46)

2. Wayne Rooney (58.01)

3. Andres Iniesta (56.02)

4. Robin Van Persie (54.42)

5. Arjen Robben (53.72)

6. Andrea Pirlo (51.29)

7. Mesut Ozil (50.32)

8. Mario Gotze (50.24)

9. Gareth Bale (46.88)

10. Eden Hazard (42.92)

Cristiano Ronaldo

More from Cristiano Ronaldo

View all

Trending

Industry insights

View all
Add your own content +