Top sports: soccer, F-1, Olympics, men's tennis
TNS and ESPN have created a new European version of the popular ESPN Sports Poll, which will be intended to provide sponsors, leagues, and the media with insights about the impact that sports has on European consumers and the role it plays in their lives. Initial results were today revealed based on 500 online interviews conducted in January in each of the following countries: France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK.
Robert Fox, Senior Vice President of Sport & Sponsorship research at TNS North America, commented on the new tool:
"Companies have tools to measure specific aspects of their sports business, like television ratings and media exposure programs. These are important, but they do not tell the whole story. By tracking more than two dozen sports, this study offers brands a 10,000-meter vantage point to assess their target markets across the entire sports landscape. Continuous tracking makes this particularly unique because it negates the seasonal bias associated with comparing sports at a given point in time."
The study is designed to help answer questions such as:
TNS' baseline study reported a higher general interest in sports within Spain and Italy as compared to France, Germany, and the UK. "While cultural differences can account for how people respond to scaled questions in surveys, both behavioral and attitudinal questions showed greater avidity and activity in Spain and Italy," researchers said of their findings. Football (soccer) and Formula One were the top two mentions as favorite spectator sport, followed by the Olympics and Men's Tennis coming fourth. Of American sports leagues, NBA showed the highest level of total interest.
"The Sports Poll is unique in that it provides in-depth intelligence about the impact that sports has on the population with respect to involvement, media usage, and consumer behavior," said Artie Bulgrin, Senior Vice President at ESPN. "The monthly Sports Poll tracking in the US helps us identify trends that ultimately affect media and advertising performance. We are enthusiastic about what we can all learn in Europe now."
Monthly surveys will continue throughout the year, with detailed findings and trends reported on a quarterly basis.
This is only for well-armed expense accounts. How much will a 12-month membership set your company back? $45,000.
Just on the cost issue raised the scope of this service should not be compared to the typical cost of evaluating a sponsorship. This is multi-country and monthly tracking for US$45k per year. Some research costs this amount but is for a different type of service.
For a customized measurement of an individual sponsorship costs are significantly lower but the nature of the work is also different as it does not necessarily involve multiple markets and monthly interviews.
Sports marketing agencies, sponsors and properties can typically budget about US$8-14k to do the trick or less with an email database if it is with fans. Most surveys are done on-line thesedays and as a result the labor cost of interviewers is no longer there. If interviews are conducted at events then the cost is higher because interviewers need to be paid. However with on-line the data collection costs are much lower as respondents are paid to complete surveys and interviewers are not needed.
Research is well within the reach of many sponsorships thanks to the move to on-line.
(On-line is now fully embraced as a methodology for data collection for most research requirements including legal and trademark issues)
The idea we cannot afford to measure argument isn't the case as much anymore.
US$45k is more for the top-tier sponsors in this case.