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SportsPro & Zoomph Outline Athletes with the Greatest Marketability in 2021
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Source: fangirlish.com
When reading a list like Top 10 Richest People In America, Fastest Cars of The Year, or like now, the Top 50 Most Marketable Athletes in the World, right away names that you’re familiar with start coming to mind: Jeff Bezos? Bugatti? And possibly Ronaldo? But when you actually dive into the lists, there are always the expected names, like Jeff Bezos but then there are some surprises as we see in the Top 50 Most Marketable Athletes. Here’s the Top 10 with their respective points:
1. Simone Biles, American, 24, Female, Gymnastics - Influencer Score 183
2. Naomi Osaka, Japanese, 23, Female, Tennis - Influencer Score 179
3. Ashlyn Harris, American, 35, Female, Soccer - Influencer Score 178
4. Canelo Alvarez, Mexican, 31, Male, Boxing - Influencer Score 177
5. Paulo Dybala, Argentine, 27, Male, Soccer - Influencer Score 176
6. Cristiano Ronaldo, Portuguese, 36, Male, Soccer - Influencer Score 174
7. Ali Krieger, American, 37, Female, Soccer - Influencer Score 174
8. Stefanos Tsitsipas, Greek, 23, Male, Tennis - Influencer Score 173
9. Novak Djokovic, Serbian, 34, Male, Tennis - Influencer Score 172
10. Alex Morgan, American, 32, Female, Soccer - Influence Score 171
At first glance, you have some immediate questions: where are Messi (12) and Lebron (24)? then you start to look through some names you go yup, makes sense and then others, you’re curious who they are but this isn’t the list of the most known or followed athlete, it’s the most marketable. Firstly, marketability is based not just on how many followers and/or likes an athlete may have, but the demographic makeup and consumer affinities of their audience as well, says Zoomph. This is a very important statement as it begins to answer these initial questions. Sure, Ronaldo may have a mass following, however, it is not as niche as some of these other athletes, which works in their favour. For example, let’s take a brand deal Ronaldo has done in the past, Herbalife, did his mass following become aware of this brand by viewing it in his post? Yes. But, is Herbalife really targeting every individual that follows Ronaldo? Probably not. Ronaldo is a global figure and with that, his audience ranges from teens who are fans of his style to raging grandma soccer fans. Whereas, athletes in the upper echelon of this list, like Simone or Canelo, have a large following but a reduced amount of audience segments.
Let’s look at Simone Biles for a second. Off the top of our head, we’ve seen her in commercials with Visa, Tide, Uber, etc. These are all brands that are targeting the everyday North American, which makes perfect sense. If you were to set up a focus group of everyday North American people, she would receive a high recognition score. However, if you were to perform the same focus group test in, we don’t know, Portugal; Simone’s score would be drastically lower. The same goes for Canelo when doing focus groups in Latin America and then Portugal. This allows brands to have a strong understanding of the consumer affinities of their audiences, as Zoomph states, which is extremely valuable to these brands.
This is why there is high interest in white whale mktg athletes, brands know the audience they are selling to. They aren’t getting an Abuela in Columbia, a teen in Toronto, and then a bloke in England, they specifically get 20-30-year-olds, from Vancouver interested in an active lifestyle. Selling a product or a service is much easier when a brand knows who they are selling to. This is what makes this list, completed by Zoomph and SportsPro, so great. It makes readers question the rankings in their head, especially with the recent news of Messi and Ronaldo, but it all comes together when you dive deep enough. We’ll stay up to date with these lists going forward, as we’re curious to see when an esports athlete will jump the ranks and make an impact.
Which athletes ranking most & least surprised you?
Published: September 3rd, 2021 - Issue 6 of The Sport Marketeer