A Research found that World Cup’s official partner Adidas ranked with 129,000 social mentions whereas an unofficial sponsor NIKE reached 232,000 mentions.
Way To Blue Head Peter Foster said that “What our analysis demonstrates, is that unofficial brands are certainly giving official brands a run for their money in the social buzz stakes, and that buzz volume alone should not be the only success indicator to focus upon, as it is vital to factor in other key measures such as affinity and engagement, which may act as more powerful driver of brand advocacy and even purchase in the long run.”
He also added that Way To Blue made a research on sponsors (official and unofficial) is not only to find which brands were coming out on top in terms of volume of discussion, but it is also to find which brand’s consumers showing more interest on World Cup.
The research discovered that six out of the top 12 brands analysed for social buzz volume were not official brand partners.