Survey shows Euro 2008 fans still unaware of championship sponsors

A new survey by Survey Sampling International (SSI) revealed that 41% of European football fans don’t know who is sponsoring the Euro 2008 championships. While companies invest huge budgets on achieving brand association with such a high profile tournament, results suggest that most of their messages have not got through to the actual football fans yet.

Drawing from a panel of 1,820 French, German, Spanish, and British consumers, SSI’s latest survey demonstrates that amongst respondents who claimed they would be following the games, the UK is the hardest audience for

marketers to reach. As many as 77% of UK respondents claim they do not know who this year’s sponsors are, but this could be because the UK is not participating in the tournament, and the dearth of sponsors advertising on TV . The UK is closely followed by France (55%), Spain (42%), and Germany (28%).

It’s not all bad news for marketers though. People might not know the sponsors but they do say that they at least notice the adverts around the pitch. Results showed that 66 % of Spanish respondents notice pitch-side branding, compared to 63% of French and British respondents, and 43% of Germans.

Just as Germany is shown to be the nation least affected by pitch-side advertising, it also seems that the German market is the hardest to influence. As many as 35% claimed that they notice brands but do not allow it do affect their purchasing decision, whilst respondents in other countries are more easily influenced. Only 20% French, 17% UK, and 14% Spanish respondents thought that a pitch-side advertisement would not influence their purchasing decisions.

“Our international survey has shown a large number of football fans are still vastly unaware of the Euro 2008 sponsors. This could suggest sponsors need to review their marketing strategies to communicate their brand values to the fans if they are to succeed in using their sponsorship budget to its maximum effect,” says Volker Andresen, European Marketing Manager at SSI.