London-based SportsPro Media recently released a list of their 50 most-marketable brands in sports and 50 most-marketed athletes. Each list was compiled using a variety of criteria in partnership with Nielsen and Hookit. We encourage you to visit SportsPro’s rankings landing page for the full rankings and additional insight into methodology.
Note: the 50 most-marketable sports properties will be released on Monday, October 12th.
Most-marketable brands in sports
SportsPro’s brands ranking took into consideration social activity of every major professional athlete, team, and league – over 500,000 accounts. The sponsorship value by brand was found via two key metrics: potential value and promotion quality. So, how did brands invested in soccer fair? By our count, 31 soccer brands made the cut:
| Rank | Brand | Category |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nike | Apparel / Footwear |
| 2 | Emirates Airlines | Airline |
| 3 | adidas | Apparel / Footwear |
| 5 | Red Bull | Energy Drink |
| 7 | Santander | Banking / Financial Services |
| 8 | Standard Chartered | Banking / Financial Services |
| 9 | Puma | Apparel |
| 10 | Beko | Home Appliances |
| 11 | Gatorade | Sports Drink |
| 12 | Anheuser-Busch InBev | Alcohol |
| 13 | Rakuten | eCommerce |
| 14 | Jeep | Automotive |
| 15 | Toyota | Automotive |
| 16 | Electronic Arts | Video Games / Entertainment |
| 17 | Pepsi | Soft Drink |
| 18 | Heineken | Alcohol |
| 19 | Chevrolet | Automotive |
| 20 | Mercedes-Benz | Automotive |
| 21 | Allianz | Banking / Financial Services |
| 22 | Coca-Cola | Soft Drink |
| 24 | NBC | Television / Radio |
| 27 | AT&T | Communications |
| 34 | T-Mobile | Communications |
| 35 | Automotive Technology | Pirelli |
| 36 | Budweiser | Alcohol |
| 38 | Barclays | Banking / Financial Services |
| 39 | Bet365 | Gambling / Betting |
| 40 | Audi | Automotive |
| 43 | DHL | Shipping / Logistics |
| 44 | Qatar Airways | Airline |
| 46 | Hyundai | Automotive |
Most-marketable athletes
Soccer brands faired well in the rankings, so that brings about the obvious question – how did soccer players fair? In these rankings, MediaPro partnered with Nielsen to compare four key athlete social metrics: relevance, reach, return, and resonance.
| Rank | Athlete | Team |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lionel Messi | FC Barcelona |
| 2 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Juventus |
| 6 | Neymar Jr. | Paris Saint-Germain |
| 9 | Mohamed Salah | Liverpool |
| 10 | Paulo Dybala | Juventus |
| 11 | Eden Hazard | Real Madrid |
| 15 | Kylian Mbappé | Paris Saint-Germain |
| 16 | Erling Haaland | Borussia Dortmund |
| 17 | Alex Morgan | Tottenham Hotspur |
| 19 | Paul Pogba | Manchester United |
| 20 | Robert Lewandowski | Bayern Munich |
| 23 | Virgil van Dijk | Liverpool |
| 25 | Megan Rapinoe | OL Reign |
| 34 | Son Heung-min | Tottenham Hotspur |
| 39 | Dele Alli | Tottenham Hotspur |
Categories: Just For Fun, Research, Social Media, Sponsorship