South Africa’s soccer fan base is set to be the biggest winner when the World Cup reaches these shores in 2010, with research showing that the depth of support for the world’s most popular sport is growing in this country.
Research conducted by BMI, the only independent sponsorship research & evaluation consultancy in South Africa ha s found that as a result of the 2006 World Cup in Germany, an increasing number of white South Africans have taken an interest in the sport.
Approximately 600 000 people amongst the higher LSM groups in South Africa that would not usually have watched soccer tuned in to at least some of the matches, which is a positive factor in the lead-up to 2010 as this group will most likely be the people purchasing tickets for matches for the event.
“These are the people who will drive the tournament financially. If they are interested in the tournament, they’ll pay any sort of price to go see a match,” said BMI’s Johan Grobler.
The research also confirmed that black South African fans value local soccer more highly than the international game, while the opposite is true of whites.
A total of 3.2 million adult South Africans watched the 2006 final between Italy and France, representing just one quarter of all South African soccer spectators.
Of this, 1,8 million black viewers watched the final, representing only 15 per cent of the country’s black soccer fans.
In contrast, nearly 70 per cent of whites with an interest in soccer watched the 2006 World Cup final.
This corroborates previous research conducted by BMI that 90 per cent of whites who watch soccer follow international soccer, but less than 60 per cent take an interest in the local game. By comparison, the opposite is true amongst black South African fans.
The recent World Cup highlighted another interesting difference between the two sets of South African fan bases.
The opening World Cup match between Germany and Costa Rica was more popular amongst blacks (with just under 2 million viewers) than the final, with black viewership falling nearly seven per cent for the final. In the case of white fans it was the exact opposite, with interest increasing as the competition progressed.
The fall in black viewership from the beginning of the competition to the end is a concern for the 2010 organisers in that the competition seems to have had less impact on the country’s biggest base of soccer fans, once their favourite teams were eliminated.
Extensive research by BMI over the past two years has, however, also proved that the traditional Audience Ratings (AR’s) is not as reliable as once thought in determining viewership of such an event because it fails to consider the Out-of-Home viewership of the lower LSM groups. AR’s only account for those people who watched the 2006 World Cup games in their homes and does not include those who would have watched games in pubs, restaurants, shebeens and other public areas, which can add up to 50 per cent of total viewership.
With the SABC broadcasting all of the matches free to air, Out-of-Home viewership was less significant in 2006 but it was still estimated at over 20 per cent, or an additional three quarters of a million viewers.
The reporting of AR’s alone also fails to take into consideration other critical issues which may impact on overall viewership. For example, while it has been widely reported that the South African AR’s for the 2006 FIFA World Cup increased by 52 per cent, this does not take into account the difference in time zones between Germany vs. Korea /Japan; which likely inhibited viewing as the games were televised at odd hours in 2002. A further consideration is the host broadcaster, which in 2006 changed from eTV to SABC1. Not only is SABC 1 recognised as the soccer channel in South Africa, it also has a 25% higher past seven days total audience.
As South African sponsors get set to cash in on the 2010 showpiece, history has shown that in all major world events with multi-sponsors, there are winners and losers.
Amongst the SA public, Cup Coca-Cola was the clear winner, with a spontaneous association of 22,8% amongst blacks and 18,9% amongst whites. Unfortunately, many of the other official sponsors who had their signboards displayed around the field during the matches were not as fortunate. They include sponsors such as T-Mobile, Deutche Telecom, Postbank and Budweiser, who received virtually no mentions at all amongst the SA consumers. Keep in mind that these are not well-known brands in the local market. Of the other sponsors, Hyundai and Philips performed best at 7% to 8% mentions.
In contrast, our local companies who took broadcast sponsorship packages performed well, with ABSA achieving the 2nd highest awareness levels overall (13,8% blacks and 11,5% whites ). Vodacom was 3rd and just managed to edge MTN into 4th place.
BMI’s Grobler added that anything over 10 per cent association with the event was a significant return.
No comments:
Post a Comment