Feature
Running with the Olympic pack
23 June 2011
Consumers in wealthy Western European markets will find London’s 2012 Olympic Games on their continental doorstep for the first time since Barcelona was host 20 years ago.
Newly-released insight from Kantar Media’s TGI Europa survey of consumers in Western Europe reveals who will likely be interested in the Olympic Games and how marketers can best reach and communicate with them, both collectively and by market.
Athletics lies at the core of Olympic action. Understanding the people with an interest in this discipline is indicative of who may show particular engagement with the event. Taken as an aggregate, 26% of adults – more than 55 million across the UK, Germany, France and Spain – have an interest in athletics. In France and Germany, the figure is 32% and 29% respectively, but this drops to 25% in Spain and just 18% in the UK.
These consumers are 30% more likely than the average adult to believe that sponsoring the Olympic Games elevates a company’s image. In France, 39% take this view, compared to 36% in the UK and 29% in Germany.
Other sports popular with athletics’ fans include soccer, swimming and cycling. Followers of these sports represent a broader effective forum to reach the most key Olympic fans.
What makes athletics’ fans attitudinally different from Western European consumers generally is their politically-interested and quality-driven nature. They are significantly more likely to be interested in international events and are champions of the European single currency. They are also more likely to believe it is worth paying more for good quality wine.
Reaching this target is most efficiently carried out on a market-by-market basis. TGI Europa research shows that in Spain athletics’followers are more likely to be among the heaviest fifth of consumers of newspapers and magazines. In France, they are more likely to be among the heaviest fifth of consumers of outdoor media. In the UK, meanwhile, it is cinema that comes out on top.
Also read Visit London warms up for the Olympics
Chris Bunyan, senior associate director, TGI Europa, Kantar Media