Crowded Summer Of Sport
The sustained interest in cricket following last summer's Ashes victory, and the annual build up to Wimbledon are certainly both top of mind for sponsors looking to associate their brands with summer sport. But with the World Cup looming large, the next three months will prove to be crowded, with a host of events vying for public attention.
Football has long been dominant in terms of interest amongst the British public, but as last year's Cricket-mania proved, events, major tournaments, and "turn around" teams have the ability to skyrocket public interest in a range of spectator sports. However, looking forward to the World Cup this summer, the UK's host of other popular sports could have a hard time finding their own market amongst a football-obsessed public.
It is inevitable that many other sports (and some major news events) will experience a dip in public interest during the thick of World Cup mania. However, those sports that rely on the increased media airtime and public support of a major summertime event, like tennis and cricket, seem to have the most to lose from a public distracted by the England team's quest for World Cup victory.
Figure 1 shows the level of interest in football, cricket, tennis and other sports, as monitored on Sponsortest, the syndicated sponsorship awareness & interest study run by Ipsos MORI. Results are based on a nationally representative sample of GB adults aged 16-64.
The chart clearly shows that interest in tennis consistently increases during the time Wimbledon is held each summer, peaking at 51 per cent in mid-July for both 2004 and 2005. With the World Cup final scheduled for early July, the buzz of Wimbledon could likely be overshadowed at least partially, though the emergence of Britain's new star player Andy Murray could help retain interest in tennis's most popular annual tournament. The final outcome of how well Wimbledon fares in garnering public interest this summer will certainly depend upon how far the England team progresses in the World Cup, as well as how far Murray and Henman progress in SW19.
Cricket is facing a similar clash with football this summer, with the England v. Sri Lanka series spanning from mid-May through to July, followed directly by a two month series with Pakistan. While cricket has declined in the public's interest from its high of 38 per cent in August, September and October of last year, the sustained interest during the recent England v India test series proves that in a post-Ashes sports climate, when the cricket is in full swing and the England team is performing reasonably well, it is in the media and on people's minds.
The big challenge for cricket is that England's next two major series overlap with the World Cup. While both series will certainly still generate some media attention, the combination of a public focused primarily on football, the lack of live cricket on terrestrial TV, and the possible "resting" of star players ahead of the Ashes rematch the following winter, means the sport could lose the momentum it has gained in the media and public eye following the victory last Summer.
Like cricket, Rugby Union is also in a situation where it experienced a significant increase in public interest following a major international win, but has struggled to maintain that level of interest in the following years. After England clinched the Rugby Union World Cup in late 2003, public interest in Rugby Union was at an all time high, with December 2003 data showing 44 per cent expressing interest in the sport. Whilst Sponsortest covers the whole of GB, England naturally makes up the bulk of that.
As the chart shows, public support for Rugby Union has dipped to between 28 and 35 per cent interest in the subsequent two and a half years, with the highest degree of public interest coinciding with the Six Nations tournament in February/March of both 2005 and this year. The startling decline of the England team will have contributed to the overall decline.
There is no doubt that the success of a national team or player will drive interest in a sport, and for cricket and tennis, this is the critical factor to remaining relevant throughout the summer of 2006, when all eyes will be undoubtedly be on the England football team's World Cup bid. For sponsors, however, the opportunities to associate brands with popular sporting events is seemingly endless, and there are a diverse range of sport fans to target in the coming months, from the champagne drinkers at Wimbledon to the lager and crisp fans that will be cheering on England during the World Cup.
This article first appeared in Sponsorship News