Sponsors Samsung, Coca Cola and Toyota the clear winners for sponsor attention
● 🥇 Swimmer Ariarne Titmus took social media gold with the highest reach and engagement
● 🥇 Swimming and tennis enjoyed by far the biggest buzz in Australia and globally
● 🥇 Samsung dominated the sponsor global social buzz
Australia’s female athletes have lit up social media feeds worldwide as well as dominated the Olympics medal podium at the Paris Olympics according to data from Meltwater, a global leader in media, social and consumer intelligence. In doing so they’ve laid out a clear case of their value for potentially lucrative sponsorship deals ahead of other members of the contingent. Meanwhile, Olympic sponsors Samsung, Coca Cola and Toyota have secured the greatest interest online across both reach and engagement.
Social data from August shows that swimmer Ariarne Titmus’s stunning performances in the pool made waves far beyond the Olympic arena. It also earned her an Australian social gold with posts about her and by her generating more than double the reach and engagement of all other athletes, both at home and abroad. Jess Fox was a close second, with swimmer Kaylee McKeown, cyclist Grace Brown, skateboarder Arisa Trew, BMX racer Saya Sakakibara, swimmer Mollie O’Callaghan and pole vaulter Nina Kennedy coming in as highly commended.
Ross Candido, VP Australia, New Zealand & Southeast Asia, Meltwater, commented, "Sports marketing has traditionally focused more on male sports, but as we’ve seen with the Olympics, as well as recent sporting events such as the Australian Open and World Cup, there’s huge spectator interest in women’s sport and individual athletes. Women’s sport has been attracting more sponsorship money in recent years, but there’s still a gap that represents a lucrative opportunity for brands to support athletes and engage with audiences through social media.
From a sponsor’s perspective, Samsung stole the show globally gaining the highest reach (189m) and engagement (1.11m) of all the major sponsors. Coca Cola scored the second highest engagement (845k) and Omega the second highest reach (62.8m). Sentiment for all brands was overwhelmingly positive or neutral.
Through an Australian lens, Toyota secured the highest reach, but Coca Cola enjoyed by far the highest engagement among social media users. Omega, Qantas and Hancock Prospecting also saw good reach.
Candido said, "Providing athletes with a phone was a brilliant move with many using them to take selfies at the medal ceremonies, giving huge exposure. What we assume was Samsung’s assumed exclusive tagging arrangement by the official Olympic social accounts also shows the power of a focused digital strategy and effective hashtag use.
“Their success suggests a strategic exclusivity arrangement and smart influencer partnerships, demonstrating the immense impact a well-executed social campaign can have. What we hope by providing these figures is to emphasise why measuring social media success is vital - it allows businesses to quantify impact, optimise strategies and demonstrate the tangible value of their online presence," concluded Candido.
Other key data points include:
● Tennis (18m+) and swimming (16m+) took gold and silver position in terms of social media activity, fuelling conversations from Melbourne to Manhattan. Hockey (~9m) came in in third, with basketball and football also featuring prominently.
Notably boxing took gold in terms of the total number of posts mainly due to the controversy surrounding Algerian boxer, Imane Khelif and the surrounding worldwide gender eligibility debate.
Breaking won the highest number of engagement actions, likely due to breakdancer Raygun going viral.
These two incidents, both involving female Olympic athletes, highlight the toxic and harmful nature of social media, where conspiracy theories and misinformation spread rapidly, causing significant damage.
New South Wales saw the highest amount of Olympic-related social posting followed by Victoria and Queensland. However, normalised by population, Queensland was the biggest Olympic fan, followed by the Northern Territory and Victoria.
Social media conversations were nuanced by State. Unsurprising, as well as posts relating to sport, Queensland social activity included a greater focus on commentary relating to Brisbane 2032 and highlighting the inclusion of LGBTQ+ athletes at the Olympics, emphasising the importance of representation and visibility. NSW chattered about the financial implications of infrastructure costs to Paris and previous Games host cities. While Victoria led commentary around tennis and appeared most outraged by the opening ceremony.
/ENDS
About Meltwater
Meltwater helps companies make better, more informed decisions based on insights from the outside. We believe that business strategy will be increasingly shaped by insights from online data. Organisations will look outside, beyond their internal reporting systems to a world of data intelligence that is constantly growing and changing. Our customers use these insights to make timely decisions based on real-time analysis.
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