Resonate helps brands better understand, reach, and engage with their target consumer segments. We help brands retain customers, acquire new ones, and tell the right story to the right person at the right time. For those not in the industry, I often refer to Resonate’s solution set as a research-optimized, insights-to-action platform that supports a company’s entire marketing function. In addition to how we help brands maximize the return on their marketing spend, we also help media and publishers better understand and monetize their unique audiences. This article, my maiden blog post with Resonate, will look closely at an audience segment of which both myself and Tim are active members: the European Football fan in America.
The UEFA Champions League Final is this coming Saturday. While Tim’s and my beloved Real Madrid did not get past the semi-final, Chelsea and Manchester City did. Tim and I are guaranteed to both be part of this weekend’s live TV audience. Football, or Soccer for some, is becoming more and more popular across the United States. In fact, the 2020 final between Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich peaked with a record 2.63 million total viewers 2+ and 1.33 million adults 18-49. The thrilling 1-0 finish was the fourth most-viewed final ever with total viewers 2+ regardless of language, and the No. 1 rated on Spanish-language television of all-time.
While last year’s viewership was likely boosted by the pandemic, it continued a clear and very visible trend. However, after years of working with leading advertisers and media companies, not to mention watching European football on as many channels as possible, I feel it is possible this particular audience is not fully appreciated and potentially undervalued. So, as we get ready for the “all England final” this coming Saturday, let’s take a closer look at the American fans of European soccer.
The data highlighted throughout this blog post is unique, proprietary Resonate data, obtained via our frequent consumer survey (the National Consumer Study™), and all the fresh behavioral data we have connected to these 13,000 granular and self-reported insights. For any questions on methodology, or to receive the data and/or permission to use them, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
High-level Demographics of American Fans of European Soccer
Source: Resonate Ignite Platform™, May 2021
So, to kick-off (pun intended), we see that the American Fan of European Soccer over-indexes significantly for male and employed full-time. We also see that 45% of the audience has household income above $100K/year, and a whopping 2/3 have a college or post-graduate degree. An analysis of the ethnicity of this audience also showed us that the Hispanic segment, while significant and well-represented, was NOT atop the list in terms of index. While Hispanics were the second largest group in terms of composition, folks of Asian and Middle Eastern/North African ethnicity over-indexed more than all other groups.
Discretionary Income
Source: Resonate Ignite Platform™, May 2021
When compared to the U.S. online adult population, this consumer segment over-indexes significantly for the higher discretionary income brackets. In fact, 50% of this audience has discretionary income over $50,000. We saw earlier that more than half this group is married but does not have kids. Somebody call Sandals resorts or the Paris tourism promotion bureau!
Media Consumption
Source: Resonate Ignite Platform™, May 2021
Motivations & Lifestyle Highlights
Source: Resonate Ignite Platform™, May 2021
So, outside of demographics and income, one of Resonate’s unique value propositions is understanding personal values, drivers of decision-making, and different psychographics. We strongly believe that effective creative has to always consider the unique regional, cultural, and personal influences. While this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the 13,000 attributes we know about this group, the cream has clearly risen to the top here in terms of the over-indexing. For instance, this audience is nearly 5X more likely to play fantasy sports than the average of the U.S. adult online population. They are also driven by relationships, challenges, athletics, accomplishments and competencies, and the acquisition of wealth.
Top 3 Personal Values of American Fans of European Soccer
Source: Resonate Ignite Platform™, May 2021
For brands, and for advertising sales teams offering this audience, key themes here are prestige, importance, prosperity, adventure, indulgence, and success. If these values and influences fit how you position your brand, this is an audience for you. Advertising sales folks, let’s go find those brands!
Source: Resonate Ignite Platform™, May 2021
Here we start moving into the self-reported future purchase categories. Again, Resonate reports on nearly 13,000 consumer attributes in total.
Want to see the data that most interests your brand and/or your sales team? Just give us a call. We’d be happy to help you tell some interesting stories.
Source: Resonate Ignite Platform™, May 2021
Automotive is one of our top 10 customer verticals and, either because of or as a result of this, we have some really granular data on automotive purchases, influencers, and decision drivers. Our European football fans are almost 2.5X more likely than the average U.S. adult to be buying a car in the next 6-12 months. If you offer a lot of vehicles in the $35k-$45k range, I’d suggest you reach out to some of the various providers of European football coverage in the U.S. The Euro 2021 and Copa America tournaments are both coming up this summer as well!
Source: Resonate Ignite Platform™, May 2021
As we have seen throughout this post, this consumer segment prefers premium brands. This aligns with the personal values and aspirations that we saw earlier. Price under-indexed significantly here, further demonstrating how valuable this audience can be for luxury brands, especially automotive and high-end entertainment technology.
Based on Resonate’s fresh, self-reported data and observed behavioral signals, this audience could be buying a nice, new TV for Euro 2021 and Copa America any day now, and spending loads of their gambling winnings on a nice new car in the Fall.
As you can see, the European soccer audience in the U.S. is very diverse, wealthy, and clearly attractive for all kinds of brands. This is contradictory to what a lot of advertisers have traditionally assumed about the soccer-loving audience in the U.S. There appears to be a lot of value to be captured here for premium brands, especially those targeting multicultural audiences. I can tell you, as a passionate European football and sports fan in general, advertising during games is an under-appreciated method of building brand loyalty and advocacy. Fans are passionate and, whether it be conscious or sub-conscious, do appreciate corporate sponsorship of the things they love.
Tim and I will be glued to the TV on Saturday and encourage you all to enjoy the game as well. I anticipate record U.S. viewership once again with American star Christian Pulisic leading the attack for Chelsea. With national teams and star players competing in both the Euro 2021 and Copa America during this coming Summer, this valuable and under-appreciated U.S. audience will only continue to grow. Research-heavy media planning, combined with creative that is optimized around psychographics, life stages, and decision drivers, will undoubtedly help smart marketing teams outscore their opponents and lift the trophy. I’m terribly sorry, but I couldn’t resist. I’ll see myself out.
Editor’s note: Special thanks to Tim Ho, one of our very best solution engineers, for the assist on this piece. Let’s go, CFC!
Alex Banks is Vice President, Brand Sales at Resonate, and has been a Real Madrid fan since 1993, cheering for Chelsea. Tim Ho is a Solutions Engineer at Resonate and has been a Real Madrid fan since 2006, cheering for Man City.
