The Social World Cup: The Rise of Soccer in the US

THE SOCIAL WORLD CUP Soccer's Rise in the U.S. 2010 WORLD CUP REACHED 64 Million People 112 Million Americans (37% of all U.S. TV Viewers) about one-third of all U.S. Internet users visited a World Cup-related website such as ESPN.com, 126% Univision.com, FIFA.com, or Yahoo! Sports from 2006 FIFA Soccer is the FIFASOCCER 2nd most popular sports video game in the U.S. behind the Madden Franchise (Source: Nielsen) Since then, popularity has only continued to grow (Source: ESPN) LIONEL MESSI CRISTIANO RONALDO is the first soccer player to crack the top 10 favorite athletes among Americans Ranks high especially with younger Americans RANKED: RANKED: 8th 21st among all ages among all ages RANKED: RANKED: 4th 7th among ages 12-24 among ages 12-24 Favorite U.S. Sports Among Ages 12-24 (Source: ESPN) 24% 14% 13% 5% 4% NCAA Basketball NFL Professional Soccer NBA NCAA Football MLB NHL SPORTS MAKE A PLAY IN SOCIAL (Source: Google) 83% 63% of sports fans check Social media during a game of sports fans check social media while attending a sporting event Soccer is King Facebook Twitter TOP 10 ATHLETES TOP 10 ATHLETES ON FACEBOOK ON TWITTER BY FOLLOWERS Cristiano Ronaldo* 75M Cristiano Ronaldo* 24.8M Lionel Messi* 54.6M Ricardo Kaká* 18.2M David Beckham* 34.6M LeBron James 11.8M Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) 30M Neymar Júnior* 9.9M Ricardo Kaká* 26.2M Ronaldinho Gaúcho* 8.6M Michael Jordan 25.4M Wayne Rooney* Shaquille O'Neal 8.2M John Cena 20.5M 8.1M Neymar Júnior* Kobe Bryant 18.3M Andrés Iniesta* 8.1M 18.2M Gerard Piqué* 7.9M Andrés Iniesta* 17.1M Xabi Alonso* 6.7M *Denotes Soccer Player *Denotes Soccer Player f LIKES PER TEAM (AVG) FOLLOWERS PER TEAM (AVG) + EPL 6.3M (English Premier League) 840K NBA 2.9M 620K NFL | 2M | 380K MLB |1.3M 320K NHL 600K 250K HOW DO YOU USE FACEBOOK WHEN IT HOW DO YOU USE TWITTER WHEN IT COMES TO PROFESSIONAL SOCCER? COMES TO PROFESSIONAL SOCCER? Keep up with breaking news 48.30% 45.08% Read articles and columns 42.07% 31.73% Follow or connect with favorite teams 40.19% 46.75% Talk soccer with my friends 32.73% 29.31% Follow or connect with favorite players 27.98% 36.36% Follow or connect with soccer journalist and/or analyst 18.27% 21.34% Meet new people who are fans of my team 15.28% 22.26% Taunt fans of other teams 12.58% 13.91% You Tube YouTube Reaches More Soccer Enthusiasts Than Any Other Leading Portal or Social Media Site (Source: Google) 156 49 24 250+ Clubs Soccer News Channels Leagues Soccer Channels Refers to "official" videos- Real-Time Equals Real Opportunity Out of those who saw Oreo's “DUNK IN THE DARK" tweet before or after the Super Bowl 31% RETWEETED f LIKED COMMENTED On the post via Social Media groupmne t Source: GroupM Next, SessionM © GroupM Next, April 2014