Marketing & Sponsorship

Nike nabs early lead over Adidas in Women’s World Cup gear sales

Published

1 year ago

July 26, 2023

Among the battles of the brands at the Women’s World Cup, no showdown likely means more dollar-wise than the one playing out between Adidas and Nike.

Each sees soccer as a key cog in its business, and the sport produced sales of $25 billion and $51 billion for the companies, respectively, over their most recent four quarters.

At the moment, Nike appears to be winning.

“Nike is selling out of World Cup merchandise faster and at a higher price point than Adidas,” Refinitiv director of consumer research Jharonne Martis said in an email. “The latter has been offering higher promotions for its World Cup merchandise. This suggests that Nike is better poised to gain higher profits from the Women’s World Cup.”

As of a week ago, just ahead of the tournament’s kickoff, Nike was enjoying a sellout rate on 11% of its World Cup merchandise, compared to 4% for Adidas, according to Martis’ research, which stems from a partnership between Centric Pricing, a collector of pricing and sales data, and London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), owner of Refinitiv as well as other financial services and information businesses.

Adidas is an official sponsor of the WWC, which is taking place in Australia and New Zealand. But both companies sell World Cup-related merchandise by virtue of their team sponsorships. Adidas sponsors 10 of the teams in the tournament, while Nike claims 13. (Puma is a distant third with two teams while a clutch of other brands sponsor one squad.) Teams generating the most sellouts are Adidas’ Argentina and Nike’s Brazil, England and France.

According to Martis, the research found 65% of national team merchandise on sale at Adidas with an average discount rate of 25% off list price, while Nike appears to be holding the line on prices better, with 16% of its team merchandise on sale with an average markdown of 4%.

However, discounting doesn’t tell the whole story—as any shopper knows, sometimes the list price is there just to make the actual price seem like a better deal. Such might be the case with Adidas, which the Centric-LSEG analysis says is starting with an $84 average price for shirts and jerseys—the bulk of merch sales—compared to Nike, which has an average list price of $78. The researchers tallied 846 “fan gear” items from Nike across the 17 teams it sponsors, and 354 products for the 17 “national teams” Adidas supports.

The Women’s World Cup merchandise trends seem to carry over from the men’s version of the quadrennial tournament last fall. In the first two weeks of the Qatar World Cup, Nike enjoyed a sellout rate of 23% compared to 11% for Adidas, according to a December analysis by Refinitiv done in conjunction with StyleSage. During that period Nike had a much higher average selling price than Adidas, $71 versus $46.

With both World Cups, each company sees making a big impression important both for immediate sales and long-term brand awareness. Nike CEO John Donahue told analysts at the end of June that the company saw double-digit growth in its global soccer business thanks in part to excitement about the Women’s World Cup. “Nike,” he said, “is proud to partner with more federations in the tournament than any other brand, and we’ve matched that energy with our most comprehensive women’s football collection ever.”

For his part, Adidas CEO Bjorn Gulden told analysts in early May that soccer remains a strong suit for the company. “We look very, very good for ’24 in football. Women’s football gained importance,” Gulden said. “I do think we have to own soccer around the world.”

Author

Ambrose Ijeh

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Media

LaLiga Signs 2024-25 Broadcast Deal With China Media Group

Published

4 days ago

September 11, 2024

Ambrose Ijeh

LaLiga Signs 2024-25 Broadcast Deal With China Media Group

Spanish soccer’s top-tier LaLiga has unveiled state-run China Media Group (CMG) as its official broadcast partner in the country.

Through a deal announced today, CMG returns as a Chinese broadcaster of the 20-team Spanish league.

The tie-up has come with the 2024-25 campaign already four matchdays in and follows a memorandum of understanding between the two parties in late July.

Last season (2023-24), LaLiga action was shown in China by the Migu streaming service, while rights for 2024-25 have also been snapped up by the iQiyi digital broadcaster.

Javier Tebas, president of LaLiga, has said: “China remains a key market for LaLiga, and we are thrilled to bring our league’s unique passion and excitement to Chinese fans through one of the most influential media platforms in the country.”

Over the last few weeks, LaLiga has been scrambling to add more partners to its stable of broadcasters for this season.

Earlier this month, a significant deal across numerous African markets was unveiled with SportyTV, while mid-August saw BeIN Sports extend its exclusive rights deals across the Middle East and North Africa, and Asia-Pacific.

Domestically, DAZN and Movistar are the main rights-holders through deals running between 2022 and 2027.

Sportcal

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Ambrose Ijeh

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Marketing & Sponsorship

TikTok To Sponsor Sports Teams Across Leagues

Published

4 days ago

September 11, 2024

Ambrose Ijeh

TikTok To Sponsor Sports Teams Across Leagues

As the app continues to expand its sports coverage, TikTok is set to become an official sponsor of Washington D.C.’s professional sports teams across several leagues, with the social media platform to be the first to have its logo featured on the Capitals’ road jerseys beginning in the 2024-25 National Hockey League season.

Despite TikTok’s ongoing battle with the U.S. federal government, the ByteDance-owned company is rooting itself in the country’s capital via a multiyear deal with Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), which includes partnerships with the Capitals, the NBA’s Washington Wizards, the WNBA’s Washington Mystics, the NBA G-League’s Capital City Go-Go and NBA2K’s Wizard District Gaming.

In addition, TikTok will become the title sponsor of the Capitals 50th Anniversary Celebration, which it says will feature tentpole events and initiatives celebrating 50 years of Capital hockey.

According to Jim Van Stone, president of business operations and CCO at MSE, the multiyear partnership with TikTok aims to “grow the game, showcase our players’ personalities” and “engage with the TikTok community through content creation.”

A potential nationwide ban has not stopped TikTok from signing new deals with major sports organizations.

Last week, the platform announced an extension of its ongoing partnership with the National Football League to continue hosting exclusive content on the app.

And earlier this summer, TikTok captured the attention of golf fans this summer by hosting the Creator Classic, a nine-hole competition among the platform’s biggest golf content creators in partnership with PGA Tour.

In addition,TikTok built off its partnership with Britain’s Olympics and Paralympics teams to launch a new marketing campaign featuring standout UK athletes while highlighting the app’s behind-the-scenes connection to the global sporting event.

In general, TikTok has made a bigger push toward facilitating sports content on the app since releasing a report in 2023 that showed video views for #hockey, #basketball, #rugby, #volleyball, #football, #cricket, and #baseball up year-over-year, many up over 100%.

Adage

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Ambrose Ijeh

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Media

Belgium’s Pro League Launches Five-Season Domestic Rights Tender

Published

4 days ago

September 11, 2024

Ambrose Ijeh

Belgian soccer’s top-tier Pro League has gone to market with a domestic media rights tender for the five seasons between 2025 and 2030.

The tender was launched recently (September 9), and the Pro League is being strategically supported by the heavyweight IMG agency – through a deal unveiled last October – during the process.

The deadline for prospective rights-holders to submit bids is October 16, with a Pro League general assembly to then evaluate the bids on October 18.

Interested parties can obtain the tender documents by contacting tender2025@proleague.be.

The 16-team Pro League’s domestic and international rights are currently held by global sports streaming service DAZN – which acquired previous rights-holder Eleven Sports in 2023 – in a five-year deal running through the 2024-25 season. Eleven tapped sports agency Mediapro to distribute international rights in partnership with the league.

In total, eight rights packages are available for purchase – three specifically for the Pro League (others cover the second-tier Challenger Pro League and various domestic cup competitions).

A new development in this tender is that the packages are platform-neutral, meaning they cover both linear and streaming rights.

In terms of kick-off times for games across the five seasons covered by the tender, meanwhile, the Pro League has said these “remain virtually unchanged.”

IMG, meanwhile, also has a contract in place to collect and commercialize the Pro League’s fastpath data in a five-year agreement with European Leagues running from 2022-23 to 2027-28.