As opinion leaders with high purchasing power, upmarket adults are a key target for premium brands. With typically hectic lifestyles and demanding more convenience in their lives than ever, they are more difficult to reach than other demographics, and can be less open to advertising.
However, their passion for sport means they become heavier TV viewers for major international sporting events. These events represent ideal opportunities for advertisers to reach upmarket adults in large numbers.
The FIFA World Cup is one of the best examples of attracting upmarket adults across the world. Formula One and Rugby have a reputation for being particularly popular among upmarket viewers. However, the World Cup attracts even more upmarket viewers than both these sports.
Formula One in particular has a very glamorous image, and is often thought of as enjoying a particularly upmarket audience profile. However, with access to global viewing figures our ViewerTrack research reveals that the audience profile of the World Cup is more upmarket in certain key markets than that of Formula One.
In Spain, for example, upmarket adults are on average 23% more likely to watch the 2006 World Cup than all other adults. However, they were 6% less likely than all other adults to watch Formula One races in 2005.
These results may surprise many people, given that Germany and Spain are two of the largest Formula One markets, whilst Russia and China are two of the most important growth markets in Formula One. In all of these markets, however, the audience profile of World Cup 2006 is skewed just as much, if not more, towards upmarket adults than Formula One.
The profile of football is becoming more upmarket following sustained, heavy investment in all areas of the sport over the last 20 years. Funds have flowed in to support rising player salaries and improved infrastructure in the stadia and the leagues. Football has become a multi-billion dollar entertainment business with lucrative sponsorship and advertising deals.
It is the FIFA World Cup, however, which is leading the way in attracting upmarket adults to the sport. Other football events, such as the European Championships, have a less upmarket profile.
The World Cup is very much an untapped opportunity for advertisers and sponsors to reach the lucrative upmarket adult audience. Our data show that when the World Cup is in direct competition with Formula One, viewers in general are choosing the football.
This year's Canadian Grand Prix fell on the same day as the England v Ecuador and Portugal v Holland second-round matches at World Cup 2006. With viewers having to choose between watching Formula One and the World Cup, many opted to tune in to the football.
The average programme audience of 40m viewers across 36 markets who watched the live or time-shifted broadcasts of the race was 10m fewer people than watched in 2005. There was particularly significant viewer loss in the UK and Italy, where audiences fell by 45% and 35% respectively year-on-year.
When the Formula One did not clash with the football, the 2005 Canadian Grand Prix was the most popular race of the season. However, in 2004, when the Canadian race was broadcast on the same day as the Switzerland v Croatia and France v England matches in the Group Stage of Euro 2004, global audience figures dropped similarly.
The average global program audience for the race in 2004 was 40m, the same as this year at 10m less than in 2005.
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