The club is the most watched team in the English Premier League, claiming a combined 2 billion viewing hours last season across 200 territories. The club has more social media followers that the NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL combined, with more than 260 million followers producing 4.5 billion social media interactions over the last two seasons alone.
Marketers are now looking at the data insights around soccer club fan bases to be able to understand and leverage their partnerships to bring them closer to brands.
“The more you can build it out and the more knowledge you have about your fan base, that’s where the marketers are starting to get smart and they’re starting to now want to show return on their investment,” said Lynch. “Rather than just saying, ‘I’ve been in 750 million homes’ on a linear television basis, they now ask ‘How can we activate?’ to get closer to the consumer.”
And for Manchester United especially, this strategy is working, having sealed 28 major sponsors for the current season and agreeing to its largest kit deal in the history of the Premier League with Adidas through a 10-year extension valued at a minimum of 1.06 billion euros ($1.15 billion).
According to its most recent financial results in November, Manchester United’s 2023 sponsorship revenue will reach £189.5 million ($240 million), its highest in five years.
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