Nike dominates brand coverage and recognition stats at 2024 Australian Open
The 2024 Australian Open men’s and women’s champions, Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka, are both sponsored by Nike – and according to Meltwater, a leading media intelligence company, the sportswear giant emerged victorious in the battle for coverage and recognition at the first tennis grand slam of the season.
Meltwater conducted comprehensive analysis during the finals weekend utilising its AI-powered visual listening and company search capabilities, particularly focusing on logo recognition.
Sabalenka’s Nike sponsorship coverage witnessed an impressive 119 percent surge between the women’s semi-finals, soaring from 168 posts on January 25 to 368 posts during her win over Qinwen Zheng in the final on January 27.
Sinner’s Nike sponsorship coverage experienced a two percent increase after the men’s semis, rising from 1,370 on January 26 to 1,410 in the men’s final – an epic five-set win over Daniil Medvedev – on January 28. Sinner’s mentions surged dramatically over the weekend, witnessing an 842 percent growth, accumulating a total of 402,000 mentions according to the platform.
Nike’s sponsorship of competitors in both the men’s and women’s finals contributed significantly to the spike in posts identified via logo recognition. The women’s Nike-sponsored finalists, Sabalenka and Zheng, generated a total of more than 91,000 posts throughout the Australian Open, while the men’s sponsored finalist, Sinner, amassed more than one million posts.
Among the five chosen sponsors for AO 2024, Rolex emerged as the most recognised visual logo with a 43.9 percent Share of Voice (SOV) in terms of coverage. However, Kia maintained the highest SOV (58.7 percent) and mentions (21,500) since January 1, 2024.
Additionally, there was a noticeable increase in coverage for men’s runner-up Medvedev’s Lacoste sponsorship, growing from 322 posts during the men’s semi-finals to 372 posts by the men’s final. Newcomer sponsor New Balance experienced a surge in coverage with 307 posts on January 23 following Coco Gauff’s quarter-final victory against Marta Kostyuk.
Ross Candido, VP ANZ and SEA at Meltwater, emphasised the significance of equipping sponsors with tools to measure attribution, especially during premier events like the Australian Open.
“While traditional media attribution in Australia is still a mainstay and critically important, it is paramount for brands to extend their real-time insights beyond ‘words’ and deploy new AI-powered visual listening capabilities that allow them to search and analyse images and videos, identify specific logos, products, celebrities, memes, emotions, age groups and more,” Candido said.
“Failing to integrate image recognition into their social media tracking, means missing out on potentially as much as 90 percent of their coverage in today’s creator-driven economy. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.”
