Nike retains top spot among most marketable sports brands for 2021

US sportswear giant Nike has retained the top spot in SportsPro’s list of the World’s 50 Most Marketable (50MM) brands, holding off challenges by rival sportswear brand and second-placer Adidas, Emirates, Santander, and Red Bull, who rounded out the top five.

Puma, State Farm, Monster Energy, Dream11, and Heineken took the sixth to tenth spots.

The methodology was based on Hookit’s assessment of sponsorship value done by tracking the social and digital posts of every major professional athlete, team, and league, totaling over 500,000 accounts between 15th August 2020 and 15th August 2021.

Over 30,000 sports athletes and organizations posted during this period, promoting more than 8,000 brands across various platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitch, Twitter, VK, and Weibo.

Nike registered over 8.77 billion engagements on social media promoting its brand in a year, lequivaent to a sponsorship value of US$616.5 million.

Adidas exhibited a sponsorship value of more than US$270 million.

Having topped the list last year, Nike’s total represented a 58 percent increase in branded engagements and a 34 percent increase in sponsorship value received compared to 2020.

Scott Tilton, co-founder, and chief executive of Hookit, said that while it’s no surprise to see Nike at the top, there’s a significant shakeup in this year’s rankings compared to last year due to the comeback of sporting events, like the Euros and Summer Olympics

Michael Long, editorial director at SportsPro, added that the list speaks to the continued cultural relevance and unparalleled marketing nous of Nike, which is relevant not only in professional sport but in the everyday lives of global consumers.