European Football Benchmark study also assessed the likeability of brands involved.
A new Europe-wide study of football fans has ranked Emirates as the ‘best fitting’ brand shirt sponsor in the Premier League.
Carried out by research company Statista, almost nine in ten of Arsenal’s supporters said they approved of the pairing, reported Sportindustry.biz.
Overall, four-fifths of Premier League fans were satisfied with their shirt sponsor ‘fit,’ despite the prevalence of betting brands, which represent almost half of the main shirt sponsors in the league.
The results were part of a European Football Benchmark study involving 3,000 fans, which also assessed the likeability of the brands involved.
Virgin Media (Southampton) came out on top with 28%, followed by Emirates (23%) and American Express (Brighton & Hove Albion) on 14%.
The same brands made up the top three for awareness among football fans, Emirates getting 78% and Virgin Media and American Express both on 75%.
“The perceived fit of a sponsor is closely related to how well the brand values of the sponsor reflect those of the club,” said Alexander Kunst, senior researcher at Statista. “For instance, Manchester City fans told us they see both their club and shirt sponsor Etihad as ambitious, genuine and international.
“It’s clear that to create a successful partnership, it’s important that both club and shirt sponsor consider how well their brand values match up.”
Want to read more news like this? Simply sign up to our daily digest by clicking here. You can also follow @LicensingSource on Twitter.
