Social Football Summit 2025: YouGov measures the value of sports sponsorships

Is it possible to quantify and profile fans of a sporting event? And how can brands that link to major events and companies measure the results? And finally: how can the economic feedback and visibility of a sponsorship and the impact on KPIs be measured? This was discussed during the meeting “Beyond the pitch: innovation in sponsorship and fan engagement in Serie A,” which took place during the first day of work at the eighth edition of the Social Football Summit (SFS25), the international event dedicated to the Football Industry and the topics of innovation, sustainability, marketing and soccer development.

Major sporting events are a means of high visibility and connection between companies and consumers/fans. Serie A, our country’s competition par excellence, does not escape the rule: according to evidence presented by YouGov, a global leader in market research and data analysis and research partner of Serie A for the past two Seasons, companies that link up with Lega Serie A achieve benefits both in terms of Brand metrics such as awareness and consideration, and in the acquisition of new consumers (penetration). The results of Enilive, Iliad, Philadephia, and Fantasy Football were mentioned in particular. For all, positive results among soccer fans compared to consumers who do not follow Serie A.

PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT – Brands that decide to invest in Serie A sponsorship have access to passionate and broad audiences. In the face of this opportunity, rigorous and accurate survey tools are needed to avoid wasting resources. The YouGov Core Panel, which can count on 30 million subscribers worldwide of which 450,000 in Italy, feeds continuous services such as profiling and tracking and, combined together with the YouGov Consumer Panel that in Italy can count on about 17 thousand households representative of the entire population, provides a complete path of insights and parameters to demonstrate the value of a sponsorship.

“In terms of monetization, the sports industry is increasingly similar to the logic of the media industry, with the need to measure all its phases of an initiative or partnership, before, during and after. Our approach has evolved to ensure transparency in economic valorization, in evaluating effectiveness in terms of brand KPIs but also in terms of conversion and sales. Thanks to the two YoUGov Core and Consumer Panels, our portfolio of sponsorship measurement solutions is unique in the market in terms of completeness and robustness,” said Stefano Russo, YouGov Commercial Director.

The PHILADELPHIA CASE – The panel dedicated to sports sponsorship and effectiveness measurement thus saw YouGov among the protagonists along with Lega Serie A, Philadelphia, Iliad, Fantacalcio and Enilive. Specifically, the analysis of the Philadelphia case shed light on the potential of sponsorships and the added value of measurement tools.

Corresponding to the last two soccer seasons, the brand has experienced reputational growth (soccer fans demonstrate a positive perception and above-average rating for Philadelphia) that has led to beneficial spillovers on all key purchase indicators.

The number of purchasing households has increased by 7 percent thanks to a penetration that has reached 52.1 percent by 2025 (up from 50.1 percent two years ago). Even better performance in terms of frequency of purchase (+7.5 percent) and average expenditure (+9.7 percent).

The number of purchasing households among households with soccer fans increased by +15.7% in two years, while it is basically stable (+0.8%) in those without fans. The growth of penetration in the target audience under consideration has contributed decisively to the performance of the brand, which grows both in volume and value at much higher rates in households following the Serie A (in value +23.4% vs. +12.5% in other households, in volume +18.5% vs. +5%) with growth accelerating particularly in the last year: the target audience of households with fans is responsible for 55% of the total increase in value and 63.5% in volume.

The number of shoppers among households with football fans has increased by +15.7% in two years, while it is basically stable (+0.8% vs. +0.8%) in households without fans.

“Thanks to our shopper panel, we have timely and continuous data on the real purchasing behavior of consumer goods by Italian families, which we can now offer to soccer teams to help them identify the sponsors who are most like-minded or who may have the most advantage in tying themselves to the brand of a given competition. Moreover, thanks to the timely tracking of purchases, we can certify whether and how much a sponsorship activity has really changed purchasing behavior and thus measure its real effects, using the same metrics that companies use for their consumers. With this piece, the YouGov proposition for the sports industry is unique in the marketplace,” Marco Pellizzoni, YouGov Shopper Sales Director, said during his speech.

The YOUGOV FOOTBALL INDEX AWARD 2025 at the Barcelona
During the SFS Awards ceremony, Barcelona received the YouGov Football Index Award. During the past football season, Barcelona was the foreign team most liked by Italian soccer fans. The result emerges from ongoing monitoring that YouGov conducts throughout Europe and allows the industry to measure various metrics related to the performance of teams, managers, and athletes. Victor Campos Blanco, commercial strategy & insights manager at Barcelona, picked up the award. Last year the award was given to Genoa for growth over the previous season.