Football content is the king

Which brand is the most successful using YouTube as a communication channel? At first glace many people would say Nike due to its successful campaigns for FIFA World Cup and recently finished Olympic Games. But – here are the numbers. 

I analyzed most popular sports apparel brands especially in European football (soccer). Nike, Adidas, Reebok, Puma and Umbro are the oldies goldies of football apparel sponsorship. They have been partners of the best European football clubs and national teams for decades.

First account on YouTube

Surprisingly Puma was the first one having its own account on YouTube. They uploaded 1.669 videos since October 8, 2005. This is also the highest number of videos among analyzed brands per channel. If Puma is the winner in the category of the highest number of uploaded videos, Nike and Adidas lead in the number of channels and views per video.

Nike and Adidas have several accounts like: Nike Football, Nike, Adidas, Adidas Football TV, Adidas Originals etc. I included just the first three. It is more than obvious that football is the most wanted content on YouTube. Nike’s ad Write the future is still the leader in views per video. First and second place belong to Nike: account Nike has 200,035 views per uploaded video in average and account Nike Football has 189,700 views per uploaded video in average. The proof of football popularity shows the result of Adidas: account Adidas has just 71,550 views per uploaded videos and account Adidas Originals  34,560 views. And Adidas Football? 138,441 views per uploaded video in average.

Nike also leads in the absolute number of subscribers: just Nike Football account has 316,939 subscribers, while Adidas has just 127,604 subscribers at all three accounts (Adidas, Adidas Football TV and Adidas Originals).

Puma produces the most videos

Can you believe it? Puma uploaded more videos than Nike and Adidas with three accounts each. What is more surprisingly is that Nike account has uploaded just 147 videos, which is less than Umbro has it. Adidas is quite close to Puma, but considering all three accounts (1,547 uploaded videos).

How to win YouTube with sports apparel brand?

The success on YouTube (measured by number of views in general and views per uploaded video) doesn’t depend on the amount of uploaded videos or subscribers. Also it doesn’t count if you are the first one on new social network. (As we all know :)) it is better to think what would you like to achieve with your presence. Many brands like Reebok were among first brands on YouTube, but today’s results show that great content, right viral channels and football can bring you on the half way of the success. For the other way you have to be Nike* :)

*In this context Nike is a synonym for unknown winning formula like brand Nike knows how to find it with its branded activation.

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