Tennis superstar Roger Federer is the world’s most marketable sport star according to a research compiled by the London School of Marketing, beating the likes of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, LeBron James and Cristiano Ronaldo.
The list is the accumulation of their earnings from sponsorship and advertising deals and their reach on social media.
“He may not have won Wimbledon this year, but it’s Federer’s personal characteristics which sponsors find so attractive.” Jacques de Cock, faculty member at London School of Marketing, said, as quoted by The Drum.
“There are four main reasons why brands want to be associated with sports stars and the first explains why the list is almost exclusively male; it enables marketers to advertise to the traditionally hard to reach 16 – 30 year old male bracket. Sport is the obvious way to do this due to the ‘hero’ status of many sportsmen.
“Sports stars are also brilliant vessels for increasing brand awareness purely down to the sheer volume of people who watch sport.
“Thirdly, a sports star endorsement can validate product features, especially for sports brands.
“Finally sports stars can boost a brand’s equity. The values attributed to sportsmen (honesty, hard work, dedication, skill, etc.) can be of significant value to brands that are not naturally associated with this, for instance, banking, insurance and utilities.”
The list is largely dominated by tennis stars with 6 stars present while basketball have 4. Football and Golf are tied at 3 each.
Tiger Woods came in second in the list, followed by Phil Mickelson, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Rory McIlroy. Fellow tennis compatriots Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal came in seventh and eighth respectively. The highest footballer in the list is Cristiano Ronaldo at tenth while only two women made it in the list – Maria Sharapova at twelve spot while recent women Wimbledon champion Serena Williams completed the top 20 list at twentieth.
The full list:
1. Roger Federer – Tennis
2. Tiger Woods – Golf
3. Phil Mickelson – Golf
4. LeBron James – Basketball
5. Kevin Durant – Basketball
6. Rory McIlroy – Golf
7. Novak Djokovic – Tennis
8. Rafael Nadal – Tennis
9. Mahendra Singh Dhoni – Cricket
10. Cristiano Ronaldo – Football
11. Kobe Bryant – Basketball
12. Maria Sharapova – Tennis
13. Lionel Messi – Football
14. Usain Bolt – Track
15. Neymar – Football
16. Andy Murray – Tennis
17. Kei Nishikori – Tennis
18. Derrick Rose – Basketball
19. Floyd Mayweather – Boxing
20. Serena Williams – Tennis
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