N-Score is one of Nielsen’s successful products in the North America market, this year, as the Rio Olympics and many other important sports events took place, Nielsen decided to introduce N-Score to the Chinese market so as to help brand owners further.
Nielsen started an online survey on Chinese citizens in first and second tier cities, to know about their sports-related behaviors and impressions on sports stars. The first time of the survey covered eight kinds of popular sports and three to six well-known athletes in every kind, all together 40 of them. Below are some Key Nscore findings during Rio Olympics:
① Sports are popular in China. When being asked about interested leisure activities, 74% respondents say that they are interested in sports, making sports the fourth popular leisure activity, while movies (animation excluded, 86%), music(81%) and TV(78%) series are the top three.
② Lin Dan, Sun Yang and Ning Zetao are the top three popular athletes on N-Score. Among the 40 famous domestic and foreign athletes included in the N-Score, Lin Dan (94.73), Sun Yang ( 90.64) and Ning Zetao (87.13) have the highest total score. Kevin Durant (80.25) is the most popular foreign athlete on N-Score, ranking the fifth after Ye Shiwen (85.44). What’s more, Ning Zetao (27.94) has the highest sub-score in terms of appearance and won over the second good looking athlete Fukuhara Ai (19.54)by a wide margin.
③Men and women are interested in different sports. Generally speaking, swimming/diving (75%) are the most liked sports, followed by badminton(72%), basketball(68%), soccer(63%) and ping-pong(63%). But most men like basketball (75%) and soccer (73%), while women have more diverse interests and like all other sports better than men do, except for basketball and soccer.
④ International sports events are most watched. The FIFA World Cup (96%), the European Cup (92%) and NBA (96%) are the most popular sports events, receiving great attention that far exceeds those of domestic and other international events. Besides, the UEFA Champions League, the World Table Tennis Championships, the Table Tennis World Cup, the Wimbledon Championships, the French Open and the IAAF World Championships are also popular.
⑤ The most popular events in the Rio Olympics are competitive sports and China’s strength sports. Competitive sports like swimming (71%), basketball (57%), track and field (53%), soccer (51%) and sports that China is good at, such as diving (71%), ping-pong (63%), badminton (61%), gymnastics (52%) have attracted great attention among the audiences. Men prefer highly competitive sports (basketball, soccer, boxing) and the opening ceremony, while women have more diverse interests.
⑥ TV remains the main channel to watch sports (84%), especially during the Olympics, but usage of mobile platforms (smartphone 79%, pad 27%) are growing rapidly, getting close to that of PC (82%). Tencent Sports is the most widely used and loved online sports platform, followed by Sina Sports and the CCTV5 website.
N-Score offers comprehensive measurement of sports celebrities’ popularity among sports lovers. Higher score means higher popularity, better public image and more positive comments. The total score is based on many factors including appearance, reputation, discussions etc. As a result, brand owners can learn about consumers’ impression on certain stars thus develop accurate marketing strategies and pick up the right athlete to represent the product.