The 2024 Australian Open closed over the weekend, with Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka taking out the men’s and women’s titles, respectively. But according to Meltwater, it was Nike, their sponsor, that came out on top in the battle for coverage and recognition.
Meltwater conducted additional analysis over the finals weekend by using its AI-powered visual listening and company search capabilities via logo recognition.
The women’s AO 2024 winner Sabalenka’s Nike sponsorship coverage grew by 119% between the Women’s semi-finals, from 168 posts on 25 Jan to 368 posts during the Women’s finals on 27 Jan.
Women’s AO 2024 winner Aryna’s Nike sponsorship coverage grew by 119% between the Women’s semi-finals
Mens Finalists Sponsorship
Men’s AO 2024 winner Jannik’s Nike sponsorship coverage (via logo recognition) grew between the Men’s semi-finals (Jan 26)
Men’s Runner Up Danill’s Lacoste sponsorship coverage (via logo recognition), which also grew between the Men’s semi-finals (Jan 26)
Similarly Men’s AO 2024 winner Sinner’s Nike sponsorship coverage (via logo recognition) also grew by 2% between the Men’s semi-finals, from 1.37k on 26 Jan to 1.41k in the Men’s finals (28 Jan). His mentions spiked over the weekend and grew by 842%, receiving a total of 402K mentions, according to the platform.
Meltwater found that Nike’s sponsorship of the Men’s and Women’s finals drove a spike in posts via logo recognition.
The Women’s Nike Sponsored Finalists (Sabalenka and Qinwen Zheng) drove 91.6k posts throughout the tournament (14 – 27 Jan), whereas the Men’s Sponsored Finalist (Sinner) drove 1.02m posts throughout (14 – 28 Jan).
AO 2024 Key Sponsors Growth
Share of Voice by Mentions
The platform found that over the course of the tournament (Jan 14-Jan 28), of the five chosen AO2024 sponsors, Rolex was the most recognised visual logo with 43.9% Share of Voice (SOV) (via logo recognition) in terms of AO 2024 coverage. Meanwhile, Kia maintained the highest SOV (58.7%) and mentions (21.5K) since 1 Jan 2024.
Men’s Runner Up Danill Medvedev’s Lacoste sponsorship coverage (via logo recognition) also grew between the Men’s semi-finals from 322 posts (26 Jan) to 372 posts by the Men’s finals (28 Jan).
Meanwhile new comer sponsor New Balance saw a spike in coverage with 307 posts on Jan 23 thanks to Coco Gauff’s quarter-final win against Ukrainian player Marta Kostyuk.
The Australian Open generated 2.53 million over the course of the tournament, up from 1.99 million in 2023, according to Meltwater.
Mentions trend 2023 vs 2024
Ross Candido, VP ANZ and SEA at Meltwater, said the Australia Open is one of the nation’s premier events that captivates local and global audiences, which in turn means that sponsors should equip themselves with the tools to measure attribution. He noted that it enables sponsors to not only justify their brand investments, but gain valuable insights to identify new opportunities to drive further impact.
“While traditional media attribution in Australia is still a mainstay and critically important, it is paramount for brands to extend their real-time insights beyond ‘words’ and deploy new AI-powered visual listening capabilities that allow them to search and analyse images and videos, identify specific logos, products, celebrities, memes, emotions, age groups, and more,” he said.
“Failing to integrate image recognition into their social media tracking, means missing out on potentially as much as 90% of their coverage in today’s creator-driven economy. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words,” Candido added.
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Top image: Aryna Sabalenka and Jannik Sinner