Team athlete and corporate: a good mix on social networks

To get a clearer picture, we compared the audience of Allianz France (the insurer supporting French Olympic athletes at the Games) with that of the sponsored athletes they sponsor, and who are present on X: Antoine Adelisse, Clarisse Agbegnenou, Carlota Dudek, Michaël Jeremiasz, Juliette Lacome, Loïc Pietri and Typhaine Soldé.

Summary:

• Using a muse allows you to reach specific audiences that sponsors don't have access to.
• Each muse has a dedicated audience. Multiplying partnerships means multiplying audiences.
• However, sports fans are not necessarily a sign of large audiences. On X, the people who follow a sportsperson's account are political audiences, institutional sports audiences and fans of the sport. It is therefore mainly an association of images rather than a logic of audience that sponsors gain.

Allianz France's audience is eclectic, but strongly focused on sport

Allianz France's audience is eclectic, ranging from accounts with large audiences (over 200 followers are accounts with an audience of over 20k followers) to mainstream accounts (87.8% are followed by fewer than 500 followers).

This audience has a special focus on sport, with a large number of top sportsmen and women, from Olympic medallists to Folls. The account also has a high profile in the European bubble, thanks in particular to the presence of accounts from European institutions and various EU representations abroad, as well as think tanks. Accounts specialising in digital and AI are also present, as are media and journalists.

Allianz France, a different audience from that of its Olympic athletes

With Allianz France's audience already heavily focused on sport, we might expect to see many similarities between its audience and that of the athletes it sponsors. However, each athlete has his or her own audience, although some are very similar. This is the case, for example, with Carlota Dudek, whose 62.44% audience share matches that of Loïc Pietri.

Despite similarities in terms of account types, there is little overlap between the followers of the different accounts. In fact, only 5.92% of the total audience follow at least 2 of the audience's accounts (all accounts combined). Furthermore, only 0.7% of Allianz France's followers also follow at least one athlete's account.

What is an athlete's hearing like? The case of Clarisse Agbegnenou

If Allianz France's audience is so different from that of its athletes, what does an athlete's audience look like? Is there a repetitive pattern that emerges?

Let's take a closer look at Clarisse Agbegnenou, a judoka with 3 Olympic medals to her name, as well as numerous medals from world and European championships.

Followed by over 38k people on X, Clarisse Agbegnenou highlights her involvement in sport, as well as her role as a woman, a policeman and a mother. Five major trends stand out in her audience, with sport and the Olympics taking pride of place.

• Clarisse Agbegnenou's core audience is made up of media and sports journalists.
• France at the Olympics brings together the members of the French delegation to the Games. Most of the members are athletes, but there are also members of staff (particularly coaches), covering the variety of sports represented at the Games.
• In the same vein, a community centred on judo also stands out.
• The political community includes members of the government and active politicians at all levels and from all political parties (ministers, deputies, senators, mayors, councillors, etc.). A few social journalists are also present.
• A final African community, predominantly Togolese (supporting Clarisse's paternal origins), is also emerging. They are mainly sports fans.

Audiences that are similar and attract specialist audiences

Each athlete attracts a different and relatively specialised audience, promoting the sport they play. They are the icons of choice in each target sport, attracting large numbers of fans of their sport.

The influence of Allianz France on its muses is significant, both in terms of the audience, in which the presence of Allianz members is easily observed, and the content published by the athletes.

Allianz's audience, meanwhile, is much more institutionalised and far removed from that of its athletes.

By sponsoring athletes and their content on social networks, Allianz is increasing its visibility among 60k accounts interested in sport.

By aggregating the athletes' audiences, we can measure the number of accounts that do not follow Allianz, but are interested in at least one of the athletes. This represents almost 60k unique opportunities for Allianz to build closer relationships by sponsoring these athletes, whether with media and journalists specialising in sport, public institutions or sports federations. In addition, this audience also opens the door to greater visibility with the general public who love sport, as well as with sportsmen and women of all levels.

The Olympic Games: a real opportunity to raise your profile, as long as you set your sights just right

By sponsoring these athletes, Allianz France is targeting a different audience to its own, and is considerably raising its profile, very clearly among the general public who love sport. This sponsorship is therefore of real interest.

It should be noted that this strategy can only be effective if the audiences for the sponsored accounts are sufficiently different from those for the brand account.

A study by Megan Marchale