Why UK 6 Nations Sponsors Were Just Right

As we enter the last weekend of the 6 Nations, we continue our sports theme today and explore the potential for the tournament’s major sponsors – RBS, NatWest and Guinness.

Since ITV announced it would be sharing rights to the 6 Nations with the BBC, brand interest in the 6 Nations has taken off. The rugby audience is an appealing one: it offers exposure to an affluent audience and tends to be more all-encompassing than football. 6 Nations Fans are 33% more likely to fall within the top income quartile than the UK average, and they’re more likely to have children – meaning a chance to engage families, too.

There are other reasons why these brands were right to strike long-term sponsorship deals with the 6 Nations. For Guinness, there’s a big audience to capitalize on: 72% of watchers are monthly beer drinkers (vs 50% UK average). At present, Guinness sits just beyond this audience’s top 5 favorite beer brands, but there’s opportunity to move up the list when watchers begin to associate the brand with the tournament.

Given their relative affluence, naturally, they’re more likely than average to be interested in purchasing financial products seen in the chart, which represents a fair share of consumers that banks like RBS and NatWest could attract towards their various financial products.  

6 Nations Watchers are defined as those who watch the 6 Nations Championship on TV or online.