• by Karl Greenberg , July 11, 2012

Adidas is the real winner of Euro 2012. Yes, Spain won on the field, but Adidas won the brand competition in terms of U.S. consumer perception versus the event’s official sponsors. Daily consumer-perception research service YouGov BrandIndex says Adidas enjoyed a big perception lead, starting on June 8 when the match started. That means Adidas doesn't have to eat its hat: the company has said it expects the Euro championships held in the Ukraine and in Poland to bring it record soccer sales of more than $2 billion this year. 

YouGov says the company's perception lead increased steadily until the match concluded on July 1 when Spain (wearing all Adidas uniforms) won. Adidas not only sponsored six competing teams, including one of the pre-event favorites, Germany, but also provided the match ball, the Tango 12.

The average U.S. perception levels of all the remaining sponsors remained steady and barely budged over the duration of the tournament.

Adidas -- and an index comprised of Euro 2012 official sponsors including Canon, Continental, Hyundai, Kia, Coca Cola, McDonald’s, and Sharp -- were measured with YouGov BrandIndex’s Impression score, which asks respondents: "Do you have a generally positive/negative feeling about the brand?" Results were filtered for U.S. adults 18+ who are fans of soccer.

The scores range from from 100 to -100 and are compiled by subtracting negative feedback from positive. The firm says that on May 21, Adidas’s reputation score was ahead of other sponsors by 15 points, then rose from 47 to 60 on July 2. In the same time frame, the Euro 2012 Sponsor average gradually moved from 21 to 23, making the gap a full 37 points in the end.

YouGov BrandIndex says it interviews about 5,000 people each weekday from a representative U.S. population sample. Respondents come from an online panel of 1.5 million people.