The common perception is that everyone watches the Super Bowl. The reality is that it’s a somewhat more exclusive group, and no wonder advertisers pay big bucks to reach those people. NFL fans are more likely to have high incomes, have more education, and be more receptive to advertising than the general population. That’s according to a new study by Florida-based market research Experian Simmons, which sketches a portrait of the typical NFL fan watching the Super Bowl. In addition to those other characteristics, the typical fan is usually white, male and Republican, which are perhaps not big surprises. What perhaps is: The fan is less likely than ever to be Hispanic, with the number of Hispanics identifying themselves as NFL fans falling over the past few years. NFL fans are also more likely to visit McDonald’s or Burger King than the average respondent, and they’re less likely to be African-American than NBA fans. Max Kilger, chief behavioral scientist at Experian Simmons, talks to Media Life about why NFL fans need money, why they are more likely to be Republicans, and how they compare to other sports fans.
You found that people with very high incomes were more likely to be NFL fans than the average respondent. Why is that, and what does it mean for NFL marketing?
Actually, that’s a good question. As income goes up, the probability that someone is an NFL fan also goes up. It has to do with being a complete fan.
We looked at people with higher incomes, and they are more likely to physically attend NFL games, and that could be one reason--it’s pretty expensive. There’s NFL tickets, if you go to away games you have to pay to fly, etc. And, obviously, they’re more likely to watch the NFL on TV too.
By contrast, you found that those with household incomes less than $25,000 were 44 percent less likely to be NFL fans. How do you interpret that?
It’s basically the same explanation. Income is on a scale from high to low, high-income households have more resources to be a complete fan and buy tickets, merchandise, etc.
Are there any demographic characteristics that NFL fans share that you don't see as widely among the general population?
They’re probably going to be more educated, because they have more money. They’re more likely to be male. Hispanics also don’t seem to identify as much as NFL fans.
As you just mentioned, there don't seem to be many Hispanics who identify themselves as NFL fans. Has that changed over recent years, and why is that?
Part of it is that football in the Latin community means soccer, so that’s going to be a big difference between Hispanic and non-Hispanic. Also, there aren’t really any Hispanic stars in the NFL, much like Yao Ming has been a hit with Chinese fans in the NBA.
It looks like Hispanic has actually gone down a little--9 percent of Hispanics in Spring ‘03 identified themselves as NFL fans compared to 6.4 percent this year. That could be because cable is starting to show more soccer games.
Registered Republicans are 21 percent more likely to be NFL fans than registered Democrats. What, if anything, can we read into that?
It’s probably a correlation issue between household income and party affiliation--it’s hard to pick apart household income from party affiliation. If I had to guess it’s probably due to a household income issue. Indeed, 27 percent of Republican households have an income of $100,000-plus, and for Democrats that number is at 20.3 percent.
You found that NFL fans tend to prefer McDonald's over Burger King, Coke over Pepsi, and light beer over regular. Is that any different from the general population?
Those tend to be mirrors of the general population. The figures for McDonald’s for the general population, it also tends to be higher. The ratios are about the same. These sort of common commercial products tend to mirror the general population. But one interesting thing, looking at McDonald’s and Burger King, both brands index higher than the total population.
There does seem to be some effect, they do somewhat over-index, meaning NFL fans are maybe 10 percent more likely to visit McDonald’s or Burger King than the general population, but the preference of McDonald’s over Burger King is about the same. So you do see some lift. Whether it’s due to in-game advertising or not, it’s difficult to say.
Do NFL fan demographics differ greatly from, say, NBA fans? Fans of other sports?
One example where NFL and NBA differ is in terms of African-Americans. It turns out that African-Americans are about 70 percent more likely than whites to be NBA fans. If you look at the ratio between the NFL and NBA, they’re more likely to be NBA fans than NFL fans. That is, NBA fans are more likely to be African-American than NFL fans.
When looking at the data, did anything jump out as particularly surprising or interesting to you?
It all seemed kind of intuitive. Like TV ownership, NFL fans index high for having a giant screen TV, and you can totally picture that.
NFL fans are 58 percent more likely to play football recreationally than the general population. They’re also slightly more ad receptive than the general population. Some are very receptive, some aren’t—overall they’re 7 percent more likely to be receptive to ads.
They’re also 13 percent more likely to be inclined to buy from a sponsor. And 46 percent more likely to buy sports-licensed clothing than the general population, including twice as more likely to buy NFL clothing.
