Nielsen Sports reports that adidas had the most overall brand exposure during the 2006 World Cup final between Italy and France, garnering over 1.2 billion impressions among adults 25 to 54. Nearly 30% of the exposures to the brand were generated from its logo appearing on the jerseys and shorts worn by French players and on the referees uniforms. According to Neilson, adidas was able to achieve 83% of the 426 million apparel-related exposures throughout the match even though the winning team was wearing Puma.
Much of the reason for this lopsided result was due to the fact that adidas logos, as well as the “three stripes” on the sleeves of the French team were counted as impressions. In addition, adidas apparel was worn by referees in the match.
Replay footage was another important factor that increased the number of adidas impressions. The infamous Zidane “head butt” was shown repeatedly. France also had more shots on goal, which were frequently replayed.
