According to a Nielsen analysis of online messages surrounding all U.S. and English national team players in the week ending Monday, June 14, Green garnered 11.4% of the total buzz, the most of any man from either squad. Nielsen’s study also found that his name was seven times more likely to appear in a World Cup message in the last week than in the prior seven-day period. It was the second most dramatic week-over-week change behind U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard, whose gutsy performance earned him “Man of the Match” status. His buzz levels soared more than 750% week-over-week.

“Nielsen’s analysis illustrates just how much the online community discusses these games,” said Pete Blackshaw, VP of digital insights at Nielsen. “Moments of greatness – or even the briefest of errors – can thrust any of these players’ names under the social media microscope for hours and days at a time and can have an effect that spreads far beyond the 90 minutes of game time.”

The contrasting week-over-week change in overall buzz levels for each of the two squads highlights the effect the game’s result had in each country. Social media discussions around the England squad dropped by 21%, reflecting the disappointment and subdued reaction to the game in England. In stark contrast, buzz levels around the US squad increased by over 250%, highlighting the delight with the result in the USA.

Blackshaw observes, “What’s happening in social media indicates that the error could help fan the flames of World Cup fever in the US and help the sport gain a mass share of mind it’s not previously enjoyed for a tournament held outside its own shores. If Green hadn’t made the blunder, the US would have lost their most anticipated match (it was the most watched first round game ever in the U.S.) and interest could have dwindled before it had a chance to really start going.”

USA and England Soccer Player Buzz Rankings
(Week ending Monday, June 14)

Despite a somewhat muted performance, English star Wayne Rooney still managed to receive the second highest levels of buzz last week among the teams’ players with a 9.1% share. Howard finished third overall with a 6.7% share, while the game’s goal scorers Clint Dempsey and Steven Gerrard rounded out the top five with 5% each.

It was also notable that David Beckham, who isn’t playing in the tournament, still managed to feature amongst the most buzzed players. It seems the obsession with the star plays out in social media just as it did with the TV cameras, which frequently cut to slow-motion clips of Beckham’s reaction to events during the course of the game.

There was one positive for England’s Green: the buzz levels for England’s backup goalkeepers, David James and Joe Hart, actually decreased in the last week – suggesting that even if fans are unsatisfied with Green, they weren’t eager to discuss the need for a replacement.

Nielsen’s latest study, conducted the week ending Monday, June 14, 2010, looked at English language World Cup-related messages on blogs, message boards, groups, video and image sites – including Flickr, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter – that mentioned at least one of the players related to the 2010 US and England Team Squads.

An estimated 14.5 million U.S. viewers combined to watch the telecasts on ABC and Univision (which include pre-game coverage), the highest average audience for a men’s national team soccer game since at least 15.8 million combined to watch USA and Brazil’s Round of 16 match in 1994.

The game was also the most watched first round game in the U.S., surpassing the USA-Romania match that drew at least 12.1 million in 1994.

“Thanks to social media and enhanced access to games and news from around the world, soccer fever has hit a critical mass in the United States,” said Stephen Master, vice president of sports at The Nielsen Company. “Saturday’s viewership numbers only validate soccer’s momentum across America.”

A further breakdown of the of the game’s audience reveals that 57% of total viewers fell in the 18-49 demographic. An estimated 65% of adults 18+ were male, while 35% were female. Teens accounted for almost 7% of the total audience.

United States
Surprisingly, the U.S. squad wasn’t even the most buzzed-about national team. England, Argentina, Brazil, Serbia, and Spain were just some of the countries more closely correlated to the World Cup in conversations online. American consumers were also talking about various World Cup sweepstakes, whether they be corporate-sponsored (from Yahoo!, EA Sports, and McDonald’s) or privately-run pools where members pick the winners. There was also lots of Buzz around David Beckham, who’s not even playing in the World Cup due to an Achilles injury.

United Kingdom
Many World Cup discussions involved Fantasy football leagues as consumers took a more active role in the tournament as it gets closer. England fans have high expectations for their national team, as indicated by the frequency of terms like like “winning” and “champions” tied to the team. But fans also see a strong foe in Brazil, with similar terms grouped around the Latin American soccer power. England’s manager Fabio Capello was the most closely linked person to World Cup messages, followed by the injured Beckham.

South Africa
The World Cup’s host country has more than just soccer on its mind. Visitor and tourism messages drove a significant part of World Cup conversation, as well as ticket inquiries. Key FIFA and Local Organizing Committee (LOC) representatives Jerome Valcke and Danny Jordaan were often cited for addressing these issues. Overshadowing the matches were discussions about security concerns. South African messages also voiced disappointment of Shakira’s “Waka Waka” as the official World Cup song.

Australia
Even as Australia prepares for the this year’s tournament, it’s the fate of future World Cups that’s on the minds of many of the country’s online consumers. Messages about luring the 2018 or 2022 Cup to the Land of Oz – even speculation about potential venues – were prominent in online discussion. As the future of Australian soccer is discussed, many chose to wax nostalgic about the past, with dialogue about retired soccer great Mark Viduka.

Italy
In the weeks leading up to the World Cup, Italians buzzed about the “Will-he-or-won’t-he?” saga of golden boy Francesco Totti coming out of retirement to play for the national team (ultimately he was never called up). Fans of the defending world champs also talked about several members of the Azzurri national team – including head coach Marcello Lippi – and some of the team’s top competition, including Brazil, Argentina, and , perhaps surprisingly, Cameroon.

Germany
The Internet provided lively discussion forums for German soccer fans debating who should and should not have made the national team. Leading the debate was who should replace starting goalkeeper Rene Adler who suffered a rib injury that prevents him from playing with the team in South Africa. Speculation of Germany’s Group D competition was also very high, with tough matchups against Serbia, Ghana, and Australia in the tournament’s preliminary round.

Spain
Spanish fans have been preoccupied with comparisons to South American soccer power Argentina. Messages compare young Spanish phenom David Silva with Argentine superstar Messi and coach Vicente Del Bosque with soccer legend and current Argentina coach Maradona. A classic goalkeeper controversy was also brewing with some calling for Victor Valdes to start over Iker Casillas. Finally – after Sogecable, the leading pay TV company in Spain, sold the rights to Telecinco for some matches and to Cuatro for others – Spanish fans worried about which TV channel to watch the matches and who will be commentating.

The survey found that 34% of respondents believe Brazil will take home the Cup, 25 percentage points more than any other country. Argentina, England, Germany, and, yes, the United States, all tied for second with each earning the nod from nine percent of the sample. Only six percent believe that defending world champion Italy will repeat in 2010.

Who Will Win the World Cup?

NOTE: Based on 27,664 survey responses from 55 countries across the world

A regional breakout of the survey’s results revealed greater insight into how different parts of the world see the tournament unfolding:

• Four of the five global regions polled by Nielsen favored Brazil. Not surprisingly, 57% of  the Latin American region – including 86% of all Brazilians – were confident that the Green and Yellow will win it all.
• The one global region that didn’t pick Brazil? North America. Instead, 46% of the region – including 50% of U.S.-based respondents – displayed patriotic optimism by saying that the Stars and Stripes will win its first-ever World Cup. Only four percent of the rest of the world said they liked USA’s chances of winning.
• Within the European region, more people favor Spain (15%) than either Germany (14%) or England (10%). The latter two countries tied for second ahead of Spain in the worldwide survey.

Nielsen’s global survey polled 27,000 consumers in 55 countries on topics related to the World Cup. The survey found that while 34% of people around the world consider themselves soccer fans, an estimated 51% said they will be following the games in South Africa.

SUMMARY: Throughout the world, the economic power of women is growing. As education levels are rising, incomes are following. Broadly defined, the global middle class will at least double in the next two decades and much of that growth will be spurred by two-income families as women enter the labor force in greater numbers throughout the less-developed world. While women in the more developed world will continue to find opportunities, developing nations will have the largest impact.

Over the next five years, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) estimates that the global incomes of women will grow from $13 trillion to $18 trillion. That incremental $5 trillion is nearly twice the growth in GDP expected from China ($4.4 to $6.6 trillion) and India ($1.2 trillion to $1.8 trillion) combined. Globally, women are the biggest emerging market ever seen. Overall, men earn nearly twice as much money as women today, but that gap will shrink as more women enter the labor force and at higher wages than ever before. The vast majority of new income growth over the next ten years will come from women.

In control
According to BCG estimates, women control or substantially influence 65% of the world’s annual consumer spending—about $12 trillion. As today’s younger women enter the labor force at higher rates, they bring with them higher levels of education than any generation of women who have come before them. As they advance in their careers, their share of spending will grow, making women an even more important target for consumer marketers.

Global surveys of women, however, show that women feel vastly underserved by marketers. “Despite the remarkable strides in market power and social position that they have made in the past century, they still appear undervalued in the marketplace and underestimated in the workplace. Few companies have responded to their need for time-saving solutions or for products and services designed specifically for them”, says Michael Silverstein and Kate Sayre in the Harvard Business Review. In many cases, rather than truly listening to their female consumers, marketers have opted for the “make it pink” strategy.

Future income states
The United States provides a good case study for how the growing influence of women will eventually play out across many countries in the developing world in the near future. Almost all income growth in the U.S. over the past 15 or 20 years has come from women—while men have seen flat or even declining incomes. By around 2028, the average woman is projected to earn more than the average man in the U.S. A study reported in the Gotham Gazette shows that in some large markets, younger women are already out-earning younger men.

The average wages of 20-29 year-old women are higher than same age men in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Dallas and Minneapolis. In New York, young women earn 17% more than young men and 20% more in Dallas. In 1970, New York women in their 20s made about $7,000 less per year than men in their 20s. This gap had closed to parity by 2000 and today, young women make $5,000 more on average. As women age and grow in their careers, the overall gap between women and men will continue to shrink.

Career paths
Although there is still much to be done, women have made many other strides in the U.S. For the decade ending 2007, women increased their share of many prominent career positions: lawyers from 25% to 30%, physicians from 22% to 29%, and university faculty from 32% to 39%. Women’s participation in the military during the same period also grew from 12% to 14%. While these shares are far from parity and women are still significantly underrepresented in senior jobs—as the chart below indicates—there is continued progress.

Growth in incomes and career levels in companies is driven at least partly by education and the continuing removal of gender-based barriers to employment. Globally, half of all college students are now women. And in the U.S. and in the European Union, the majority are women (57% in the U.S., 55% in the E.U.).

Fundamental right
Literacy rates for women overall lag those of men across much of the less-developed world by 15–30 points. However, younger women have much higher rates than all women as shown in the chart below. As literacy rates have continued to improve for women across the board, the gap between younger women and younger men is in the single digits across almost all countries. For many developing countries, enrollment at the primary and secondary school levels is nearly equal for girls and boys. The gap at university level is still larger, but should continue to shrink as today’s young children grow older and are better prepared for university when they leave secondary school.

Changes in influence and spending
The battle for equality in the labor force for women is far from over, and a few years of a repressive régime can undo decades of progress, as can be witnessed now in some parts of the less-developed world. However, even small gains in education and incomes can have significant impacts on the marketplace for consumer products. As the incomes of women grow, so does the influence in how families allocate spending. And the services and products that women choose to purchase are substantially different than those purchased by households where the woman has less economic impact.

A number of studies in the more developed world have shown that women’s decision making power within a household varies based on her share of total household earnings, in particular her lifetime earnings. Women are more likely to purchase for the household and for the children, including food, healthcare, clothing, education, and personal care products. In households where men dominate the spending decisions, much higher shares are spent on alcohol, tobacco, and high status consumer goods. As women’s share of assets increases, the share of the family budget spent on alcohol, tobacco, and recreation tends to fall. The table below shows who controls spending for certain categories in the United Kingdom.

Increases in income in a family, whether coming from a man or a woman, tend to help the children, but the benefits are greater when a larger share of the increase comes from women. Children tend to enter school at an earlier age, especially girls. Nutrition improves and access to, and the quality of, healthcare increases. Savings rates also increase. All of this serves to better prepare the next generation, which reinforces economic growth.

In the developing world, Goldman Sachs’ The Power of the Purse: Gender Equality and Middle-Class Spending outlines a number of key categories that will see incremental growth from increases in spending autonomy for women—growth beyond what would be expected just given the size of their income increase. These include food (particularly higher quality and protein intensive foods), healthcare, financial products, education, childcare and consumer durables. As spending grows in these areas, growth in other categories—such as alcohol and tobacco—will be negatively impacted. Marketers who listen to their female consumers and create products that really meet their needs within these key categories will be able to reap substantial rewards.

Sources:

• The Real Emerging Market by Rana Foroohar and Susan H. Greenberg in Newsweek September 12, 2009
• The Female Economy by Michael J. Silverstein and Kate Sayre (Boston Consulting Group) in the Harvard Business Review September 2009
• No Quick Riches for New York’s Twentysomethings by Andrew Beveridge in the Gotham Gazette June 19, 2007
• The Power of the Purse: Gender Equality and Middle-Class Spending by Sandra Lawson and Douglas B. Gilman, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., August 5, 2009

The trend is likely to continue well into autumn – the traditional time of year for flu to take hold, and fears are being voiced that the virus could put additional pressure on the UK economy with GDP being adversely affected by as much as 7%.

Year-over-year growth at hypermarkets reached 6% during the period, while the smallest convenience outlets declined by almost 2% during the 12-week period.

In comparison, year-over-year growth in the British grocery sector stood at 3.2% during the 12 weeks ending 29 November, according to Nielsen.  Grocery multiples showed stronger growth (+5.6%) during the period.

“In order to save money shoppers are making less visits to grocery stores,” Mike Watkins, senior manager retailer services, Nielsen, noted.  “Nielsen has identified that virtually every major food retailer saw the number of visits per shopper fall in November versus a year ago and the big casualties are those retailers that people visit to do top up, small basket, and indulgence shops.”

According to Nielsen, there are exceptions to this trend.  Retailers like Morrisons and Asda, and value retailers like Iceland drew plenty of shoppers — and even showed accelerating sales in the most recent 12-week period. 

View the press release.

According to Nielsen, the chain increased its market share from 14.9% a year ago to 15.6% during the last quarter — the retailer’s highest ever market share, aside from the Christmas 2007 season.

Asda’s performance (8.7% sales growth) during the most recent 12-week period ending November 1, 2008 easily bested the rest of the British grocery market, Nielsen reported Tuesday.  The chain showed especially strong growth during October, when the global financial crisis reached a boiling point.

Growth (by value) of food sales at British supermarkets continued to slow during the most recent 12-week period, dipping to 5.1%, versus the same period in 2007, according to Nielsen.

During the previous 12-week period ending October 4, food sales growth was slightly stronger in Britain (5.4%), despite especially weak September sales growth (4.5%).

“The topline growths at the Multiples are slowing, when they should, in fact, be accelerating,” Mike Watkins, senior manager, retailer services, Nielsen, noted.  “It’s looking like a tough Christmas ahead for food retailers.”

Among the top UK food retailers, Tesco remained the dominant value retailer, with a 28.1% share of grocery market spending during 12-week period ending November 1, 2008 — up 0.1% over the chain’s 28.0% share of value sales during the same period last year.

Morrisons continued to grow by more than 9% year over year for the quarter, but in the most recent four weeks, the chain’s growth dropped to under 7% year over year.

View the press release.

Those results come from a recent Nielsen study that surveyed 40,000 British Internet users and identified websites with the highest concentrations of users in particular age groups.

Nearly half of all unique visitors (40%) to the websites for Student Loans Company, UCAS, and Student Finance Direct were between the ages of 18 and 22, Nielsen reported.  Video-related content sites like Sidereel, TV-Links, and Alluc.org were also popular with that age category.

Frengo (26% of unique audience), RuneScape (25%), and Bebo (19%) drew the largest share of the users in the 12- to 17-year-old category, while Stardoll (32%) and Club Penguin (29%) were most popular among children under 12, according to Nielsen.

Nielsen’s list of the 10 fastest-growing UK websites included a site offering UK travel discounts, two coupon/reward sites, a shopping comparison site, and a site with classified ads for jobs, cars and homes.

“Sites tapping into consumer concerns about the economy, giving them the opportunity to save money, dominate the fastest growing list,” Alex Burmaster, Internet Analyst, Nielsen Online, told Brand Republic.

View the full press release.