researched by Ysabel Gonzalez Rico & written by Mary Frances Ierlan
We looked at the French Open tournament starting on the first day of the qualifiers (May 24th) up until the last day of the tournament ending with the men’s final (June 13th).
French Open 2021 Social Overview
‘All content’ refers to the French Open earned and owned content from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. We observe that less than 1% of content is owned by the French Open accounts. However, they have almost a third of the total amount of impressions and more than half of the total social value .
- Around ¾ of French Open owned content (organic posts) came from Twitter
- Almost ⅔ of engagements came from Instagram, and almost ¼ from Twitter
- More than ½ of the total social value from the French Open came from YouTube, and ⅓ from Twitter
Overview
- The graph above represents the number of organic posts and comments per day from the French Open Owned and Earned content over the duration of the tournament.
- The qualifying draw and first couple days of the tournament did not have that much activity.
- The men’s semifinals and men’s final day garnered the most amount of posts and comments of the tournament (200k and 208k post, respectively). The women’s semifinals and final did not have nearly as many posts as the men’s (40k and 32k, respectively). This could be explained by the fact that the women’s semifinalist (Krejcikova, Sakkari, Pavlyuchenkova and Zidansek) were not top seeds and as well known as the men’s semifinalists (Djokovic, Nadal, Tsitsipas and Zverev) who were all ranked top 10 in the world.
The pie chart represents the countries where the French Open audience is from. France, USA, Spain, England and India make up more than 40% of the total audience. The rest of the world made up almost 60%.
- The table above compares insights between the 2020 French Open that took place 9/21-10/11 with very limited amount of spectators (15,000 total) and the 2021 French Open where restrictions were easing.
- Despite posting about 11% more, the 2021 French Open had almost 20% less engagements than last year, about 3% less impressions and about the same social value (~$15.7 million).
- The 2021 French Open had 10 official partners. We looked at the partners’ Twitter and Instagram owned content between 5/24-6/13. We then selected the posts that either mentioned @RolandGarros (#RolandGarros) in their caption or contained the French Open logo in the posted image/video.
- Overall, the French Open partners posts mentioning the French Open generated over 4.9 million impressions and an average engagement rate of 2.03%.
- Lacoste is the brand with the highest number of impressions. It is the sponsor to many players that made it far into the draw such as Djokovic, the men’s singles winner, Pavlyuchenkova, women’s single finalist, and frenchmen Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert, the men’s doubles winners. Their campaign “In the eyes of the crocodile” also generated a lot of impressions throughout the tournament.
- Infosys ranks second in number of impressions and also most number of posts mentioning the French Open. Their engagement rate, however, is the 3rd lowest which shows that their strategy might have been quantity over quality.
- Wilson ranks fourth in number of impressions and has the highest engagement rate (6.57%).
- Emirates did not post about the French Open on their social media.
Top Posts
Post highlights from top players
Sponsored post from Novak Djokovic's Twitter account who has been a brand ambassador for Peugeot since 2014. The French automobile facturer and world #1 ranked tennis player generated over 737k impressions, a 0.99% engagement rate and over $22k in social value.
No matter what people say, the most important thing is to always bring your best. #Peugeot508PSE @Peugeot #ad pic.twitter.com/UTMJ59wl45
— Novak Djokovic (@DjokerNole) May 30, 2021
- Impressions: 737,900
- Engagement rate: 0.99%
- Social value: $22,815
Stefanos Tsitsipas, the 2021 French Open finalist, sponsored by Wilson and Adidas posted this picture on Instagram with no tags or mentions of his sponsors
Using Zoomph’s AI logo detection, Wilson had over $44k in brand exposure value and Adidas over $49k.
View this post on Instagram
- Impressions: 3,426,031
- Engagement rate: 11.38%
- Social value: $128,501
- Brand exposure metrics:
- Adidas: $49,506.42
- Wilson: $44,909.57
This post from Novak Djokovic after winning his five-set match against Lorenzo Musetti generated over 4.4 million impressions and $173k in social value. Head, Djokovic’s racquet sponsor, had over $59k in exposure value (using Zoomph’s AI logo detection).
View this post on Instagram
- Impressions: 4,497,637
- Engagement rate: 11.76%
- Social value: $173,112
- Brand exposure metrics:
- Head: $59,790.56
Serena William’s personalized shoes for the French Open had over 2.4 million impressions and Nike’s exposure value was over $43k.
View this post on Instagram
- Impressions: 2,413,274
- Engagement rate: 6.99%
- Social value: $62,920
- Brand exposure metrics:
- Nike: $43,521.35
During the French Open, Alexander Zverev announced his new partnership with Rolex. The German tennis player, who was previously with watchmaker Richard Mille, is now a part of the Rolex family with tennis players Roger Federer and Garbiñe Muguruza among many others.
His post generated over 872k impressions and a 12.29% engagement rate.
View this post on Instagram
- Impressions: 872,652
- Engagement rate: 12.29%
- Social value: $34,779
Source: Owned social posts from @ stefanostsitsipas98, @djokernole, @serenawilliams & @alexzverev123Values generated by processing photo posts through Zoomph's logo and asset detection platform
Key Takeaways
- Star power matters
- Sponsors should act quickly to new opportunities
- French Open partners could utilize their social media platforms more
