Kuba Błaszczykowski is the most influential of Polish sports stars. He beats Krzysztof Hołowczyc, Marcin Gortat and his national team colleague Robert Lewandowski. The top five is closed by Adam Małysz. The ranking was based on the Influence Power Index, an indicator determined by the media house MediaCom using its proprietary methodology, and a broad consumer study conducted on a group of more than 11,000 respondents. The most liked athletes, across different age groups of audiences, are Piotr Żyła, Kuba Błaszczykowski and Adam Małysz.
The Top 10 ranking of the most influential Polish athletes is as follows
The basis for MediaCom's creation of the indicator called the Influence Power Index (a star influence indicator) and the ranking itself was a broad consumer study conducted on a representative group of more than 11,000 respondents.
The Influence Power Index is based on 3 fundamental areas that should be considered before deciding to hire a celebrity for one's communications.
These 3 areas are:
Celebrity Score (Star Power) – the general recognition of the celebrity - how well the star is known to audiences, how much they are liked by them and whether they are considered credible. In this category, similar results are achieved by, for example, Robert Lewandowski and Kuba Błaszczykowski (graphic no. 2 in the attached PDF document).
Influence Funnel (Level of Authority) – a component with which the study's authors attempted to estimate the actual influence that stars exert on audiences – how much attention a given audience member devotes to a given star, whether they consider them an expert who can advise them on something, whether the star could be an authority with a real impact on decisions. For example, in this category, the universally liked Piotr Żyła is considered an authority by few people, unlike Krzysztof Hołowczyc, who has a strongly built expert image and whom audiences trust much more (Level of Authority using examples of specific athletes - graphics 3, 4, 5 in the attached PDF document).
Brand Link (Consistency with the Brand) - fit with the brand's characteristics - approximately 40 image attributes of each star were measured (for example, whether they have a sense of humor, whether they are a family person, whether they are modern, etc.), which allows estimating a given celebrity's potential on the dimensions desired by a specific brand. For example, in the dimensions of perfectionism, energy and openness to challenges, Kamil Stoch is perceived more strongly, while Adam Małysz is associated with these areas to a lesser extent (a discussion of several Brand Link examples, including Kamil Stoch vs Adam Małysz, or Robert Lewandowski vs Adam Nawałka vs Kuba Błaszczykowski – in the attached PDF document).
- Only an influence indicator understood in such a comprehensive way, taking into account star power (Celebrity Score), level of authority (Influence Funnel) and consistency with the brand (Brand Link), is able to give a full picture of who is the most attractive star from the point of view of marketers in general, but also in the specific case of a particular brand and its needs - says Tomasz Romaniuk, head of the consumer research department at the media house MediaCom.
Stars are also a kind of brand, which is why a good campaign that has the greatest chance of success is one in which the advertised brand and the celebrity's brand have as many shared values as possible, and additionally the celebrity also has one element that the brand wants to "borrow" from them through the campaign.
- Athletes constitute a completely separate "segment" among broadly understood celebrities. People associated with film, television and music are very similar to one another. They are characterized above all by care for appearance, attractiveness and presence. These are typical show-business stars. At the other pole are bloggers and influencers – they are a source of valuable opinion and important advice, they set trends and inspire. Athletes, on the other hand, are distinguished above all by ambition, but also by calm and level-headedness. Perhaps most importantly – they are perceived as natural, they don't pretend to be someone else. And this is often the key to effective communication – getting the message across while not falling into artificiality. Athletes can very often help with this – adds Tomasz Romaniuk.
The winner of the ranking – Kuba Błaszczykowski – is marginally behind Robert Lewandowski in terms of recognition, but he clearly wins on the level of Likeability and Credibility. He is also perceived as an expert, and most people declare that they are willing to follow his suggestions in their choices.
