Research Reveals the Power of Sports-Related Advertising

Advertising Benchmark Index Launches the new
ABX Sports Impact Index

New York, NY – October 30, 2025 … The new ABX Sports Impact Index was introduced at the recent ANA Masters of Marketing Conference. The single-score Index, with 14 individual KPIs, empowers marketers to create and measure the impact of sports-related ads quickly and accurately. Gary Getto, president of ABX, said the impact of women in sports advertising can generate up to 70% lift in creative effectiveness, especially among fans of women’s sports

ABX Advertising Benchmark Index is a global data science company focused on driving ROI through creative excellence. The new Sports Impact Index was developed through extensive research on sports-related ads vs. all “other” types of ads. The ad creative – not just for TV, but for all media types – came from the ABX ever-growing database of half-a-million+  evaluated ads.

Meaningful insights on effective sports-related ads were seen across demographics, ethnicities, social sensitivities and geographies. And, they have been consistent when measured in 19 countries.

Research Discoveries

When sports-themes and/or sports celebrities are properly incorporated into ads, creative effectiveness improves. (See Best Practices below).

• The Impact of Sports-Related Themes / Celebrities
  As shown below, of six ABX “KPIs that Count,” the sports-themed ads scored 15% higher in Reputation, and 10% higher in Purchase Intent, over non-sports ads.

• The Impact of Women in Sports-Related Ads (WIS) vs Other Ads
  The ABX Sports Impact Index was used to see how the presence of women in both types of ads scored for three major brands. Below we see that virtually all KPIs are higher in the “WIS” ads, with Reputation and the Gender Equality Measure (GEM®) scoring highest. (Note: The GEM score for Brand C “Other Ads” is below 100).

• The Impact of Women in Sports-Related Ads – A Close-up The charts below clearly illustrate the power of sports-related advertising with the inclusion of women. High scores for female gender equality, as well as those for men and children, contribute to both reputation and purchase KPIs.

  

Sports Advertising – Best Practices

While the data suggests that incorporating sports themes and sports celebrities can generate improved ROI for your brand, simply putting an athlete in an ad is not a guarantee of success. A set of Best Practices for sports-related advertising is available from ABX. 

Reaching Sports Fans

Creative with higher impact is Step One. Reaching the sports fans you need to generate a higher sales lift is Step Two. The ABX Sports Impact Index measures both and provides insights to maximize your return. Viewers of women’s sports generate an especially significant lift.

In Summary

The new ABX Sports Impact Index is now available to help marketers evaluate their sports-related creative quickly, iterate as needed, and optimize for sports fans. The Index is a single overall ad effectiveness measure and is provided with additional scores for 14 KPIs. The Index is consistent across all demographics, ethnicities, cultures and geographic areas, and yields insights available nowhere else.

For more information:  ABX Sports Impact Index

ABX Advertising Benchmark Index, (www.adbenchmark.com), is a data science company focused on driving ROI through creative excellence in advertising and marketing. ABX evaluates client creative against the world’s largest database of in-market ads, across media types, with more than half-a-million ads measured to date. Insights are accessible and affordable through its Global Multimedia Platform and Creative Feedback Loop. Services also include in-market pre-tests, trackers, product placement/integration, entertainment and gaming, podcasts, short-form radio on mobile and more. ABX is a research partner to the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB).