Athletes are better advertisers than show stars

With his high profile and popularity, Roger Federer is the ideal advertising medium.Which Swiss celebrities are best suited as advertising ambassadors? Are they athletes or entertainment stars? And who is associated with which characteristics and products? These questions were the focus of the representative survey conducted by the online market research institute Marketagent.com Switzerland in the first half of June in German-speaking Switzerland. 1,000 people between the ages of 14 and 65 took part in the survey by means of web interviews.Roger Federer is not only sporty, but also the greatest from the point of view of advertisers: 90% of the German-speaking Swiss population recognize him by his face and 84% also find him likeable.Show stars known - athletes more likeableAmong athletes and ex-athletes, footballer Xherdan Shaqiri (56%) and TV skiing expert Bernhard Russi (55%) follow Roger Federer in second and third place in terms of awareness. The 22-year-old FC Bayern and national team player is best known among young people up to the age of 29, while the 1972 Olympic downhill champion and 1974 world champion is better remembered than average by people aged 50 to 65.However, Shaqiri and Russi lag behind the most prominent representatives of the music and show scene in terms of visual awareness. DJ Bobo, the number one, is known by 85%, the face of TV presenter Michelle Hunziker is known by 67% of all German-speaking Swiss, and comedian Marco Rima is known by 65%. With a visual awareness of just under 61%, dialect rocker Gölä is also ahead of the national soccer player and ex-ski star.In terms of likeability ratings, however, sports stars - with two exceptions - are ahead of all music and entertainment stars: for example, just under 84% of the population in German-speaking Switzerland find Roger Federer "very likeable" or "rather likeable". Second-placed ex-ski racer Didier Cuche is virtually on a par with 82%, tennis player Stan Wawrinka comes in at 77% and Bernhard Russi (71%), ski jumper Simon Ammann (62%) and Xherdan Shaqiri (58%) also score well.Of the show stars, only Marco Rima (67%) and presenter and former Miss Switzerland Christa Rigozzi (64%) can keep up with the most popular sports stars. The current Miss Switzerland, Dominique Rinderknecht, also scores well in terms of popularity with 65%, but her face is only known to 31% of the German-speaking Swiss population, which massively impairs her advertising value.Russi, Federer, Cuche and Rima - the "SwissBernhard Russi and Roger Federer (54%) are considered the most Swiss of all sports and show stars, followed by Didier Cuche (52%) and Marco Rima (51%). Federer is also considered to have many other characteristics that are of interest to the advertising industry. He is seen as modern, elegant, dynamic, cool, trustworthy, warm, natural, down-to-earth, interesting, confident, charismatic and international - and this among all age groups! Didier Cuche also scores well, especially in the 50 to 65 age group, for characteristics such as dynamic, cool, trustworthy, warm, natural and down-to-earth. The same applies to Stan Wawrinka, who, in addition to a good likeability score and characteristics such as "fresh" and "natural," is seen above all as having a high degree of internationality and dynamism. The German-speaking Swiss see a similar number of positive characteristics in Bernhard Russi, who is also given high credit for his down-to-earthness. In the case of most other well-known sports and show stars, on the other hand, it is only isolated characteristics that achieve high acceptance ratings. For example, Xherdan Shaqiri's youthfulness (61%) and Michelle Hunziker and Christa Rigozzi's sex appeal (51% each). Or DJ Bobo, who easily outshines his colleagues in terms of dynamism (32%) and internationality (50%).Advertising value: athletes have the edge"On balance, the best-known athletes are certainly the more interesting advertising ambassadors than the best-known entertainment stars," says Ursula Kaspar, managing director of Marketagent.com Switzerland, which conducted the advertising ambassador study. "Even if their name recognition is somewhat lower in some cases, they are still considered more likeable on the whole, and other positive characteristics are also attributed to them to a greater extent." Anyone looking for the ideal advertising ambassador, says Kaspar, must therefore look at the overall package and not just individual criteria. The study clearly shows this.This is how the study was conductedThe representative study "Werbelieblinge Schweiz 2014" was conducted by means of an online survey between June 5 and 17, 2014. 1,000 people between the ages of 14 and 65 from German-speaking Switzerland took part. The author is Marketagent.com Schweiz AG, an institute specializing in online market and opinion research, which has a panel of 36,500 people in German- and French-speaking Switzerland who are willing to take part in the survey and are certified in accordance with ISO 26362.