£400k per social media post? Neymar and co are the new media superstars

February 9, 2018 Adrien Danjou

In a study run by the social media valuation software company Blinkfire, we find out that the football superstar Neymar Jr earns nearly half a million euros per post on social media.

When we analyse all content shared by the player in January, the values reach €34 million. With 74 posts published in the same period, we get €459k per post so around £400k, the equal to an advert during a World Cup final accroding to Stéphane Guerry, President of Havas Sport & Enterteinmant.

Yes, this figure looks excessive. But if we look at Neymar Jr’s audience and social engagement, it can be actually a commensurate investment from brands.

EVERYDAY ADVENTURES@GaGaMilanoWorld #GAGAMILANO #WATCHES #CARBON48 pic.twitter.com/BZ3s6MNjWw

— Neymar Jr (@neymarjr) January 12, 2018

Indeed, Neymar Jr alone has a community of 89 million fans on Instagram, 60 million on Facebook and 38 million on Twitter. That’s three times more than his club, Paris Saint-Germain. So the audience which sees athlete’s content is considerable

Moreover, the audience is the not the only one reason. If we look at the engagement on Neymar Jr’s posts on Instagram, his engagement rate reachs 2.8% (according to Hypetap). So on top of his viewing figures, the huge audience around him is engaged. And as the posting frequence of the superstar is close to one a day on each platform, the engagement from these millions of fans is daily. No other media can offer the same guarantees to brands.

This is why Neymar Jr is himself, in a sense, a media organisation who can generate a better ROI on social media for advertisers than traditional medias or even clubs.

Of course, brands have used athletes as ambassadors for years to promote their products. As far back as the Olympics in Berlin in 1936, Jesse Owens wore Adidas shoes given to him by Adi Dassler himself.

But now, in the sporting world and maybe elsewhere, the ad model can change. The most famous athletes like Neymar Jr, LeBron, Cristiano, Messi or the most active ones like Dani Alves, Alaba or Griezmann, can become the biggest chunk of the ad budget of brands thanks to their social accounts where the audience is gigantic, entertained frequently and obviously engaged. And for brands, an engagement gained is a step towards the act of buying.