AUSTRALIA’S leading market research group, Roy Morgan, has confirmed the extraordinary knock-on effect that Kia’s sponsorship of the Australian Open tennis tournament has produced, with nearly 3.5 million Australians associating the South Korean brand with this year’s Grand Slam event in Melbourne.

This represents around 17 per cent of all Australians over the age of 13.

The research shows that the ANZ bank, which was an associate partner of the Australian Open, is associated with the tournament by nearly two million Australians – equivalent to 10 per cent of the population.

Leading sports apparel companies Adidas and Nike, which both individually sponsor several leading tennis players, are associated with the Australian Open by nine per cent and eight per cent of Australians respectively.

The first of the Grand Slams to be held each year, the Australian Open attracted a record 780,000 people over the fortnight of the tournament, or 55,000 a day – the equivalent of half an AFL grand final crowd each day for two weeks.

Roy Morgan said: “Analysing brand association for leading Australian Open major partner Kia shows that whether someone recalls Kia’s association with the Australian Open is heavily dependent on their personal involvement with the sport of tennis, but the results are impressive if you are trying to reach tennis fans who are a lucrative market in their own right.

“Nearly a third of Australians who play tennis (32 per cent) associate Kia with the Australian Open and 19 per cent associate ANZ with the tournament.

“Sports apparel companies Adidas (14 per cent of tennis players) and Nike (13 per cent) are regarded by many tennis-playing Australians as being associated with the tournament, while official sponsors Emirates (seven per cent), Dunlop (four per cent) and Optus (four per cent) are also widely associated with the Australian Open by those Australians who play the sport.”

But the highest sponsor recall for Kia is with Australians who actually attended a professional tennis match in the past year.

“A majority of 51 per cent of tennis fans who have been to a professional tennis match in the last year associate Kia with the Australian Open,” Roy Morgan said.

“Over two-fifths (41 per cent) of Australians who regularly play tennis or who almost always watch the Australian Open when it is on TV associate Kia with the Australian Open, whereas just under a third (32%) of Australians who either regularly or occasionally participate in tennis associate Kia with the Australian Open.

“The occasional tennis fan, whether watching the Australian Open on TV (28 per cent) or playing the sport of tennis only occasionally (27 per cent), are the most similar to the average Australian when it comes to associating Australian Open major partner Kia with the tournament.”

By John Mellor