Client Results / Sports & Events / Commonwealth Sport Case Study
Making a global brand stick beyond the Games
Project Type
Global brand research
Client
Commonwealth Sport
The Challenge
Before starting new brand work, Commonwealth Sport wanted to understand how people around the world relate to them.
Much of their global recognition is tied to the Commonwealth Games, and they want to shift into enduring relationships with fans and commercial partners by telling stronger stories about their development programmes.
The Solution
We ran a global brand research project across six countries (Canada, UK, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, and South Africa) to establish a clear benchmark for awareness, equity, and audience sentiment.
We explored:
How strongly people felt affiliated with the Commonwealth itself (not just the Games)
Awareness of Commonwealth Sport compared to other major sporting organisations such as FIFA, the Olympics, and World Athletics
Perceptions of the brand across traits like innovative, authentic, and approachable
Event interest levels relative to global events like the Cricket World Cup and SailGP
Which countries showed the highest awareness and affinity with Commonwealth Sport
How feelings towards the Commonwealth compared with those towards the Commonwealth Games
We also used our Honoco Quarterly Programme to test awareness and affinity for Commonwealth Development Programmes, benchmarking them against other social cause initiatives already tracked in the same study.
The Outcome
All findings were brought together in a visual dashboard showing audience demographics, key drivers of support, and sponsor awareness in each market.
The research was a surprising validator of their existing brand, and Commonwealth Sport now have a robust baseline of global brand metrics that can be tracked over time to give them a measurable view of brand awareness, equity, and engagement.