Rugby World Cup 2015: Top 100 Influencers and Brands

The Rugby World Cup 2015 ran for six weeks from 18th September until the 31st October 2015 and produced some of the most exciting matches the tournament has ever seen. Japan dazzled the crowds as they took on the Springboks and won. Wales beat England at Twickenham in a tense game that went right down to the wire, a result which meant England had to beat Australia to progress to the quarter finals. A task that ultimately proved too much for the hosts. Australia went on to win against Wales and Scotland, but the game against Scotland ended controversially with a last minute penalty that was later ruled to be an incorrect decision. The Pumas reached the semi-finals where they met Australia, who proved too tough an opponent. The Springboks came close to beating the All Blacks in the other semi-final but took the bronze instead, so we had a thrilling Australia vs New Zealand final. It was the tournament favourites the All Blacks who eventually took the cup home to New Zealand. The 2015 Rugby World Cup has been declared the biggest and best tournament to date.

MAPPING THE RUGBY WORLD CUP COMMUNITY

We were very interested to see which influencers and brands drove the most conversation on Twitter, especially the sponsors, so we analysed over 1 Million engaged tweets from 30th September – 28th October on the following query (#rwc2015 OR rugbyworldcup OR rwc2015 OR #rwcfinal OR #rwc2015news OR #rugbyworldcup2015) OR (Rugby AND (Heineken OR Fujitsu OR Toshiba OR Canon OR DHL OR MasterCard OR Emirates OR “Land Rover” OR “Societe Generale” OR “Coca-Cola” OR Toshiba OR Gilbert OR Canterbury OR “Clifford Chance” OR “EY” OR “Ernst and Young” OR Dove OR Tissot OR Duracell OR Heathrow OR Grants)) and identified the top 100 most influential brands and individuals leading the discussion on Twitter. We discovered a very engaged community, with fans, players, teams, sponsors and brands all chatting about the matches. Below you can see a network map of the online conversation created with our Influencer Relationship Management software IRM. This map shows the #1 Brand the Rugby World Cup’s official Twitter Handle at the centre, and the conversations to and from the influencers in its field.

Be sure to click on the map to enjoy the full size network diagram in greater detail!

Below you can see another network map created in IRM (Influencer Relationship Management software) showing the #1 sponsor Dove Men + Care at the centre, and the conversations to and from the different influencers in its field. As you can see it is a very engaged community with many conversations. If you are interested in learning more about identifying, managing and engaging with influencers click here to get in touch!

BRANDS vs. INDIVIDUALS – SHARE OF VOICE

It was interesting to note that in terms of volume of posts around the search query, the brands had a much larger share of voice during the tournament compared to the individuals. The Rugby World Cup’s official twitter page was very vocal and drove the most engagement as did the All Blacks and other official team twitter handles. Out of the sponsors Dove Men + Care drove the most engagement.

TOP 100 BRANDS

With all the discussion and resources available online, our analysis produced a great set of independent information resources and communities. It was interesting to see where the sponsors Dove Men+Care, Land Rover, DHL and Heineken appeared on the list.

 

Rank	Twitter Handle	Name	Influencer Score
1	@rugbyworldcup	rugbyworldcup	100
2	@AllBlacks	AllBlacks	22.87
3	@Springboks	Springboks	22.7
4	@Wallabies	Wallabies	20.13
5	@IrishRugby	IrishRugby	16.92
6	@EnglandRugby	EnglandRugby	16.51
7	@Scotlandteam	Scotlandteam	15.96
8	@DoveMen	DoveMen	11.34
9	@WelshRugbyUnion	WelshRugbyUnion	11.22
10	@LandRoverRugby	LandRoverRugby	9.96
11	@BBCSport	BBCSport	7.48
12	@WorldRugby	WorldRugby	5.8
13	@BritishMonarchy	BritishMonarchy	5.75
14	@millenniumstad	millenniumstad	5.41
15	@SuperSportTV	SuperSportTV	4.83
16	@ITVRugby	ITVRugby	4.64
17	@RugbyCanada	RugbyCanada	4.52
18	@Apollo11Rugby	Apollo11Rugby	4.14
19	@DHLRugby	DHLRugby	3.95
20	@RWC2015	RWC2015	3.62
21	@England2015	England2015	3.52
22	@unionargentina	unionargentina	3.36
23	@ITV	ITV	3.01
24	@BBCWales	BBCWales	2.9
25	@RichmondFanzone	RichmondFanzone	2.68
26	@USARugby	USARugby	2.66
27	@JRFURugby	JRFURugby	2.65
28	@MasterCardUK	MasterCardUK	2.6
29	@GeorgianRugby	GeorgianRugby	2.59
30	@fijirugby	fijirugby	2.56
31	@RugbyUruguay	RugbyUruguay	2.48
32	@Federugby	Federugby	2.44
33	@RWC2015Travel	RWC2015Travel	2.4
34	@A4LNetwork	A4LNetwork	2.37
35	@NUFC	NUFC	2.36
36	@KICCASPORT	KICCASPORT	2.31
37	@wnaholo	wnaholo	2.26
38	@GILBERT_RUGBY	GILBERT_RUGBY	2.25
39	@paddypower	paddypower	2.23
40	@BBCWorldatOne	BBCWorldatOne	2.19
41	@BBCScrumV	BBCScrumV	2.19
42	@skysportnz	skysportnz	2.15
43	@5liveSport	5liveSport	2.03
44	@canterburyNZ	canterburyNZ	2.02
45	@officialTongaRU	officialTongaRU	2.02
46	@FFRugby	FFRugby	1.98
47	@BLACKCAPS	BLACKCAPS	1.97
48	@RugbyNamibia	RugbyNamibia	1.89
49	@FoxhillsSurrey	FoxhillsSurrey	1.87
50	@SkySportsRugby	SkySportsRugby	1.85

DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT

TOP 100 INDIVIDUALS

We looked at all the individuals engaging on Twitter to bring you a list of the top 100 most influential individuals at the Rugby World Cup 2015. Be sure to hit the download button below to grab the full report and see who ranks beyond the top 50.

Rank	Twitter Handle	Name	Affiliation	Score
1	@Nigelrefowens	Nigel Owens	World Rugby	8.33
2	@BryanHabana	Bryan Habana	Springboks	5.55
3	@SonnyBWilliams	Sonny Bill Williams	All Blacks	5.11
4	@maavelous	Ma’a Nonu	All Blacks	4.17
5	@JiffyRugby	Jonathan Davies	BBC, S4C	3.95
6	@giteau_rugby	Matt Giteau	Wallabies	3.73
7	@matt9dawson	Matt Dawson	BBC	3.52
8	@samwarburton_	Sam Warburton	Wales	3.51
9	@pocockdavid	David Pocock	Wallabies	3.18
10	@brettgosper	Brett Gosper	World Rugby	3.08
11	@jppietersen14	JP Pietersen	Springboks	3.02
12	@ShaneWilliams11	Shane Williams	Wales	2.88
13	@AdamCoopy	Adam Ashley-Cooper	Wallabies	2.84
14	@WillGreenwood	Will Greenwood	Sky Sports, ITV, Telegraph	2.66
15	@JNCudmore	Jamie Cudmore	Canada	2.28
16	@frontrow92	Sean Fitzpatrick	Front Row Group Ltd	2.25
17	@johnkeypm	John Key	New Zealand	2.23
18	@tatafu267	Tatafu Polota-Nau	Wallabies	2.19
19	@willcarling	Will Carling	Will Carling Management Ltd	2.12
20	@iamjonnyking	iamjonnyking™	Freelance Author	2.11
21	@RossMoriarty6	Ross Moriarty	Wales	1.95
22	@StevenGauge	Steven Gauge	Freelance Author	1.86
23	@paddyjackson10	Paddy Jackson	Ireland	1.82
24	@ScottQuinnell	Scott Quinnell	Sky Sports	1.72
25	@DTHVDM	DTH van der Merwe	Canada	1.68
26	@kevenmealamu	keven_mealamu	All Blacks	1.67
27	@MalakaiFekitoa	Malakai Fekitoa	All Blacks	1.67
28	@MayorofLondon	Boris Johnson	The Conservative Party	1.63
29	@Nabasboer	Jacques Burger	Namibia	1.61
30	@nialloloughlin	Niall O’Loughlin	Caricatures	1.56
31	@SharkGregNorman	Greg Norman	Shark	1.52
32	@gallagherbren	Brendan gallagher	Canada	1.44
33	@officialroycey	Roycey	Freelance Comedian	1.44
34	@stranners	Joel Stransky	Pivotal Capital	1.44
35	@JesseKriel15	Jesse Kriel	Springboks	1.43
36	@richardbranson	Richard Branson	Virgin	1.38
37	@jeromekaino	Jerome Kaino	All Blacks	1.38
38	@paulszom	Paul Szomoru	Newcastle Gateshead Initiative	1.37
39	@YannickNyanga	Yannick Nyanga	France	1.36
40	@Hambofoundation	Matt Hampson	Matt Hampson Foundation	1.35
41	@TimHoran12	Tim Horan	Fox Sports	1.29
42	@KP24	Kevin Pietersen	South African Cricket	1.29
43	@garyplayer	Gary Player	South African Golf	1.28
44	@piersmorgan	Piers Morgan	First News	1.27
45	@CliveWoodward	Sir Clive Woodward	England	1.26
46	@IzzyFolau	Israel Folau	Wallabies	1.24
47	@KennyLogan	Kenny Logan	Scotland	1.23
48	@miketindall13	mike tindall	England	1.21
49	@A_Smith09	Aaron Smith	All Blacks	1.21
50	@snorkymortlock	Stirling Mortlock	Wallabies	1.2

Influencer Marketing campaigns generate impressive results, the average earned media value (EMV) from US influencer marketing programs was 1.4 times higher in H1 2015 than the overall average in full-year 2014. At Onalytica we love building these lists and want to give back to our loyal readers as much as we can. If you’re interested in other topics (such as Machine to Machine, Wearable Tech, Internet of Things) be sure to have a gander on our blog or why not propose some topics to us on twitter? We also build some very cool software to manage all of these influencers. Get a free demo today by clicking the button below!

REQUEST A FREE DEMO
Disclaimer: As ever with these lists, it must be stressed that the ranking is by no means a definitive measurement of influence, as there is no such thing. The brands and individuals listed are undoubtedly influential when it comes to driving discussion around the Rugby World Cup. The PageRank based methodology we use to extract influencers on a particular topic takes into account the number and quality of contextual references that a user receives. These calculations are independent of a user’s number of followers, but we do filter our lists based on how much a user is engaged in the conversation and the influence they drive through their networks.

---

TAGS