The Consumer Products category engaged 1B people across all social platforms in the last 12 months–a staggering statistic that’s almost certain to continue to rise. Let’s take a closer look at this all-important category that arguably touches more people worldwide than any other.

With over 100 sponsorship deals, Clorox tops the list of the more than 2,650 active brands buying sponsorship or media. Gillette takes the second spot with over 85 sponsorships, followed by Manscaped in third place with north of 50 sponsorship deals. YETI, L’Oreal, Degree, Dove, Old Spice, Dawn, and 3M round out the top 10.

Social posts were the most common asset bundled into Consumer Products sponsorship deals, which averaged engagement of 170K each. The category saw more than 5.4K brand collaborations and 31K unique posts in the last year.

Property entitlements and digital content ranked second and third among most popular assets. More than 25 brands have purchased a uniform exposure asset across European Football and Major Pro Sports in the US–the most frequent being a primary and practice jersey patch, followed by a secondary jersey logo.

Within Major Pro Sports, the Cincinnati Reds and FC Cincinnati partner with the most Consumer Products sponsors (more than 10 each)–not surprising, given that Procter & Gamble, the world’s largest fast-moving consumer goods company, has been headquartered in Cincinnati since its founding there in 1837. Both teams have deals with P&G marquee brands Bounty, Charmin, Crest, and Gillette.

At the collegiate level, Ovation Fragrance inked an NIL deal with Michigan State defensive back Dillon Tatum deal last month–marking the brand’s entrée into the red-hot NIL industry. In other January news, YETI became the Official Drinkware and Cooler of the World Surf League. Currently fourth among Consumer Products brands with more than 45 deals, the ubiquitous drinkware brand is looking to make more waves in the sponsorship space.

According to an analysis of over 30,000 brands spending on endorsements or sponsorship/media campaigns, each of the “Power 5” platforms represents a unique characterization. For example, Consumer Products is the most active category on TikTok, while not cracking the top five on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

This past year, we tracked over 30,000 brands buying endorsements or sponsorship/media campaigns that included social media. We found that the Alcohol category had the most sponsored posts in Major Pro Sports, led by Bud Light and Michelob Ultra. The most engaging post in Major Pro Sports was Bibigo’s jersey patch announcement with the Los Angeles Lakers, which saw an engagement score of 1,056,188. The New England Patriots had the highest engaging TikTok post–a sponsored video partnering with apparel company Stitch.

A major decision maker when choosing TikTok for branded social posts, is to directly target a younger demographic with personable content, as 41% of the user base is made up of people ages 16-24. Manscaped is a top five brand in the consumer products category when ranked by total partnerships, and leverages TikTok through integrated videos with verified social influencers such as TooTurntTony, who’s sponsored TikTok videos with Manscaped average 386,000 engagements. Walmart leads all brands in total integrated media deals on TikTok, having 66 partnerships with a roster of celebrities and influencers to promote beauty products and fashion designs.

The Apparel & Accessories category appears in the top five categories for all social media platforms, and is led by the two apparel giants Nike and adidas. An impressive 60% of all adidas 900+ partnerships include social media content, while only 37% of Nike’s 1,600+ partnerships.

The Consumer Products category as a whole saw the second-highest increase in volume of deals with the MLS last season. Procter & Gamble used MLS intellectual property to promote brands like Gillette, Old Spice and Crest through the season.

Stay tuned, the FREE SponsorUnited MLS 2021 Marketing & Partnerships Report is coming soon!