Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc have both been named on SportsPro’s list of the 50 most marketable athletes, and are the only stars from the motorsport world to make the cut.
The list, which is powered by data company Nielsen, assess an athlete’s ‘marketability’ by drawing on “vast amounts of social media data to generate an Athlete Influencer Score comprising four key data points: relevance, reach, return, and resonance.”
The formula “accurately monitors social campaign effectiveness, the framework incorporates a range of performance and sponsorship-related KPIs, such as social following, content engagement, fanbase growth over time, media value, and the performance of branded versus organic content.”
The compile the list, Nielsen tracked over 6,000 athletes Instagram accounts from 21 sports over the last 12 months.
Reigning Formula 1 world champion Hamilton, who has more than 20 million followers on Instagram, was ranked 21st on the list with an influencer score of 87 (Reach: 44, Relevance: 5, Resonance: 20, Return: 18).
More surprising is Ferrari driver Leclerc’s inclusion on the list. The 22-year-old is ranked 37th on the list with an influencer score of 72 (Reach: 27, Relevance: 17, Resonance: 11, Return: 17).
Leclerc has just 3.7m followers on Instagram.
Meanwhile the list is topped by Argentinian footballer Lionel Messi was a score of 115, followed by Cristiano Ronaldo and basketball player LeBron James.
Hamilton was recently named in the TIME 100 list of most influential people – his second appearance on the prestigious list.
