A small gesture can have big consequences, especially when it is committed by an icon.
By removing from the field of the cameras two bottles of Coca-Cola placed just in front of him to prefer water, Monday at a press conference, Cristiano Ronaldo has unscrewed $ 4 billion (3.29 billion euros) on American soda brand stock price.
A drop of nearly 1.6% in the value of the brand to be put into perspective with the functioning of financial markets, increasingly sensitive to statements and individual behavior, especially those of athletes.
“Previously, the markets did not react to this kind of event, however, indicates Etienne Monceau, author of the book
Debuter en Bourse
.
But the new generation of investors informs themselves differently and makes their decisions precisely following these kinds of sequences.
"
New influencers
“This proves how much Cristiano Ronaldo is an influencer,” says Pierre Rondeau, specialist in football economics and co-director of the Sport and Society Observatory at the Jean-Jaurès Foundation. “Because this stock market drop is not even the result of a statement, but simply a gesture,” he continues. And there is nothing surprising about it because with more than 500 million followers on social networks, he is a more followed media figure than Donald Trump when he was President of the United States. If he wished, with the number of subscribers he has, he could even become president of Portugal. "
Monday morning on the New York Stock Exchange, the Coca-Cola share had gone from 56.18 dollars to 55.24 dollars.
With his gesture, Ronaldo therefore crushed $ 4 billion in 20 seconds.
If the cause and effect link between the player's gesture and the variation in the share price seems obvious, it should however be noted that Coca-Cola is used to variations in its price.
Between June 4 and 9, for example, the action had already dropped a dollar, to 55.48 dollars, without the Portuguese being there for much.
When athletes vary the course of their sponsors
"Although official sponsor of the competition, Coca-Cola can not publicly complain about the gesture of Ronaldo because they can not put themselves at odds with a player of such influence", judge Pierre Rondeau.
And if the track of a commercial link between Ronaldo and Pepsi, competitor of Coca, could be evoked, it is not so.
It is the very nature of this type of soda and their harmful role for health that is at the origin of the gesture of the Portugal striker.
It is not his first attempt on the financial markets.
In 2018, the summer of his arrival at Juventus from Turin, the action of the Old Lady's club had never stopped increasing since the first rumors of his arrival, increasing by 55.15% between the 1st and July 10, the day of its formalization.
Proof that the performances of athletes are not the only ones to influence the stock market, at the end of 2009, according to the University of Davis in California, the eight sponsors of Tiger Woods lost between 5 and 12 billion dollars in market capitalization in thirteen sessions, in the wake of the revelation of the champion's personal woes.
The sponsors that had been penalized the most were Nike, Gatorade and Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf, which had recorded a 4.3% drop in market capitalization, down $ 6 billion.
Read alsoEuro 2021: After Ronaldo, Pogba hides a bottle in the middle of a press conference
According to
Liberation
, Cristiano Ronaldo will not be sanctioned by UEFA, the body which organizes the Euro, for this gesture of humor. Wednesday evening, it was also imitated by the French Paul Pogba, a sign that product placements are definitely struggling to win in this Euro. Elected man of the France-Germany match, the player from Roissy-en-Brie dismissed a Heineken bottle, also a partner. Without causing trouble on the markets.
It must be said that the midfielder of the France team with 77 million followers on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram remains less influential than the Portuguese star.
At 5.35 p.m. on Wednesday, the Dutch brewery giant's brand share was up 1.35%.
“The Heineken share price is much less volatile than that of Coca, also relativizes Etienne Monceau.
We are almost five times less capital exchanged per session, which explains its difference in sensitivity.
"
In this period, the stake is anyway perhaps elsewhere.
“Anyway, even seeing the price of its share decrease, Coca-Cola is ultimately not a total loser,” he continues, citing the marketing strategies of the controversy.
Because for this company, whether the ad is good or bad, the important thing is that we talk about them.
"
