How we harnessed audience insights, digital strategy, and fan segmentation to elevate World Aquatics as a leading Olympic sport property.
The challenge
World Aquatics is a global sport property with a diverse portfolio of six disciplines, each with a distinct audience, engagement pattern and commercial potential.
In order to elevate its digital strategy and strengthen its global brand, World Aquatics needed answers to three critical questions:
1. who engages with us today?
2. where are our growth opportunities?
3. how do we unlock commercial value from our audiences?
Our approach
Our Research & Performance Lab led a comprehensive audience fact-finding project to deliver clarity and strategic direction.
We:
- launched a multilingual survey to gather first-party audience data
- mapped audience behaviours across disciplines by using multiple digital touchpoints
- segmented fans by region, interest and digital habits
- integrated the findings with our proprietary SportOnSocial performance database
Key focus areas included:
- who engages with World Aquatics (by sport and platform)?
- how can audience growth be guaranteed in high-potential markets?
- what types of content and campaign strategies will increase retention and visibility?
The initiative was about more than insights alone: it was also an actionable roadmap for enhancing brand value and expanding audiences.
The outcome
- ranked #5 overall in the SportOnSocial International Federations 2024 Report (among all Olympic sports)
- secured #1 position on Facebook for three consecutive years of the report (2022–24)
- used segmentation insights to shape campaign planning, content strategy and brand positioning
- enabled clearer commercial storytelling for partners and sponsors, based on fan data and digital performance trends
As a result, World Aquatics is now one of the fastest-growing Olympic digital properties with strategic fan segmentation at the core of its growth model.
