How Harlequins powered partner growth with YouGov’s audience intelligence

Challenge

Harlequins Rugby Club recognized the strategic need for deeper audience understanding to support commercial growth. They sought a credible data source that could go beyond basic demographics to reveal how their fans think, behave, and engage with brands.

Harlequins saw audience insight as essential in a competitive sponsorship market but recognized that traditional data collection methods were slow and resource intensive.

Solution

YouGov’s flagship audience profiling tool, YouGov Profiles gave Harlequins instant access to rich audience insights that refresh every week and would otherwise require significant investment. Drawing on our global panel of more than 30 million registered members and over 2 million datapoints, YouGov Profiles provided the Club with a detailed view of fan behaviors, attitudes, media habits, and brand engagement. This visibility meant Harlequins could identify distinctive audience strengths, uncover new areas of commercial relevance, and build data-driven narratives that align with partner objectives.

With behavioral and attitudinal metrics such as brand awareness, affinity, and purchase intent readily available, the Club could benchmark its audience within rugby and against wider sport and entertainment, approach partners with confidence, and support evidence-led commercial conversations.

Business outcomes

YouGov Profiles now supports the creation of compelling, data-backed fan insights and helps demonstrate partnership relevance and effectiveness over time. By embedding YouGov Profiles into their commercial toolkit, Harlequins can deliver audience insights that speak directly to brand objectives, strengthen renewal propositions, inform new business discussions and enhance the overall value of their commercial proposition.

Customer testimonial