Mick Fanning is the most valuable sports star in Australia right now by online engagement, according to strategy tool BrandData.
The professional surfer, who last week was attacked by a shark while competing at the J-Bay Open in South Africa, has topped the list within the sports player category.
He's followed by cricketer David Warner who is currently vice-captain in the Australia Ashes team and surfer Sally Fitzgibbons who is competing in the US Open of Surfing.
Brand Data rankings are compiled from live feeds taken directly through agreements with platforms including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter and website information including global ranking system Alexa.
The feeds are updated every 12 hours and only take into account “engagement events” such as shares and comments which are then divided by the total number of audience.
Brand Data CEO Georgie Summerhayes told AdNews that the ranking by engagement is an important metric for the advertising industry, given that consumers are more empowered now than ever.
“Brand should care about how engaging they are in a word filled with people talking about 'storytelling' or 'conversations' or relationships', or anything else we talk about these days with our empowered consumers,” Summerhayes said.
Other sporting stars on the most recent list include soccer player Tim Cahill, rugby union player Quade Cooper, American Football player Jarryd Hayne and surfer Stephanie Gilmore.
Rugby union player Israel Folau, snowboarder Torah Bright and rugby union player James O'Connor round out the top ten. Folau recently signed a deal with Foxtel to be the official sports ambassador of its coverage of Rugby Union which will air from 8 August.
“Consumers are so smart these days they can filter out every message from brands, so it's only those brands that are engaging enough that have the chance to communicate effectively," Summerhayes said.
“This is true for all brands and influencers on our system.”
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